{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}} '''Ambrose Foss''' ({{circa}} 1803 in England{{spaced ndash}}4 May 1862) was an Australian alderman, chemist, druggist, dentist and landowner based in Sydney.<ref name=alderman>{{cite web|url=http://www.sydneyaldermen.com.au/alderman/ambrose-foss/ |title=Ambrose Foss |accessdate=7 May 2020}}</ref> Together with colleague Edward Hunt, Foss founded the Congregational Church in New South Wales. Foss built a house called Forest Lodge after which a Sydney suburb is named.
==Career== In 1828, Foss purchased a chemist shop in Sydney from apothecary John Tawell; Foss would go on to own several more pharmaceutical and grocery stores in the next two decades.<ref name=alderman/> In 1844, Foss established the Pharmaceutical Society of New South Wales with a few pharmacists based in Sydney. In 1859, Foss and his son Thomas Ambrose set up a wholesale drug store, Foss Son Company.<ref name=alderman/>
Foss was also a landowner. In 1833, he and his first wife purchased the Hereford House in Glebe; three years later, in 1836, he built a house called Forest Lodge (demolished 1912) after which the Sydney suburb Forest Lodge is named.<ref name=alderman/> In 1838, he built Carey Cottage on 18 Ferry Street, having bought land in Hunters Hill from Tawell.<ref name=alderman/>
==Personal life== Foss was a devout Christian who served as the deacon of the Pitt Street Uniting Church. He began attending the Forest Lodge Church in 1847.<ref name=alderman/>
Foss's first wife, Louise, died on 30 December 1852.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60136098|title=Family Notices|date=1852-12-31|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875)|access-date=2020-02-05|pages=2}}</ref> His daughter Emily Jane Foss married astronomer Henry Chamberlain Russell in 1861.<ref name=dab>{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Henry Chamberlain|Last=Russell|shortlink=0-dict-biogR.html |accessdate=2016-10-20}}</ref> His son Thomas Ambrose, with whom he established Foss Son Company, was born in 1828 and died in 1871.<ref name=alderman/> Foss and his first wife had at least seven children.<ref name=alderman/> In 1854, he married a widow, Jane McCurdy, daughter of Bourn Russell.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60148167|title=Family Notices|date=1854-01-10|work=Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875)|access-date=2020-02-05|pages=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36851937|title=Family Notices|date=1841-10-05|work=Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 – 1848)|access-date=2020-02-05|pages=3}}</ref>
Ambrose Foss died on 4 May 1862 aged 59 in Balmain, Sydney.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5714435 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |location=Victoria, Australia |date=7 May 1862 |access-date=5 February 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}</ref> His funeral had a modest attendance, with representatives of the Sydney Female Refuge, the Bible Society, and the Religious Tract and Book Society all present.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/foss-ambrose-28669|title=Ambrose Foss|publisher=Obituaries Australia|accessdate=7 May 2020}}</ref> He was buried with Louise at Rookwood Cemetery.<ref name=alderman/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Foss, Ambrose}} Category:1803 births Category:1862 deaths Category:Australian pharmacists Category:Australian dentists Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia Category:19th-century dentists