Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/28

 vessel from Rochford in Essex, and landed in France. He is said to have spent some time in Rome. He died, however, at Boulogne, France, ‘of an asthma,’ on 3 Nov. 1738 (Gent. Mag. 1738, p. 604). There is a small engraved portrait of Forster by Wedgwood after a miniature by Rosalba.



FORSTER, THOMAS FURLY (1761–1825), botanist, was born in Bond Street, Walbrook, 5 Sept. 1761, being the eldest son of the elder [q. v.] and Susanna his wife. His father retired to Walthamstow in 1764, and, being a great admirer of Rousseau, brought up his son on his principles. From his uncle [q. v.] Forster early acquired a taste for antiquities, coins, prints, and plants. He was introduced to the Linnean system of classification, to which he always remained a firm adherent, by the Rev. John Dixon, and was further encouraged in his studies by Joseph Cockfield of Upton, Michael Tyson, Sir John Cullum, and Richard Warner, author of the ‘Plantæ Woodfordienses’ (1771). Between 1775 and 1782 he made many drawings of plants, studying exotic species in the garden of Mr. Thomas Sikes at Tryon's Place, Hackney. In 1784 was printed a list of additions to Warner's ‘Plantæ Woodfordienses,’ attributed by Dryander to Thomas Forster. In 1788 Forster married Susanna, daughter of Thomas Williams of West Ham, and niece of Mr. Sikes. He was one of the first fellows of the Linnean Society, founded in that year, and he visited Tunbridge Wells in that and almost every succeeding year of his life. In conjunction with his brothers he drew up the county lists of plants in Gough's ‘Camden’ (1789), and communicated various plants to the ‘Botanical Magazine’ and to ‘English Botany.’ From 1796 to 1823 he mainly resided at Clapton, and, as he had grown hardy plants in his home at Walthamstow, then devoted himself to greenhouse exotics, giving much assistance to the Messrs. Loddiges in establishing their nursery at Hackney. A list of the rare plants of Tunbridge Wells, pp. 14, 12mo, belonging probably to 1800, is attributed to him by Dryander; and in 1816 he published a ‘Flora Tonbrigensis,’ pp. 216, 8vo, dedicated to Sir J. E. Smith, which was reissued by his son in 1842. His fondness for animals made him refuse to prepare an account of the fauna. In 1823 he moved to Walthamstow on the death of his mother, and died there 28 Oct. 1825, leaving two sons and three daughters. He contributed two papers to the Linnean Society's ‘Transactions,’ and left an extensive hortus siccus of algæ, as well as of flowering plants, together with collections of fossils, music, &c., and more than a thousand drawings of churches and other ancient buildings, executed by himself. His natural history journals of weather prognostics, &c., were published by his son in 1827 as ‘The Pocket Encyclopædia of Natural Phenomena,’ pp. xlviii and 440, 12mo. He was a member of many scientific and philanthropic societies, and among his friends were Porson and Gough, as well as the botanists, Sir J. E. Smith, Sir Joseph Banks, Dryander, Dickson, Robert Brown, and Afzelius of Upsala.



FORSTER, THOMAS IGNATIUS MARIA, M.D. (1789–1860), naturalist and astronomer, eldest son of [q. v.], was born in London on 9 Nov. 1789. He was brought up mainly at Walthamstow, and, both his father and grandfather being followers of Rousseau, his literary education was neglected. During his life, however, he acquired familiarity with the Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Welsh languages, while from his uncle [q. v.] he obtained his first notions of astronomy, mechanics, and aërostatics. In 1805 he compiled a ‘Journal of the Weather’ and a ‘Liber Rerum Naturalium,’ and in the following year, being attracted by the writings of Gall, he began to study that branch of psychology to which he afterwards gave the name of ‘phrenology.’ In 1808, under the signature ‘Philochelidon,’ he published ‘Observations on the Brumal Retreat of the Swallow,’ of which the sixth edition appeared, with a catalogue of British birds annexed, in 1817. In 1809 he took up for a time the study of the violin, to which he returned forty years later; and in 1810, having been ill, his attention was first directed to the influence of air upon health, upon which subject he wrote in the ‘Philosophical Magazine.’ The great comet of 1811 directed his attention to astronomy; and in 1812, having been, from his study of Pythagorean and Hindu philosophy and an inherited dislike of cruelty to animals, for some years a vegetarian, he published ‘Reflections on Spirituous Liquors,’ denying man to be by birth a carnivor. This