Arthur Forrest (c. 1716 - 26 May 1770) was a British officer of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
who saw service during the
War of the Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...
and the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754†...
, rising to the rank of
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
and the post of
commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
. He also owned 3,000 acres of
sugar plantations
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
, and a considerable number of
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, in the
Colony of Jamaica
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was pri ...
.
Early life
Details of Forrest's parents and upbringing are unknown, but he had served in the
merchant navy as mate or master, trading with
Cartagena. He volunteered to serve as a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
, passed his lieutenant's examination by December 1740, and was given command of the sloop ''Pilot''. During this time he was under orders to train officers in the pilotage of
Port Royal
Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...
. His skills led him to take a distinguished part in the
Battle of Cartagena de Indias
The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ( es, Sitio de Cartagena de Indias, lit=Siege of Cartagena de Indias) took place during the 1739 to 1748 War of Jenkins' Ear between Spanish Empire, Spain and Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain. The result of lo ...
in March 1741. He came to the attention of
Edward Boscawen
Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC (19 August 171110 January 1761) was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during ...
after serving under him in an attack on the Baradera battery on shore on 17 and 18 March 1741, and on 25 May he was promoted by the expedition's commander, Admiral
Edward Vernon
Admiral Edward Vernon (12 November 1684 – 30 October 1757) was an English naval officer. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank of admiral after 46 years service. As a vice admiral during the War of Jenkins' Ear, in 1 ...
, to command the
bomb vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounte ...
. Further appointments followed, to the sloop in November 1742, and then to . During this time he served on the home station and in convoy service to America.
In 1745 he was promoted to
post captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...
and given command of , in which he took out a large convoy to
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. In November he was at
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, where, by pressing some seamen contrary to colonial custom, he got into a troublesome dispute, ending in a serious fray, in which two men were killed. The
boatswain
A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervi ...
of the ''Wager'' was arrested on a charge of murder, was convicted, and sentenced to death ; the sentence, however, does not appear to have been carried out. Forrest afterwards went to the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, where, in the following year, he captured a Spanish
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
of much superior force.
[
]
Seven Years' War
In 1755 he commanded , in which he was again sent to the West Indies, and in 1757 was moved into the 60-gun . In October he was detached, with two other ships and ''Edinburgh'' under his command, to cruise off Cape François
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
; and on 21 October encountered a powerful French squadron of four ships of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colum ...
and three heavy frigates under Guy François de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint
Guy or GUY may refer to:
Personal names
* Guy (given name)
* Guy (surname)
* That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart
Places
* Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet
* Guy, Arkansas, US, a city
* Guy, Indiana, US, an unincor ...
, which came out of harbour to drive the British away from a convoy. After a short conference with his colleagues, captains Maurice Suckling
Captain Maurice Suckling (4 May 1726 – 14 July 1778) was a British Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, most notable for starting the naval career of his nephew Horatio Nelson and for serving as Comptroller of the Navy from 1775 until ...
and William Langdon said to have lasted just half a minute Forrest determined on attempting to carry out his orders, and bore down on the enemy. In the ensuing battle the British managed to disable several French ships, but were outnumbered and too badly damaged to press an attack, and after two hours of fighting, each side drew off and returned to their respective ports. The French returned to the Cape, where they refitted and then proceeded on their voyage, while Forrest went back to Jamaica.[
On 24 December, being detached singly off ]Petit-Goâve
Petit-Goâve ( ht, Ti Gwav) is a coastal commune in the Léogâne Arrondissement in the Ouest department of Haiti. It is located southwest of Port-au-Prince. The town has a population of approximately 12,000 inhabitants.
History
The town is ...
, he encountered a fleet of eight merchant ships, and in the night captured the sloop of war which was escorting them, and used her as a tender against her own convoy, taking all the ships. In August 1759 he took the ''Augusta'' to England, and on paying her off, in April 1760, commissioned , one of the ships taken by Boscawen at the Battle of Lagos
The naval Battle of Lagos took place between a British fleet commanded by Sir Edward Boscawen and a French fleet under Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran over two days in 1759 during the Seven Years' War. They fought south west of the Gulf of Cà ...
in 1759. After a few months with the fleet in the Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
, he went out to the Jamaica Station
Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail station ...
, where, by the death of Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes in November 1761, he was left senior officer. On this he moved into , hoisted a broad pennant
A broad pennant is a triangular swallow-tailed naval pennant flown from the masthead of a warship afloat or a naval headquarters ashore to indicate the presence of either:
(a) a Royal Navy officer in the rank of Commodore, or
(b) a U.S. Nav ...
, and took on himself both the duties and privileges of commander-in-chief, until Sir James Douglas James Douglas may refer to:
Scottish noblemen
Lords of Angus
* James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus (1426–1446), Scottish nobleman
* James Douglas, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas
Lords of Douglas
* James Douglas, ...
, coming from the Leeward Islands in April 1762, summarily dispossessed him. Forrest returned to England, passenger in a merchant ship, when, on reporting himself to the admiralty, he was told that his conduct in constituting himself commodore was 'most irregular and unjustifiable;’ and that the officers whom he had promoted would not be confirmed. This led to a long correspondence, in which the admiralty so far yielded as to order him to be reimbursed for the expenses he had incurred, though without sanctioning the higher rate of pay.[
]
Slave owner
In Jamaica, Forrest owned about 3,000 acres of land in Westmoreland Parish
Westmoreland is the westernmost parish in Jamaica, located on the south side of the island. It is situated south of Hanover, southwest of Saint James, and northwest of Saint Elizabeth, in the county of Cornwall. The chief town and capital is ...
and Saint Elizabeth Parish
Saint Elizabeth, one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island.
History
Saint Elizabet ...
. One of the many slaves on his estates, Apongo, whom Forrest named Wager after one of his ships, ended up being one of the most significant leaders of the Tacky's War
Tacky's War, Tacky's Revolt, or Tacky's Rebellion, was a widespread slave rebellion in the British Colony of Jamaica in the 1760s. Led by Akan people (then referred to as Coromantee but originally from around Kromantsie in the Central Region of ...
slave revolt in western Jamaica.[Vincent Brown, ''Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2020), pp. 1-2, 164-5.]
Forrest purchased property in Jamaica following his appointment as Commander-in-Chief. He also probably inherited land in Jamaica and wealth from his father who died sometime before 1750. In Jamaica, Forrest owned at the time of his death six sugar estates: Masemure, Robins River, Ragged Castle, Vineyard and Pontrepant, Vineyard and Breadnut.["Admiral Arthur Forrest", ''Legacies of British Slavery'' https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146643075 Retrieved 26 June 2021.]
Later life and death
In 1769, however, he was sent out to the same station as commander-in-chief, with his broad pennant in . His time in the appointment was short-lived, he died at Jamaica on 26 May 1770. Sadly, at the time of his death, he never knew that advice of his appointment to the rank of admiral and reputedly, elevation to the peerage as the Viscount Forrest, were on a ship from London to Jamaica.
Forrest owned 422 slaves at the time of probate, of whom 219 were listed as male and 203 as female. 117 were listed as boys, girls or children.
He had married Frederica Marina Cecilia, probably a daughter of Colonel Lynch of Jamaica, by whom he had two sons and five daughters. Mrs. Forrest survived her husband many years, and died in 1802. His eldest daughter, Bridget, married the diarist John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington
John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington (18 February 1743 – 8 January 1813), styled for most of his lifetime ''The Hon. John Byng'' (before 1812), was a notable English diarist. His fifteen extant diaries, covering the years 1781–1794, describe ...
.
Notes
References
*
Admiral Arthur FORREST (c1716-1770) Biography, Genealogy and Related Lines of Descent
*Geoffrey M. Ayling, Ian (Malik) Smith, The Forrest Project, Blurb Inc. San Francisco CA USA,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, Arthur
1770 deaths
Royal Navy officers
Royal Navy personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession
Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War
1716 births