Probably it was he that attended and witnessed his dau Eliza'a wedding in 1855.  If so he would be in the 1851 census, but dunno where he was living.  Let's hope someone does a national index soon!

Anyhow, from the marriage cert, if it was he, he would have died aft 1855 and perhaps lived around Marylebone.
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In the 1841 census there were these six living at York Terrace, St Marylebone:

Thomas Coster, male aged 55, of independent means, born outside Middlesex.
Maria Coster, female aged 53, born outside Middlesex.
Eliza Coster, female aged 20, born outside Middlesex.
Henry Edwards, mles aged 25, a merchant, born outside Middlesex
Maria Edwards, female aged 25, born outside Middlesex
Coster Edwards, male aged 1, born outside Middlesex

This is him and his then extended family.
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From FreeBMD the following Thomas Coster deaths of either no or roughly the right age died in the period 1855 to 1880 inc:

Surname First name(s) Age District Vol  Page
Deaths Dec 1856   (>99%)
COSTER Thomas Marylebone 1a 297   
Deaths Dec 1859   (>99%)
Coster Thomas Henry Marylebone 1a 352   
Deaths Jun 1860   (>99%)
Coster Thomas Marylebone 1a 367   
Deaths Dec 1860   (>99%)
Coster Thomas Clerkenwell 1b 364   
Coster Thomas Daniel Westminster 1a 212

Looks like the Thomas of Dec 1856 or he of Jun 1860.

The 1856 Q4 certificate is definitely him as the informant was a member of the staff at their house in the 1851 census and the address was the same as the census:

Date/Place: 28 Sept 1856, 27 York Terrace
Name: Thomas Coster
Sex: Male
Age: 75 years
Occupation Formerly a Silk Warehouseman (?)
Cause of death: Diseased bladder and prostrate menu years Certified.
Informant: Henry Foskett, Present at the death, 27 York Terrace, Marylebone
Registration: First Oct 1856
Registrar: Henry Obré, Registrar

His death was announced in the Times of 30 Sep 1856 and in the Morning Chronicle of 1 Oct 1856.
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TFPL, Dec 2009: At last FindMyPast has produced the 1851 census and here they are, though Thomas’ birth place has been mistranscribed and should be ‘Dean, Wilts’:

Name Relation Condition Sex Age Birth Year  Occupation  Disability  Where Born

COSTER, Thomas Head Married M 69 1782 No Profession  Derry, Wiltshire
COSTER, Maria Wife Married F 64 1787 Shoreham, Worcestershire
FOSKETT, H J Servant Married M 38 1813 Iver Heath, Berkshire
SHEARERER, Sarah Servant Unmarried F 40 1811   Newington, ?
PRONT, Eliza Servant Unmarried F 24 1827   Berkshire

RG number: HO107 Piece: 1490 Folio: 929 Page: 8    

Registration District: Marylebone
Sub District: Christ Church
Enumeration District: 22
Ecclesiastical Parish: Rectory

Civil Parish: Marylebone
Municipal Borough: Marylebone
Address: 27, York Terrace, Marylebone
County: Middlesex
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This looks like a birth of an elder daughter, from IGI:

England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

name: Maria Churchill Coster
gender: Female
baptism/christening date: 04 Jan 1820
baptism/christening place: ST GEORGE THE MARTYR,SOUTHWARK,LONDON,ENGLAND
birth date: 02 Apr 1819
father's name: Thomas Coster
mother's name: Maria
indexing project (batch) number: C02244-2
system origin: England-ODM
source film number: 307693
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And I wonder about this for an elder son, also from IGI and, if so, he has some children in the 1850s:

Thomas Oliver Watts Coster

England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

birth: 21 Apr 1816
christening: 26 Nov 1816 ST GEORGE THE MARTYR,​SOUTHWARK,​LONDON,​ENGLAND
residence: 1816 London,​ England

parents: Thomas Coster,​ Maria

name: Thomas Oliver Watts Coster
gender: Male
baptism/christening date: 26 Nov 1816
baptism/christening place: ST GEORGE THE MARTYR,SOUTHWARK,LONDON,ENGLAND
birth date: 21 Apr 1816
father's name: Thomas Coster
mother's name: Maria
indexing project (batch) number: C02244-1
system origin: England-ODM
source film number: 307691
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And this looks like Maria Churchill Coster’s marriage:

Surname   First name(s)      District   Vol  Page
Marriages Jun 1838   (>99%)
BROOKS Samuel Marylebone 1 192   
BROWN Elizabeth Marylebone 1 192   
Coster Maria Churchill  Marylebone 1 192
EDWARDS Henry    Marylebone 1 192   
ROFFEE Susan    Marylebone 1 192   
SMITH Thomas    Marylebone 1 192   
STEWARD Ambrose      Marylebone 1 192   
TRICE Phoebe    Marylebone 1 192

Her husband might be found from the 1841 or 1851 censuses.

Cracked it: she is found in the 1851 census as Maria Churchill Edwards married to Henry Edwards, MP and Merchant, and with 5 children all born in Halifax, Yorks.  They had a staff of 12 in the house.

PS: Maria Churchill and Henry Edwards are also in the 1841 census living with Thomas and Maria and young Eliza.
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His will makes it clear that his address was York Terrace, Regents Park.  Wikipedia says:
“York Terrace, designed by Nash, the eastern half built by James Burton and the western half built by William Mountford Nurse.”.  I have found all of this terrace, including No 27 on a list of Grade 1 buildings in England.
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Jan 2013, TFPL: The Wilts FHS has transcribed the parish register for West Dean, Wilts but this does not contain his baptism.  Nor did the registers for East Dean or Dean in Hampshire.  Might he have come from a nonconformist or quaker background?  But no sign in The Genealogist’s Quaker and Nonconformist registers.

FindMyPast has a couple of Thomas Coster baptisms in 1781 and 1782 in Fareham, Hants but these are some way from Dean, Wilts.  But one of these Thos Costers, of Fareham, may be the chap who married Jane Pink in 1823 in Fareham.

May 2016, TFPL: I’m getting someone to look directly at the film of the Hants and Wilts Dean registers.
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I wonder if Thomas Coster, sen is any relation?  His will is in Chippenham record office.

First name(s) Thomas
Last name Coster
Suffix sen.
Status/occupation Yeoman
Year 1818
Residence Grittenham
Place Brinkworth
Document type(s) will, wrapper
Document reference P3/1818/24
Country England
Record set Wiltshire, Salisbury Wills Index, 1464-1858
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Another thought regarding his birth:

On FindMypast, a search for all Coster baptisms in Wiltshire in 1781 plus or minus 10 year, includes:

13 Mar 1789  Oliver Coster, parents John and Sarah, at West Dean.

This can be aligned with his 1851 census report in which he said he was born in Dean, Wilts and gave an age that meant he was born in 1781.

Further he and Maria gave their only (surviving) son the second name of Oliver.  I could take a punt that this Oliver was of the same family as Thomas.

The other clue to follow up is that Thomas Coster is regualrly reported to have been in business with a James Coster.

And surprise, surprise, there is another baptism in Wiltshire:

05 Jun 1785  James Coster, parents John and Mary, parish West Dean.

These are the only two baptisms in plain Dean anywhere in England on FindMypast with a surname of Coster, a (father’s) name of John and within 20 years of 1781.  The same search for Hampshire produced six baptisms, but none in East Dean.

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TFPL, May 2016: On the home straight now.

In the will of James Oliver, son of Thomas Oliver of Flitwith, he appoints “my nephwe Thomas Coster of York Terrace Regents Park in the county of Middlesex Gentleman” to be, with his cousins Thomas and Richard Oliver, his executors.  Later in the will he includes “John Coster, Thomas Coster and James Coster the three children of my late sister Sarah Coster deceased” as some of the beneficiaries.

The will was proved at London on the 14th June 1844.

It absolutely proves the relationship between the Costers and the Olivers.
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TFPL, June 2016: There are two separate sets of baptism transcriptions for West Dean, Wilts.  The earlier one, by the Wilts Family History Society is from 1599 to 1838 but it is not continuous, there are gaps, particularly from:
1602 to 1621,
1638 to 1661,
1676 to 1710,
1746 to 1749,
1753 to 1761,
and particularly significantly from:
1764 to 1781 inclusive
and with the odd years missing as well as the above gaps.

Fortunately the Wiltshire Only Parish Clerks organisations did a small bundle of years only, from 1779 to 1790 which included the year of 1781 which was the year that this Thomas, son of John and Sarah Oliver, was baptised.

I have commissioned a researcher to obtain a photo of this baptismal entry.  We need to know what was actually on the register (and on the bishop’s transcript if this is also available, as the transcriptions of the same baptisms do not quite have the same text.
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June 2016, TFPL: The film of the baptism register has come through.  This baptims is to be found for West Dean in 1781:

“Oct 12, Thomas son of John & Sarah Coster [with ‘Mary’ struck out below Sarah]”

I wonder if the struck-out ‘Mary’ was the name of John’s first wife?

Very curiously the Online Parish Clerks transcript of this register has 1 Oct as the date of this baptism, which is not what is on the register page.  Further it transcribed the line above, which was on 1st Oct as for a surname of ‘Hater’ when it is, clearly, Hayter.  Finally it says that Thomas’ mother Sarah was ‘formerly Oliver’ which is clearly not on this register at all.  I would classify the OPC transcript as defective; so we must also doubt the information supplied that John Coster, the father, was “Farmer Malster” as that is not on the register either.
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His will was dated 29th January 1856, the executors were Thomas Oliver Watts Coster, Henry Edwards and William Churchill Longman, his nephew and solicitor, and it was proved on the 13th October 1856.

Listed in his will were:

His wife Maria Coster,
His son Thomas Oliver Watts Coster,
His son-in-law Henry Edwards
His daughter Maria Churchill Edwards née Coster
His daughter Eliza Gillett née Coster
His grandchildren Arthur Henry and Adele Maria Churchill Grant
His son-in-law William Gillett
His servant Henry Foskett

His will lists large sums of money in securities and a wealth of houses and warehouses in London.  By comparison Henry Foskett’s description of him when registering his death as ‘Formerly a Silk warehouseman’ hardly does him justice.

I wonder if his nephew William Churchill Longman was in fact a nephew of his wife’s and related to her Churchill forbears?

June 2016, TFPL: Yes, ‘Longman’ must be the surname of the husband of his wife’s sister Sarah; I had wondered, from Robert Watts’ will in the ghastly secretary hand, if the name was Songman or Dongman; question now answered!
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There is a marriage register entry for Sherborne, Dorset on 30 Jul 1805 as follows (photocopy has been obtained):

“No 130: Thomas Costar of Wood Street, Cheap Side, London, bachelor and Maria Watts of Sherborne in the County of Dorset, spinster, were married in this church by licence this thirtieth Day of July in the Year One Thousand eight Hundred and five by me John Parions (?) curate.
“The marriage was solemnised between us (signed) Thos Coster, Maria Watts in the Presence of Sam Foot and C F Foot.”

The trouble with this marriage record is that it is a bit early compared with the births of their known three children from 1816 on.

The next step would be to see if the licence can be found, possibly obtained in London.  It might have a little more information.  Subsequent note: Nothing found in Foster’s edition of Chester’s edition of London marriage licences.  So, let’s try Dorset; SoG has the odd book of such.
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2016: Additionally Frances Rouse has found this notice in the The Salisbury and Winchester Journal. Monday August 5, 1805. p.5. Issue 31602. British Newspapers Part III. 1780-1850
“Salisbury. Monday August 5 1805.
“On Tuesday was married Mr Thomas Coster, of Wood-street, Cheapside, London to Miss Maria Watts, second daughter of Mr Robert Watts of Sherborne.”
(A photocopy of this too has been obtained.)
(The previous Tuesday to Monday Aug 5th was indeed the 30th July.

This confirms the above church record, such that the marriage dat is not in error, as I had been wondering.

But it still does not explain why Thomas and Maria apparently had no (surviving) children from 1806 to 1815.
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