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This article is about the Forbes family related to US Senator John Kerry. For the family associated with Forbes magazine, see Forbes family (publishers).

The Forbes family is a wealthy extended American family originating in Boston, whose ancestors became wealthy in the 19th Century from trading between North America and China and other investments. The family is descended from Scottish immigrants, and can be traced back to Sir John de Forbes in Scotland in the 12th Century. Notable family members are businessman John Murray Forbes (1813–1898) of the first family generation to accumulate wealth, and politician John Forbes Kerry (born 1943)

Family Origins

The Forbes clan originated in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where Forbes is the name of a parish. The exact meaning of the name is unknown, but the most accepted theory is that the name was first assumed by a man named Ochonchar, from Ireland, who slew a ferocious bear in the district of Forbear. Forbear became spelled and pronounced as Forbes.

The earliest record of the Forbes family is the marriage of Solvathius Forbes to Maravilla, daughter of King Gregory the Great, in 870AD. The earliest confirmed family ancestors are Sir John De Forbes, a man of rank and importance in the 12th Centrury reign of William the Lion, of Scotland and Sir Fergus De Forbes who was born before 1272.

The first members of the family to live in the United States was John Forbes (1740–1783), clergyman, who was married in Milton, Massachusetts, where his sons were also born. The family is considered part of the Boston Brahmin, the New England Anglo-Saxon establishment.

Bertie Forbes who founded the Forbes magazine was also born in Aberdeenshire as a descendant of the Forbes clan, but is not a relative of John Forbes and the Forbes trading family.

Accumulation of Wealth

Trade with China

Following the death of his brother, Tom, John Murray Forbes entered the Old China Trade at the behest of his uncles, the Perkins family. John was mentored by the Chinese merchant Houqua who considered him to be like a son. Following John Murray Forbes into China were several brothers and cousins, including Francis Blackwell Forbes

John and his brothers Robert Bennet Forbes and Francis Blackwell Forbes and cousins, amassed a fortune in the China trade, initially trading North American furs and manufactured goods for tea and other goods from China. One of the ports of their trade was the then developing British free-trade area of Hong Kong.

The family also made a considerable fortune smuggling opium during the Opium Wars of the 1840s and 1850s. The British wanted to keep a monopoly on supplying the Chinese with opium grown in India. However, during the Opium Wars the British ships were prevented from delivering their cargoes of opium and American ship owners such as Forbes, who could sail the final miles, made great amounts of money delivering the cargoes for the British. The Dictionary of American Biography reports that the noted American ship captain Robert Bennet Forbes played "a prominent role in the outbreak of the Chinese Opium War."

After the Opium Wars, some of the Forbes family sold their China trading interests to Russell and Company, a shipping empire headed by Bennett-Forbes, and re-invested in Europe and United States in merchant banking and railroad investment projects.

Some family members took up residence in China and some such as James Grant Forbes were born there.

Until recently, the Museum of the American China Trade in Boston was curated by a Forbes great-grandson, Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes, an expert on Chinese porcelain. The museum was a monument to the China merchants and the great wealth accruing to Boston created in the China trade. The renamed Forbes House Charitable Trust now owns the Captain Forbes House Museum on Boston's South shore.

Railroad investment

John Murray Forbes made a considerable fortune from reinvestment in railroads from the 1840s onwards. Some of the population growth of Chicago and Midwestern Plains states in the middle to late 19th century was due to John Murray Forbes' railroad projects in Michigan and Chicago. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, from Chicago west to the Pacific was built by John Murray Forbes who had perhaps a reputation for sound financial management amongst the railroad tycoons of the day.

Other sources

In 1879, William Forbes, son of John Murray Forbes, risked the fortune to financially back Alexander Graham Bell's telephone company, and become president of the company, a risk which paid off. Family members also had investments in merchant banking.

Family assets

Many Forbes family members purchased estates in France - Les Essarts, and Massachusetts, and generally remain influential there, in local or national politics.

There are several family trusts, which benefit the family members, including politician John Forbes Kerry.

The Forbes family owns, through the family JM Forbes Naushon Island Trust, named for John Murray Forbes, the private Naushon Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands NW of Martha's Vineyard and SW of Cape Cod.

Notable family members

Notes as businessmen

Noted as politicans and activists

Many Forbes family members are influential in France and Massachusetts, in local or national politics.

Genealogy

Likely ancestors in Scotland

  • Solvathius Forbes (c. 850), married daughter of King Giric of Scotland
    • Christopher Forbes
      • Christopher Forbes
        • Duncan Forbes
          • Ochonchar Forbes
            • Fergus de Forbes
              • Alexander de Forbes
                • Duncan de Forbes

Confirmed ancestors in Scotland

  • Sir John De Forbes, a man of rank and importance in the reign of William the Lion, of Scotland
  • Sir Fergus De Forbes, (b. before 1272)
  • Alexander De Forbes, (d. 1303, Loch Ness, Scotland), governor of Urquhart Castle in Moray, defended it 1304 against Edward I
  • Alexander De Forbes, (b. before 1303- killed 1332 while fighting at the side of David II in the Battle of Duplin)
  • Sir John of the "Black Lip" Forbes, (b. in Aberdeenshire, Scotland), 1332 - d. before November 20, 1406), m. to Margaret Kennedy
  • Sir William Forbes (Laird of Kynaldy), (1385 - killed January 25, 1445 at the battle of Arbroath), m. to Agnes Fraser
  • Sir Alexander Forbes (Laird of Kynaldy), (d. 1477), m. to Maria Hay
  • William Forbes, (b. in Pitsligo, Scotland, before 1477-), m. to Mariot Olgilvy
  • William Forbes, (b. in Dauch, Scotland, before 1500-), m. to Elizabeth Forbes
  • Alexander, 1st Forbes (Laird of Newe), (d. 1561), m. to Jean Lumsden
  • William, 2nd Forbes (Laird of Newe), (d. 1571), m. to Margaret Gordon
  • John "Blue Bonnet" 3rd Forbes (Laird of Newe), (d. 1616), m. to Isabel Burnet
  • Alexander, 4th Forbes (Laird of Newe), (d. 1654), m. to Janet Robertson
  • William, 5th Forbes (Laird of Newe) (d. 1698), m. to Helen Forbes
  • John Forbes (b. Descrie, Scotland, 1670 - 1739) m. to Margaret Farquharson
  • Archibald Forbes, (b. Deskrie, Scotland, 1713-1793, d. December 3, 1793, New Miln, of Keith, Scotland), m. to Henrietta Grant

Ancestors in the United States

The first members of the family to live in the United States was John Forbes, clergyman, son of Archibald Forbes, athough the family retained its connections with Europe and John Murray Forbes was born in France.

Sources

  • Life and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, ed. by Sarah Forbes Hughes, Two Volumes, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899.
  • An American Railroad Builder: John Murray Forbes, by Henry Pearson, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1911.
  • Forbes: Telephone Pioneer, by Arthur Pier, 1953.
  • The Bingham Genealogy Project, by Doug Bingham, http://www.pa.uky.edu/~shapere/dkbingham/d0007/g0000017.html, 2003

External links

This article contains content from HierarchyPedia article Forbes family, used here under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Forbes family | History of Hong Kong | Family trees

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Forbes family".

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