Captain Joseph Foster

Joseph Foster is a main character in The Amber House Trilogy. Born in England, he was a slave-trading sea captain who lived at Amber House during the Revolutionary War era.

Relationships
He is the great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather of protagonist Sarah Parsons. He is also a many-times-great grandfather of Jackson Harris, through an abusive relationship carried out with Jackson's ancestor, the slave Nyangu.

Foster married a woman named Lydia Crawley while still in England, who bore him a daughter named Camilla. Once widowed, Foster married his business partner's daughter, Deirdre Dobson, in the 1760s and the couple had twins Matthew and Sarah-Louise.

Appearance
Sarah finds a slashed portrait of the Captain, who was evidently very attractive, with a long nose and full lips. Sarah notes, however, that there is something predatory about him, referencing the wolf from Red Ridinghood by musing, "What big teeth you have."

Character traits and abilities
The Captain is depicted as cold, cruel and ruthless. He is abusive toward his wife at the wake for their dead son Matthew. In a diary entry, Sarah's great-grandmother Fiona describes the Captain as giving Matthew, an invalid, a sailing boat with the thought that learning to sail will "toughen him up."