FORBES, John (c.1673-1734), of Culloden, Inverness.

John Forbes was descended from an Inverness burgess Presbyterian family who, though they had represented Inverness, Inverness-shire, and Nairnshire since 1625, were regarded as parvenus by the local aristocracy. Lord Lovat called them ‘the upstart offspring of a servant of Strehines and a burgher of Inverness, that no man in his senses can call a family, no more than a mushroom of one night’s growth can be called an old oak tree of five hundred years’ standing’.2Sir W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, ii. 327-8. Returned in 1713 as a Whig for Nairnshire, which he had represented in the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland, he transferred to Inverness-shire in 1715, when he obtained a place of £500 a year. With his brother, Duncan, he took an active part on the government side in the Fifteen rebellion, deprecating the harsh treatment of the rebels, especially in the matter of forfeitures.3Culloden Pprs. 33. Attached like his brother to the Duke of Argyll, he voted against the Government on the motion of 4 June 1717 against Argyll’s military rival, Lord Cadogan, attending the dinner given by Argyll to his followers four days later.4More Culloden Pprs. ii. 175. Though turned out of his place, he voted with the Government in 1719, when Argyll returned to office. Defeated for the county in 1722, he was once more returned for Nairnshire, but never again secured a seat, though he stood for Inverness-shire in 1734, when he was a dying man. He died December 1734.