The following is an endeavour to tell, as
briefly as is reasonable, the fundamental story of the ancient
Northumbrian Forster family centred on Bamburgh and Adderstone, from
which the largest proportion of English Border Forsters are originally
sprung. However, I have gaining much information through discussions
with enlightened Border historians and others overseas, by studying
their works.
Because
of this, I now believe that the Northumbrian Forsters are, together with
their direct kin, the Scottish Forresters, directly descended from
Richard Forester brother-in-law of William, Duke of Normandy –
later “William The Conqueror”
- who became King of England, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It
was then that William I granted extensive lands in both
Northumbria and Scotland to his brother-in-law, Sir Richard
“Forestarius”
Forester and his posterity, for military services rendered and their
ties of kinship. Richard and his family then took up their abode in
southern Scotland. It was through this
man and the anglicisation of his name into “Forester” that the
Forster family and the Forrester clan both had their beginnings.
The
greatest clue lies in the fact that the Forresters (or Forsters) of
Torwood near
Stirling bore the same armorial
insignia as that of the Northumbrian Forsters: i.e. three black hunting
horns on a silver background. This insignia first appears depicted in
the time of William Forster, Esquire who appeared in the Muster Roll of
the Peel of Linlithgow in1311 as a knight. He was the progenitor of
the Lords Forrester. Their family seat was at Torwood
Castle, from which they supervised and guarded the Royal Forest of Tor Wood.
The first Lord Forrester of Corstorphine was Sir Adam Foster*,
who inherited the castle and property there in 1635.
(*A memorial stone
to Sir Adam’s grandfather in the Church of the Holy Rude in
Stirling, bears the following
inscription: “Here Lyis Ane
Honorabil Mane callit Alexander
Foster,
Laerd of Garden QVHA deit the 13 Ianvare 1598”.
On the same tablet, he was also named as
“Sir Alexander
Forester,
Provost of Stirling”. This
demonstrates how the name has been corrupted many times, even when
applied to one single bearer of it!) It took a great deal of
laborious detective work for me to track down the course of this family
line. This trail took me back, via the Royal forests surrounding
Stirling and Garden to their original point of origin in the southern part of
Scotland. Eventually, it led
me to Corstorphine in Edinburgh and to Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was
then Scottish, as was all Northumbria, Westmorland and Cumbria.
Of course, every clan of
respectable size had its Forester, an official who would have been the
Chief’s right-hand man in knowing the precise boundaries of clan lands –
and in repelling intruders therefrom. However, I was particularly
interested in this family
because their familial ilk had spread across the
Lowlands to the Border Country - into towns and hamlets like Galasheils,
Jedburgh, Hawick, Langholme and Canonbie. One of them even became the
Lord Mayor of Edinburgh!
From
these places it was but a mere cockstride across the Border into
Northumbria, where the English Border
kinsmen had settled and spread. The historian I found most reliable and
accurate in describing the minutiae of
this particular history was none other
than Sir Walter Scott himself! That many of the Forsters on
both sides of the Debatable
Lands lived in that same historic timeframe was at first rather
puzzling. Then I discovered this earlier drift southward, dating from
before the start of the break-up, by James I, of the Clan Donald’s
almost regally powerful but oppressive Lordship of the Isles in the late
1300s. If one then adds a long and loyal association between
Northumbrian Forsters and the Stewart kings of
Scotland, one finds a strong
reason for a familial connection between the Forsters on both sides of
the Border. This Scottish relationship between the Forsters is
strengthened by the fact that the bulk of Northumbria and part of
Cumbria north of Hadrian’s Wall – which begins
near Carlisle and ends at Newcastle - was once part of Scotland.
Now a quick look at the other side of the coin. Border history mentions
Sir Adam Forestar,
a knight who appeared in the Subsidy Rolls of Northumbria in
1296. He was there before Gilbert de Buckton** entered the
scene. The name ‘Adam Forestar’ (or “Forester” - as in
the Linlithgow family) supports the case for the Northumbrian and
Scottish Forester clan being of the same extraction after all. I say
“clan” advisedly, because such warring factions had existed on both
sides of the Border since the time of the Picts, whom the Romans forced
back toward the Firth of Forth in the days of Hadrian.
(** This man Gilbert Foster, who was
the Head Forester to the Bishop of Durham and died in 1342, has often
been claimed as the progenitor of the Forsters of Northumbria.
Quite wrongly, in my humble
opinion. GF.)
At that location in ancient
Britain, I would sincerely doubt if there existed any clear distinction
between what are today the English and the Scots. In that ancient time
the Scots (or Gaels) still occupied most of Ireland and the English, as
such, simply did not yet exist. There were only
“Brythons”, the “Britons”
(or “Brigantes” as
the Romans called them). The “Picti” may even have actually been
the ancient Britons! They were certainly heavily tattooed in blue dye -
or woad - with all kinds of depictions, hence the Romans naming them “Picti”
– or “illustrated men”!
Then came the invading Gaels
from Northern Ireland across the narrow North Channel into the Mull of
Kintyre. Here they set up a kingdom of Scots, which they named
“Dal Riada”. By the time the Romans left Britain, no less than five
races inhabited Scotland. The Picts, who occupied most of what is
today Highland Scotland; the Scots who occupied most of Argyll;
the Britons forced up by the Romans out of Northern England into
Strathclyde; the “Attacotti”
(or Welsh Britons) who took up Galloway. There were also the
Angles or Saxons who had recently invaded the southeast of
Scotland. (This is without mentioning the Vikings!)
The Scots of today are a visibly a racially mingled nation, and this can
be seen in the many differing physical characteristics of the ancient
races mentioned above that still persist among modern Scots. Thus,
(disregarding the accent, of course) we see why it is
difficult to make any physically distinction between Scots and
English.
However, to conclude this argument with myself, I can only point to the
details as history has recorded them. If the Northumbrian Forsters
are in fact English,
why were they so highly favoured by the Scottish Stuart monarchs? Also
one cannot help but wonder why they were so supportive of the Scots as
to aid them in their incursions into England and to help them fight the
English in such abysmal affrays as the 1715 Uprising and Culloden? It is
a very hard nut to crack, but there must be some sound and logical
reason for it all, such as that which I’ve posited above.
But, as the old adage says: “The
Blood will out!” and now I personally believe it to be
originally
Flemish! I find that we are not done yet, since
the ancient family name of the Forresters, Foresters, Forsters, etc.
does indeed go back in history to the first known of all the
Forresters. The earliest ever mention that I have been able to
unearth of that name dates far back to the seventh century AD! A
nobleman named Lyderici,
the first man to bear the name “Buc”,
was appointed as the first “Royal
Forester” of the country of Flanders by
Dagobert of Merovingia, King
of Frankish Germany and Flanders,
in the year 621. With this
appointment went the Governorship of all Flanders with his own castle.
Lyderic
was the only son of
Saluart, Prince of
Dijon and of Madame
Engarde, daughter of
Girard
(or Gerald), Lord of
Rouessilon. Along with his new appointment as Royal Forester of
Flanders, Lyderic was granted what was probably one of the first
three coats of arms ever granted. These Buc arms were blazoned as
follows: “Gyronny or et azure (gold
and blue) of ten pieces, in the middle of an escutcheon gules”.
By Richilda, his wife, he
had 15 children and he was the first of a dynasty of Counts who governed
Flanders. Antoine,
his second son, was First Grand Forester.
Bouchard his third son
was named Forester, Lord of Harlebeck.
Estorede, son of the last
was named Forester, Prince of Lorraine and Harlebeck. He
died 792 AD. Lyderici II,
son of last was named Forester, and titled Count of Flanders
and Harlebeck. He died 836 AD.
Enguerrand, son of
Lyderic II, named Forester and titled Count of Flanders and
Harlebeck. He built
many towns and castles, and died in 852 AD. In Harlebeck. The last of
this particular dynasty was
Odoacer, son of the last named. He too was named
Forester, and titled Count of Flanders and Harlebec, and
built the Castle of Andenaerde, the walls of Ghent and rebuilt many
towns. He died in 864 AD at Harlebec.
On his death, the title of Forester and Count of Flanders then
passed to Baldwin I, “Bras
de Fer”(Arms of Iron),
and his descendants who then held it for several centuries. You will
find these latter descendants and many, many more continued a dozen
pages further into this book. It is a family history that will carry us
along from around 620 AD to 1776 AD when the
Bamburgh Forster dynasty
finally petered out – an impressive total of 1155 years and covering
some 40 generations of Forresters, Foresters, Forsters and Fosters ever
since that royal appointment was first created by King Dagobert of
Merovingia! An impressive record by any standards!
However, let’s not forget that the
Forresters, Foresters,
Forsters, and
Fosters – not to mention the
Forstars,
Forrests and
Forests also –
are still
very much around, even if
just as ordinary citizens nowadays - and are running well into the many
thousands now, in almost every imaginable corner of the globe! So that
means our basic family group has been around for a total of 1480 years!
WOW!
I am greatly indebted to and deeply
acknowledge all those earnest researchers, both on and off the Internet,
whose noble efforts have helped me to concentrate so much of this
history into one large document. I can only add that it is as honest as
I can make it from the information available, and I only hope that many
will find the material it contains entertaining, interesting and of use
in aiding their own inquiries!
Gearald Forster. 2003
