Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/526

498 ated at Brown in 1815, studied law in Enfield and Northampton, Mass., and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He was county attorney and also a member of the legislature in 1826, judge of the court of common pleas in 1847, and of the state supreme court in 1848. lie left an estate of $300,000, most of which he bequeathed to estab- lish a free piiblic library in Northampton. This library was incorporated by act of the Massachu- setts legislature on 3 May, 1881.

FORBES, Edwin, artist, b. in New York city in 1839 ; d. there, 6 March, 1895. He early began the study of art, and devoted himself to animal painting. In 1859 he became a pupil of A. F. Tait. At the beginning of the civil war he joined the Army of the Potomac, and remained in the south as special artist for Frank Leslie, the publisher, till 1864. His sketches of his experiences during this period were preserved in a series of copper-plate etchings, which were exhibited at the Centennial exposition of 1876, and awarded a medal. Gen. W. T. Sherman bought the first proofs for the United States government, and they are now in the War Department at Washington. " The Relia- ble Contraband," " Coming through the Lines," and the " Sanctuary," are the most effective of these sketches. Others are, "A Night March," " Re- turning from Picket Duty," and " The Reveille." His " Lull in the Fight," a scene in the battle of the Wilderness, was exhibited at the National academy. New York and at the Boston athenfeum (1865). In 1877 he was elected an honorary mem- ber of the London etching club. His studio was in Brooklyn, and after 1878 he devoted himself to landscape and cattle pictures. His later works are : " Early Morning in an Orange County Past- ure "(1870); "On the Skirmish Line"; "Stormy March " ; " Roughing " ; " On the Meadows " (1880) ; and " Evening in the Sheep Pasture " (1881).

FOEBES, Eli, clergyman, b. in Westborough, Mass., in October, 1726 ; d. in Gloucester, Mass., 15 Dec, 1804. He served against the French and Indians in 1745, and on his return from the Mar entered Harvard, where he was graduated in 1751. He then studied theology, and was ordained, 3 June, 1752, as the first minister of the second parish in Brookfield, Mass. In 1758-9 he twice acted as chaplain of a provincial regiment, and in 1762 conducted a successful mission to the Oneida Indians, among whom he established a church and two schools. In March, 1776, Mr. Forbes, having been charged by some of his congregation with being a Tory, asked and obtained an honorable dismissal, and on 5 June of that year became pastor at Gloucester, Mass., where he remained until his death, also officiating frequently in va- cant parishes near by. Harvard gave him the de- gree of D. D. in 1804. Dr. Forbes published vari- ous sermons, including one on the " Character of Washington" (1800), a memoir of Joshua Eaton, prefixed to seven of the Litter's sermons, and a " Family Book," containing discourses, doctrinal, evangelical, practical, and historical (1801).

FORBES, Gordon, British soldier, b. in 1738; d. in llam, Middlesex, England, 17 Jan., 1828. He became an ensign in the 33d foot in 1756, captain in the 72d in 1762, and served at Havana and in Louisiana. He was made major on 9 Nov., 1776. was twice wounded in Burgoyne's expedition, and became lieutenant-colonel in September, 1781. He then served in the East Indies, was made colonel in 1785, major-general in 1794, and commanded the forces at Santo Domingo in 1798-1800. He was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1801, and recei ved a general's commission in 1812.

FORBES, James Fraser, Canadian physician, b. in Gibpiltar in 1820. He was the son of an officer in the 64th regiment, who, after retiring from the service, was collector of customs at Yar- mouth, Nova Scotia. Mr. Forbes has been coroner and health officer for Liverpool and Queens county, N. S., for over twenty-six years, and was elected president of the bank of Liverpool in 1874. He was first returned to the Dominion parliament in 1867, was re-elected in 1872, and again in 1874, and was defeated in 1878, but was re-elected in 1882.

FORBES, John, British soldier, b. in Petin- crief, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1710 ; d. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 11 March, 1759. He became a physician, but abandoned his profession to enter the army, and was made lieutenant-colonel of the Scots greys in 1745. In the German war he was on the staff of Lord Stair, Gen. Ligonier, and Gen. Camp- bell, was made colonel of the 17th foot, 25 Feb., 1757, and acted as quartermaster-general under the Duke of Cumberland. He was appointed brigadier-general in America, 28 Dec, 1757, and was adjutant-general in the expedition against Louis- burg. In the autumn of 1758 he was placed in command of the expedition against Fort Duquesne, numbering 1,200 Highlanders, 350 royal Ameri- cans, and about 5,000 provincials, including about 2,000 Virginians under the command of Washing- ton. When Forbes arrived at Raystown, Pa., with his army, in September, 1758, he was carried in a litter, as he was already prostrated by the illness that shortly afterward caused his death, but his head was clear and his will firm, and he retained command of the expedition. After Bouquet's disastrous reconnoissance (see Bouquet, Henry) the army reached Loyalhanna on 5 Nov., and it was decided to pass the winter there, when news of the weakness of the fort induced Forbes to push forward. Passing the field where the bones of Braddock's men lay unburied, the expedition finally reached Fort Duquesne on 25 Nov. The work had been blown up and abandoned by the French on the previous day, and Washington's men marched in and took possession. Forbes re- named the place Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), in honor of William Pitt, who had planned the cam- paign, and, after concluding treaties with the Indian tribes on the Ohio, returned to Philadel- phia, where he died shortly afterward. He was noted in the army for his obstinacy, and was nick- named " Tlie Head of Iron."

FORBES, John, librarian, b. in Scotland in 1771; d. in New York, 4 Oct., 1824. He w.as graduated at Columbia in 1794, and from that year till his death was librarian of the New York society library, being pi'ominent during that time among literary men in New York city. — His son, Pllilii) Jones, b. in New York city, 13 Jan., 1807; d. in Brooklyn, L. I., in June, 1877, entered the U. S. military academy in 1823, but was not gradu- ated. From 1828 till 1855 he was librarian of the New York society library. — Philip Jones's son, John, b. in New York city, 24 April, 1846, was an assistant librarian in the same institution.

FORBES, John Colin, Canadian artist, b. in Canada, 23 Jan., 1846. He was entirely self-taught in art, until the production of his first work, a portrait of his father, after which he spent two years in study at the Royal academy in London and elsewhere in Europe. After his return to Canada he painted " The Foundering of the Hibernia," which was exhibited at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876; " The Caiion in the Royal Gorge"; "The Mount of the Holy Cross " ; " Mount Stephen '' ; " The Glacier of the