FORBES, LORD FORBES.



The following extract was taken from "Peerage of Scotland” 1767 pp. 192,193,194.  The book is in the library of the Society of Genealogists in London.  This copy was made by Eardley Bryan and entered into the computer on 26th June 1991.
 

   The first of this name on record was John de Forbes, who flourished in the reign of William the Lion and possessed the lands and barony of Forbes.  His son, Fergus de Forbes, had a son and successor, Alexander Forbes, who in 1303 resolutely defended his castle Urquhart, near Elgin, against Edward I. which being taken by storm, he and the whole garrison were put to the sword; and by that fatal stroke his family had been extinct, if his wife had not preserved it by Alexander, a posthumous son; which Alexander, in compensation of what his father had lost in the service of his country, had a grant from King Robert I. of divers lands; but he inheriting the principles of his father, and loyally adhering to King David Bruce against Edward Baliol, was slain at the great battle of Duplin, in the year 1332.

   In the reign of Robert II. Sir John Forbes of that ilk, the son of the aforesaid Alexander, acquiring from Thomas, Earl of Mar, several lands in the county of Aberdeen, was then confirmed by the charter of that king; and in the fifth of Robert III. was constituted justice and coroner of that county.  He had four sons, three of whom were knighted; Sir John, the third, was the founder of the family of Tolquhoun, from whom descended those of Culloden, Waterton and Foveran: Sir William, the second, was ancestor of the Lord Pitsligo; Alexander, the youngest, was the ancestor of the Forbes's of Brux, etc. and Sir Alexander, the eldest, succeeded his father, and was created Lord Forbes.  He married lady Elizabeth, daughter of George earl of Angus, and obtained a grant from John earl of Buchan, to himself, and the said Elizabeth, his wife, of the lands of Milkie, Fintry, Blackton and Balcross.  He had issue a son, James, second lord.

   Which James, second lord, was knighted by king James II. and by lady Egidia his wife, daughter of William, first earl Marshall, had three sons, William, his heir; Duncan, ancestor of the Forbes's of Corsindal, Monimusk, etc. etc. and Patrick, from whom descended Sir Arthur Forbes, Knt and Bart. father of Arthur, the first earl of Granard, in Ireland.  He was succeeded by his eldest son,