Forbes family

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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).
Forbes
Ethnicity Scottish American
Current region New England, United States
Information
Place of origin United States
Notable members John Murray Forbes, John Kerry
Connected families Kerry family
Estate Les Essarts,
Naushon Island

The Forbes family is a wealthy extended American family originating in Boston. The family's fortune originates from trading between North America and China in the 19th century plus other investments in the same period. The name descends 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), part of the first generation who accumulated wealth, and politician John Forbes Kerry (born 1943).

Contents

[edit] Family origins

The Forbes clan roots are in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where Forbes is the name of a parish. The exact meaning of the name is unknown, but one theory speculates that the name was first assumed by an Irish man named Ochonchar who slew a ferocious bear in the district of Forbear. Forbear became spelled and pronounced as Forbes.[citation needed] A second theory states that Forbes was originally "Forb-ais" meaning of the land, but this is now non-existent and the name has now become Forbes or Forbis.[citation needed]

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 Century reign of William I 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), a clergyman, who was married to Dorothy Murray on February 2, 1769 in Milton, Massachusetts, where one of his three sons were 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.

[edit] Accumulation of wealth

[edit] Trade with China

The Boston trading firm Perkins & Co. sent many young men of their extended family to participate in their business activities abroad. Ralph Forbes being married to Margaret Perkins, their children were encouraged in the business. Following the death overseas of his older brother, Thomas Tunno Forbes, the Perkinses encouraged John Murray Forbes to travel to China, too. There John was mentored by the Chinese merchant Houqua who considered him to be like a son.

Perkins & Co., like many other Boston trading firms in the early 19th century, sent ships to China to get tea for sale in America (although some was ultimately re-exported to Britain and Europe). To pay for the tea, they imported to China large quantities of silver and also furs, manufactured goods, cloth, wood, opium and any other items that they thought the Chinese market would absorb. Active trading houses, particularly those from Boston, usually kept representatives resident in Hong Kong whose main role was to look for and secure quality tea for export at good prices. This was John Murray Forbes's main job during the two years he spent in China (Gibson 2001; Malloy 1998). John Murray Forbes's brother, Robert Bennet Forbes, was more intimately involved in the importing side of the business and, at least by their own writings, had a more direct role than did John in the opium trade. (Kerr 1996; Hughes 1899).

Until recently, the Museum of the American China Trade in Milton, Mass., on Boston's South Shore, was curated by a Forbes great-grandson, Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes, an expert on Chinese porcelain. The museum, which was housed in Robert Bennet Forbes's 1833 Greek Revival style house, was a monument to the China merchants and the great wealth in Boston that both drove and resulted from the China trade. The China trade museum was merged with the Peabody Essex Museum in 1984 leaving the house in the management of the Forbes House Charitable Trust which operates it now as the Captain Forbes House Museum.

Neither John nor Robert spent more than a relatively short time in China--John was there for two years. Upon his return to Boston, John continued interest in the China trade for a few more years, serving as a business/investment manager for voyages undertaken by Robert and others. Fairly soon, however, he recognized that the China trade was becoming increasingly difficult to pursue profitably and that railroads offered a new and much more lucrative opportunity.

[edit] Railroad investment

John Murray Forbes made a considerable fortune from investments 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 Mississippi, was built by John Murray Forbes who had a reputation for sound financial management amongst the railroad tycoons of the day (Larson 2001).

[edit] Other sources

In 1879, William Hathaway 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.

[edit] Family assets

Some Forbes family members remain generally influential in local or national politics.

John Murray Forbes bought the island of Naushon, one of the Elizabeth Islands NW of Martha's Vineyard and SW of Cape Cod, in the 1840's and he and his descendents have used it as a summer retreat ever since. It is currently owned by Naushon Trust, Inc.

[edit] Notable family members

[edit] Noted as businessmen

[edit] Noted as politicians and activists

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

[edit] Genealogy

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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, although the family retained its connections with Europe and John Murray Forbes was born in France.

  • Reverend John Forbes, (b. Deskrie, Scotland, 1740 - September 17, 1783), m. on February 2, 1769 to Dorothy "Dolly" Murray, (b. Tower Hill, London, Great Britain, February 4, 1745 - d. Brush Hill, Milton, Massachusetts June 9, 1811)
    • Colonel James Grant Forbes, (b. St. Augustine, East Florida, November 22, 1769), m. to Francis Elizabeth Blackwell
      • Reverend John Murray Forbes, (1807-1885), m. to Anne Howell, (d. 1849)
        • Francis Blackwell Forbes, (1839-1908), m. to Isabel Clarke Forbes, of China and France
          • James Grant Forbes, (b. Shanghai, China, October 22, 1879 - d. Paris April 24, 1955), m. to Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, (1880-1970)
            • James Forbes
            • Jock Forbes
            • Griselda Forbes
            • Angela Forbes
            • Eileen Forbes
            • Monica Forbes
            • Alistair Forbes
            • Ian Forbes
            • Iris Forbes, m. to Terence Armstrong (1920-1996) (British Arctic researcher)
              • Kevin Armstrong (teacher)
            • Fiona (Forbes) Lalonde m. Alain-Gauthier Lévy, later Lalonde (after name change)
              • Brice Lalonde, a French politician, who ran for President of France as the Green Party candidate in 1981
            • Rosemary Forbes Kerry, (b. Paris, October 27, 1913 - d. November 14, 2002), m. to Richard Kerry
          • Francis Murray Forbes, (founder of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes)
            • Cynthia (Forbes) Lyman, m. to John Lowell Lyman
              • Griselda Lyman, m. to Duncan Alexander White
              • John L. Lyman Jr, m. to Dorothy Marie Royer
          • Ethel A. Forbes, b. 1880 Shanghai, China
          • Charles Stewart Forbes, b. 1879 Shanghai, China
          • Evelyn Forbes Potter
    • John Murray Forbes, (August 13, 1771 - 1831) Buried in Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Ralph Bennett Forbes, (August 1, 1773 - 1824) m. on October 13, 1801 to Margaret Perkins (sister of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins)
      • John Murray Forbes of China and Boston, b. France (1813-1898), m. to Sarah Swain Hathaway, (1813-1900)
        • John Malcolm Forbes, (1847-1904), m. to Sarah Coffin Jones, (1852-1891)
          • Cpt. Gerrit Forbes, (1880-1964), m. 1st to Florence Emerson, (1882-1906), m. 2nd to Marthe De La Fruglaye, m. 3rd to Dita Weber
            • Helen Forbes, (1905-1911), (daughter of Gerrit Forbes and Florence Emerson)
            • Edith Forbes, (1906-....), (daughter of Gerrit Forbes and Florence Emerson)
            • Gordon Donald Forbes, (1915-....), (son of Gerrit Forbes and Marthe De La Fruglaye)
            • Marguerita Hoima Forbes, (1917-2001), (daughter of Gerrit Forbes and Marthe De La Fruglaye)
        • William Hathaway Forbes, (1840-1896), m. to Edith Emerson, (1841-1928), daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson
        • Alice Hathaway Forbes (1838-)
        • Ellen Randolph Forbes (1838-)
        • Mary Hathaway Forbes (1844-)
        • Sarah Forbes (1853-)
      • Captain Robert Bennett Forbes (1804-1889), m. to Rose Greene Smith (1798-1885)
        • Robert Bennett Forbes (1836-)
        • Edith Forbes (1842-), m. to Charles Eliot Perkins
        • James Murray Forbes (1845-), m. to Alice (Bowditch) Forbes
          • Allan Forbes (1874-)
          • Mary Bowditch Forbes (1878-) (founder of the Mary Bowditch Forbes Collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia.)
          • Dorothy Forbes (1880-)
    • Joseph Barlow Forbes (1840-1927)
      • Olive Edith Forbes
        • Paul Dayton Bailey (1906-1987)
          • Thomas Andrew Forbes (1951-2001)
            • Thomas Andrew Forbes II (1967-)
              • Meghan Forbes (1995-)
              • Chelsea Forbes (1999-)
              • Thomas Andrew Forbes III (2004-)

[edit] 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
  • Boston Men on the Northwest Coast: The American Fur Trade, 1788-1844, by Mary Malloy, University of Alaska Press, 1998.
  • Bonds of Enterprise: John Murray Forbes and Western Development in America's Railway Age, John Lauritz Larson, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
  • Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841, by James R. Gibson, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.
  • Letters from China: The Canton-Boston Correspondence of Robert Bennet Forbes, 1838-1840, ed. by Phyllis Forbes Kerr, Mystic Seaport Museum, 1996.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The husband of Ruth Forbes invented the Bell Helicopter used in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Her son, Michael R. Paine, and his wife, allowed Marina Oswald, the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, to live in their house as a family friend, and Oswald's rifle was stored for a time in the Paine's family garage

[edit] External links

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

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