Robert Forrester's Origins

Generally speaking, Forrester is a northern English/Scottish lowlands surname, but Robert was arrested in London, and proclaimed himself as a stranger in London, providing a flimsy basis for determining his birthplace.

Despite extensive consideration of the three traditional genealogical points of reference (place of birth, date of birth and marital status), Robert’s origins remained unclear when 'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter' was published in January 2009. Various options were summarised in Appendix 1 of that book and are re-published in this post to 'preserve' the lines of enquiry, although they are now rejected as possibilities.

Working back from his stated age of sixty nine at the time of his death in February 1827, this being a notoriously unreliable genealogical indicator, he was born between 15 February 1757 and 14 February 1758. If his recorded age of twenty four years when he was incarcerated in the hulks on the Thames is reliable, his date of birth was around 1758 or 1759.

Robert Forrester's Headstone, Windsor, NSW

Back in 2008, of the thirty or so specific baptism entries in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) for the years 1757, 1758 and 1759, only three contained the correct spelling of this surname, and many of the other twenty seven were the sons of fathers with given names like Jonathan, Ridgway, James and Francis, names not chosen by Robert for any of his own sons.

A selective analysis of these baptismal records follows, and one marriage for a Robert Forrester with the correct spelling has been reviewed. Others may disagree with the conclusions drawn, and may care to research every single option.

When he came into contact with the law, Robert was living in the major parish of St Giles in the Fields in London, and although he claimed at his trial to be a stranger there, this could have been untrue. If so, finding his baptism in London would be a long, slow process. Many of the parish records for London have not yet been added to computerised indices, so many possibilities for the birth of a Robert Forrester in London may be hidden in the extensive microfilmed records at the London Metropolitan Archives or the City of Westminster Archives Centre.

Option 1

The first correctly-spelled Robert Forrester baptism which has been indexed was recorded at Founders Hall. Lothbury. Scots Church London in September 1757.[i] Some descendants claim him as the First Fleeter, but this researcher has studied the parish records and does not agree with that conclusion. That particular child was the second of six children born to a tallow chandler named Robert Forrester and baptised at the family home, York Buildings, Buckingham St, Strand, no mother’s name being given. The Strand was very close to St Giles in the Fields, so the geographic link is strong. The tallow chandler must have been a man of some means, as all his children received private baptisms at home. The other sibling names in that particular family were Stephen, Joseph, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Susanna.

Although the general location and spelling of the surname is correct, economic circumstances and naming patterns suggest that the family concerned is almost certainly NOT relevant to Robert Forrester of the First Fleet. Unless the tallow chandler had fallen on hard times or died, why would Robert Forrester live in a doss house when his own family lived close by in relative comfort? Furthermore, the First Fleeter did not choose Stephen, Joseph, Rebecca or Susanna as names for any of his later children, although he did utilise the popular girl’s name of Elizabeth. For those who disagree with the author, further examination of the affairs of the tallow chandler might yield further insights.

Option 2

A second Robert Forrester with the correct surname was baptised a long distance from London, in Newcastle on Tyne on 5 March 1759. His parents were Matthew and Mary. His background needed further analysis, using original parish records, but the name Matthew aroused suspicions and none of his daughters was named Mary.

Option 3

An interesting third option was the Robert Forrester baptism on 10 April 1757 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts.[ii] Many families of Scottish origin had moved to America by this date. At that time Marblehead was an important fishing and trading port not far from Boston, where the famous ‘Boston Tea Party’ of 1773 symbolized the start of demands for independence from Britain. Proposing that Robert might have been an American-born ‘refugee’ in London in 1783 is not a far-fetched notion, as large numbers of displaced American loyalists moved northwards to Canada or across the Atlantic to Britain after America’s War of Independence resulted in defeat for the British and their supporters.

This child’s baptism record gives the parent names as John Forrester of Nerne (the seaport Nairn?), Great Britain (Scotland) and his wife Abigail née Oakes, who were married in Marblehead on 3 January 1750.[iii] His other siblings were John, Samuel and Francis. John, the eldest boy, was married in Marblehead in 1775 but soon died (fighting in the war?), as his widow Eleanor remarried in 1779.[iv] Of these names, only John turns up in the family of the First Fleeter Robert Forrester.

Family naming patterns were not promising, but further investigations seemed necessary. The 17 volume publication ‘Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War’, on CD, did not contain any mention of any Robert Forresters, or any variations of that surname. Assistance was sought from the Reference Librarian at Lynn Public Library, Massachusetts.[v] She searched through the library’s information concerning the revolutionary war, viz: 'Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783' by Vermont; 'British Americans: The Loyalist Exiles in England 1774-1789' by Norton; 'Mary Beth Encyclopedia of the American Revolution' by McKay; 'Loyalists in the American Revolution' by Van Tyne; and 'Claude Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution' by Lossing, Vols I & II. Again, there was no reference to anyone with a name like Robert Forrester.

Option 4

Regarding his marital status, evidence given at his trial in April 1783 implies that young Robert was unmarried, since he shared a room in a lodging house with other men. If he was married, a wide range of possible marriages exist. Only one has been followed up: the marriage of Robert Forrester to Mary Pratt after Banns on 22 May 1780 at St Andrew, Enfield, north of the City of London.[vi] The groom was a bachelor of the parish, the bride a spinster of the parish. The groom made his mark and the bride signed, in the presence of the Vicar Richard Newbon and witnesses Thos Brewer and John Bradshaw, who both signed. Several other weddings at this church during the 1770s involved Pratt family members, but there were no other Forrester weddings. The groom must have been a temporary resident of the parish.

If the Robert Forrester who married Mary Pratt then moved to the parish of St Giles in the Fields, this was not evidenced in parish registers. There were no baptisms in the latter parish from May 1780 to February 1784 for any children of a man named Robert Forrester. The only Forrester baptism in the parish during the period March 1777 to February 1784 was for Christopher Forrester on 17 August 1783, a son of Christopher and Elizabeth Forrester, whose possible connection to Robert Forrester has not been examined.

Turning to baptisms of children with surnames similar to Forrester, the starting point must be St Giles in the Fields. This being a major London parish, the parish clerks here would have been very well educated and aware of spelling for names. The relevant parish records have been checked, but the Robert baptised there on 22 October 1758 was a son of John and Elizabeth Fewster, and the Robert christened there on 8 June 1759 was a son of Robert and Mary Forrest.[vii] Robert’s name was spelt as either Forrester or Forester in court, and it is presumed that he knew how to say his own name correctly, even if he was unable to write it, so the Fewster and Forrest baptisms at St Giles in the Fields are unlikely to have been relevant.

Although Robert was associated with a man from Ireland when arrested, indexed baptism and marriage entries provide no particular links for Robert back to Ireland.

Option 5

Given his later rapid alliance with a woman from Cumberland, Robert Forrester of the First Fleet could have been the Robert Forster christened in November 1757 at Kirkandrews Upon Esk, north east of Carlisle in Cumberland, as a son of Arthur Forster.[viii] A large group of Forresters/Forsters lived in this parish, including men named John, Henry, William, Robert and George, all being names later used in the First Fleeter’s family. However, during a time when family naming traditions were much stronger than now, none of Robert’s later sons were given the name of Arthur, perhaps casting doubt on this as Robert’s family of origin. For similar reasons, other children from this county were considered unlikely.

However, as the Forrester book went to print in 2009, the author concluded that 'these parish records now provide the best hope of ‘finding’ Robert, and detailed research by others, connecting these Cumberland Forrester/Forster family members, may yield good results'.

Note: Please Discard All of the Above Options 

The further research in Cumberland, recommended in 2009, was taken further during November 2017, and written up as one of my earlier blog posts.

Kirkandrews upon Esk, November 2017

BUT, due to further research during 2018, the theory that Robert came from Cumberland has now been discarded and it's unlikely he was baptised at Kirkandrews upon Esk in 1757. Indeed, it became clear during 2018 that none of the above five options apply to the First Fleeter named Robert Forrester.

Thanks to the analysis work conducted throughout 2018 by my fifth cousin Stuart Hamilton, another Forrester descendant, DNA testing has short-circuited the guessing game about Robert's family of origin. DNA testing has yielded the surprising result that Robert was most likely the Scottish-born son of an unmarried Forrester woman and a man named John McGaw. Robert adopted his mother's surname and appears (at this stage) to have been unbaptised. Further details will be published in the Second Edition of 'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter', due to be published in 2019.

The new book won't include the genealogical details published in Appendix 1 of the old book, to save space. As explained at the start, those details are retained here, in this blog post. This change in content will leave room to include all the new perspectives on the lives of Robert Forrester and Isabella Ramsay, collected over the past ten years. See my website for basic details and updates. Please email me if you'd like to join the waiting list for the Second Edition of this book.

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[i] PRs, Founders Hall Lothbury & Scots Church London Wall, Film MS 4962, Guildhall Library, London

[ii] From website Vital Records of Marblehead, MA, http://www.ma-vitalrecords.org/EssexCounty/Marblehead/BirthsEtoG.html#F

[iii] From website Vital Records of Marblehead, MA, http://www.ma-vitalrecords.org/EssexCounty/Marblehead/MarriagesDtoG.html

[iv] Ibid

[v] Lisa Kulyk-Bourque, Reference Librarian, Lynn Public Library, www.refquest@noblenet.org

[vi] PRs, St Andrew Enfield, Middlesex, England, LDS Film 585399

[vii] PRs, St Giles in the Fields, London Metropolitan Archives

[viii] IGI, on Website www.familysearch.com