Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/382

Forbes of Walciodorus. Forannan died in 982. His day is 30 April.

[Bollandists' Acta Sanct. 30 April, tom. iii. p. 807 ; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. iii. 401 ; Book of Leinster, p. 348 d; Lebar Brecc, p. 15 b; Martyrology of Donegal, 30 April.] 

FORBES, ALEXANDER, first (d. 1448), was the eldest son of Sir John de Forbes of that ilk. The lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire gave name to the family, who trace back their ancestors in it to the time of King William the Lion (1165–1214). Sir John de Forbes was justiciar and coroner for Aberdeenshire in the time of Robert III, and leaving four sons was the common ancestor of the families of the Lords Forbes, Forbes Lord Pitsligo, and the Forbeses of Tolquhoun, Foveran, Watertoun, Culloden, Brux, &c. The eldest son, Sir Alexander de Forbes, succeeded to the estates in 1405, on his father's death, and during his time both added considerably to their extent and obtained their consolidation into a barony, with his own elevation to the peerage as a baron of parliament. In 1407 he was one of four knights who went to England to hold a friendly tournament with an equal number of English knights. Wyntoun calls him a knight of Mar, and praises the worthy manner in which he and his comrades upheld the honour of their country on the field of chivalry. In 1419 he formed one of the contingent of Scottish knights who with their followers responded to the appeal of Charles, dauphin of France, to Scotland for help against the English. He took part in the war then going on, and was present at the battle of Beaugé, 22 March 1421. During the same year he visited James I in his captivity in London, and afterwards returned to Scotland, but came again into England as far as Durham in 1423, to convoy James I into his kingdom. Between 1436 and 1442 he was created by James II a lord of parliament, under the title of Baron Forbes. He died in 1448. He married about 1423 Lady Elizabeth Douglas, only daughter of George, first earl of Angus [q. v.], and granddaughter of Robert II. By her, who afterwards became the wife of David Hay of Yester, he left issue two sons and three daughters: (1) James, second lord Forbes, (2) John, provost of the church of St. Giles, Edinburgh, (3) Annabella, who married Patrick, master of Gray, (4) Margaret, who married the laird of Fyvie, and (5) Elizabeth, who married Irvine of Drum. Through his marriage to Elizabeth Douglas his children were heirs of entail to the earldom of Angus.

[Registrum Magni Sigilli, ii. Nos. 54–9, 127, 134, 279, 1239, 1298, &c.; Rymer's Fœdera, x. 308; Rotuli Scotiæ; Wyntoun's Fordun à Goodall, ii. 460; Exchequer Rolls; Sir William Fraser's Douglas Book, ii. 23.]  FORBES, ALEXANDER, fourth (d. 1491), was the eldest son of William, third lord Forbes, and succeeded his father in or before 1483. The gift of the fine payable to the crown on his marriage was acquired by Margaret, lady Dirleton, who wished him to marry her own daughter, Margaret Ker. But he declined her proposals, and without her consent married Lady Margaret Boyd, daughter of Thomas, earl of Arran. For this he was condemned by the lords auditors on 5 July 1483 to pay Lady Dirleton double the value of his marriage or two thousand merks. He espoused the cause of James III when the son of that monarch rose in rebellion in 1488 against him. After the king's death at Sauchieburn he was summoned to answer before parliament to a charge of treason and conspiracy, but instead of obeying the summons he exposed the blood-stained shirt of the slain king on his spear at Aberdeen, and raised a considerable force there with the object of avenging his death. But his hopes of success were suddenly extinguished by the defeat of the Earl of Lennox (with whom he had been acting in concert) at Tillymoor, near Stirling, and on submitting to James IV, he was pardoned and received into favour. He died about 1491, survived by his widow, who was a granddaughter of James II, and who in 1509 married David, lord Kennedy, afterwards first earl of Cassilis, but leaving no issue. He was succeeded by his two brothers, Arthur, fifth lord, and John, sixth lord, Forbes.

[Acta Auditorum Dominorum, pp. 113*, 121*; Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ii. 169–215; Treasurer's Accounts, i. xlii; Registrum Magni Sigilli, ii. Nos. 1678, 2529, 2530, 3371, 3696, &c.; Pinkerton's Hist. of Scotland, ii. 8.]  FORBES, ALEXANDER (1564–1617), bishop of Aberdeen, belonged to the Brux branch of the Forbes family. He was the son of John Forbes of Ardmurdo in Aberdeenshire, by his second wife, a daughter of Graham of Morphie. Educated at St. Andrews, where he took his degree of A.M. in 1585, he was appointed in 1588 minister of Fettercairn in Kincardineshire, and soon began to take a position of some prominence in the church. So early as 1594 we find him associated by the general assembly in a committee of the most eminent ministers appointed ‘to treate upon the offence conceaved by the king against John Ross,’ a too freespoken preacher. Between 1593 and 1602 he was a member of eight out of ten general