In American Numismatic Before the Civil War, Bowers has a chapter on the Foskett collection. Total personal information on Foskett comes down to this, "In his time, Foskett was well known in New York City. In the oyster business at 104 Third Avenue, he lived at 116 Stanton Street,"

A James D. Foskett apears in the 1850 U.S. Census in New York City. He was born around 1830 in Massachusetts. He would be young to sell a coin collection in 1859, but still ten years older than cataloguer Augustus B. Sage.

The 1870 U. S. Census has the same James D. Foskett living in Suffolk. Massachusetts. The name James Foskett, without a middle initial, is common enough to be difficult to research.