John Forbes
John Forbes in Portuguese Army uniform
BornAberdeenshire, Kingdom of Great Britain
DiedRio de Janeiro, Portuguese colony of Brazil
Allegiance Great Britain
Kingdom of Portugal
Years of service1748–1808
RankGeneral
Battles/warsSeven Years' War
War of the Pyrenees

John Forbes, also known in Portuguese as João Forbes (1719[1] or 1733[2]–1808), of Skellater, usually known as Forbes-Skellater, was a Scottish general in the Portuguese service.

Life

Forbes was the only son[2] of George (Jorge)[1][note 1] of Skellater in Aberdeenshire, a branch of the Forbes of Corse.

He entered the army when a boy of fifteen as a volunteer at the siege of Maestricht,[2] and was successful in winning a commission. He was essentially a soldier of fortune,[2] and when Portugal applied to Britain for officers to reorganise her army under the Count of Lippe Buckeburg, he was one of the first to volunteer.[2]

Promoted to lieutenant in 1747, and to captain in 1756.[1] Forbes remained in Portugal after the termination of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763); as a Roman Catholic who had married a Portuguese lady, he had no difficulty in getting employment.[2]

He took part in the defense of Portugal during the failed Franco-Spanish invasions of Portugal in 1762.[2]

In 1763, Count Lippe gave him command of a company of Grenadiers in the Peniche Regiment, a great honour as these companies were then an elite corps.[1] In 1766 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of that regiment and the following year to full colonel of the Almeida Cavalry Regiment. In 1773 he was transferred to the Elvas Regiment. In 1775 he was promoted to brigadier, whilst retaining the colonelcy and command of the Bragança Cavalry Regiment.[1]

In 1778 he was appointed military governor of the province of Beira.[1]

He served for many years as adjutant-general of the Portuguese army, but at last, in 1789, he was asked to resign, the object of some jealousy of the Portuguese officers.[2] In 1793 he was made a knight of the order of Aviz, and promoted to lieutenant general.[1]

When Portugal decided to join the French Revolutionary Wars, Forbes was given command, replacing the Marquis de Minas, his old commander in the 1762 campaigns, who had fallen ill[3] of the 5,000-strong division which, together with a 22-gun brigade of Artillery, was sent as an expeditionary force to assist the Spanish army in the War of the Pyrenees (1793–1795). Setting sail from the estuary of the Tagus towards the end of September 1793, the expedition, accompanied by several high-ranking volunteers, including Admiral Domingos Xavier de Lima, 7th Marquis of Nice; Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland and the Prince de Montmorency, arrived at Roses on 9 November.[4]

On 27–29 November 1807, Forbes accompanied Queen Mary I, the prince regent, and the court when they fled from the forces led by Jean-Andoche Junot which entered Lisbon. On arrival in Brazil, he was appointed military governor of Rio de Janeiro on 2 April 1808,[5] a few days before he died, on 8 April 1808.[2][note 2]

Notes

  1. ↑ H. Morse Stephens, in the biographical entry he wrote for Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), states the father's name was Patrick.
  2. ↑ Pinheiro Chagas states May.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (in Portuguese). Pinheiro Chagas (1887). "O irmão de Tolentino e o general Forbes Skellater". A Illustração Portugueza, semanario revista litteraria e artistica, Tomo 3, p. 4. 14 February 1887. Google Books. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephens, Henry Morse (1889). "Forbes, John (1733-1808)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19. p. 405.
  3. ↑ Almeida, Fortunato de (1926). Historia de Portugal - Livro VIII. University of Coimbra (this and subsequent pages quote details of Gen. Forbes's reports to the Portuguese Government on the expedition to Catalonia). p. 453.
  4. ↑ (in Spanish). Martín Gómez, Justo (2022). La guerra de la convención en Guipúzcoa (1793-1795), p. 301. Sanz y Torres. ISBN 9788418316876, 841831687X. Google Books. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Almanak do Ministerio da Guerra, 1911, p. 16. Ministério da Guerra de Brazil. Google Books. Retrieved 18 September 2023.


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