Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/399

Forbes He was knighted 6 April 1837, but, failing to recover his accustomed strength, he resigned his office in July, and returned to the colony soon afterwards. He died at Leitrim, near Sydney, 9 Nov. 1841. In 1813 he married Amelia Sophia, daughter of David Grant, M.D., of Jamaica, who long survived him.

[Heaton's Australian Dict. pp. 70–1.] 

FORBES, GEORGE, third (1685–1765), naval commander and diplomatist, son of Arthur Forbes, second earl, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir George Rawdon, bart., of Moira, county Down, was born in Ireland 21 Oct. 1685, and was for a time at the grammar school at Drogheda. His grandfather, Arthur Forbes, first earl [q. v.], died when young Forbes was about twelve years of age. Coming to London with his grandmother in 1702, he introduced himself to Admiral George Churchill [q. v.], then first of the council to the lord high admiral, Prince George of Denmark, and sought to enter the navy. Churchill eventually appointed him to the Royal Anne at Portsmouth, and got him a lieutenancy in one of the new marine regiments. Young Forbes was midshipman of the St. George in 1704, and served under Rooke at the capture of Gibraltar, where he was employed on shore as aide-de-camp to the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, and in the great sea-fight off Malaga which followed. The same year he became heir to the earldom on the death of his elder brother, Lord Forbes, a captain in the Scots royals, from wounds received at Blenheim (Treas. Papers, xciii. 72, Blenheim Roll). In 1705 he was second lieutenant of the Triton frigate, one of the most active cruisers in the navy, which captured twenty-three French privateers in the Channel alone in fifteen months. He was in her at the siege of Ostend in 1706, where he served on shore, and first became known to his future friend, the Duke of Argyll [see ], who commanded in the trenches. On returning home Forbes found his commission awaiting him as captain of the Lynn frigate, in which he served as convoy to the Baltic trade. The Lynn being ordered to the West Indies, Forbes was transferred to the Gosport, and on 3 Jan. 1707 to the Leopard of 50 guns. On 6 March 1707 he was appointed brigadier in the 4th troop of horse-guards, of which the Duke of Argyll was captain and colonel. The brigadiers of the horse-guards—styled in their commissions ‘corporals,’ and in society ‘captains’—were commissioned officers ranking with lieutenants of horse (, Hist. Rec. Life Guards, p. 169). Forbes did duty with his troop until appointed to command the Sunderland of 60 guns, part of the western squadron under Lord Dursley, afterwards third Earl Berkeley. In 1708 Forbes became exempt of his troop and a brother of the Trinity House. In May 1709 he left his ship to do duty with his troop at Windsor, where ‘his sprightliness of genius and politeness of manner recommended him to Queen Anne’ (Memoirs of the Earls of Granard, p. 86), at whose desire he was appointed to the Grafton of 70 guns. Forbes, who in the meantime had married, sailed for the Mediterranean with Sir John Norris in 1710. Charles III of Spain (afterwards the emperor Charles VI) then had his court at Barcelona, and Norris stationed some ships off the coast of Catalonia, the command of which was assigned to Forbes, who was directed to co-operate as much as possible with the Spanish court, and was permitted to reside on shore. Two Genoese ships of war, of 50 and 70 guns respectively, were at Cadiz taking in specie, alleged to be for the use of the French faction in Italy. The Spanish king proposed that Forbes should put out to sea and seize the vessels on their return voyage. Forbes explained that England was at peace with the Genoese republic; but being pressed by the king, and the queen offering him her sign-manual for his indemnification, he started with his own ship, the Grafton of 70 guns, and the Chatham of 50 guns, Captain Haddock, took the Genoese ships into Port Mahon, discharged the officers and crews to shore, landed the specie, amounting to 1,600,000 dollars, and returned with the ships to Barcelona. Charles III, greatly pleased, made Forbes a grant of the duty payable at the mint for coinage of the amount, and urged him to go back to Minorca and fetch the specie. Forbes, doubting the legality of the capture, excused himself until he should receive instructions from home, or from General Stanhope, the British ambassador and commander-in-chief in Spain, and, to avoid any appearance of backwardness, set out to confer with Stanhope. He joined the part of the allied army under Marshal Staremberg, and was slightly wounded while charging with Brigadier Lepell's regiment at the battle of Villaviciosa, 10 Dec. 1710. Stanhope had surrendered at Brihuega the day previous. Forbes returned to Barcelona, and found orders from home forbidding the disposal of the Genoese treasure, which sorely disconcerted the Spanish court. Forbes came to England bearing an autograph letter from Charles III to Queen Anne. Eventually, the British government decided to retain the capture and indemnify the Genoese republic.