General Notes

  ROBERT FORRESTER was born Abt. 1759 in MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, and died 14 January 1827 in WINDSOR NSW.  He married (1) ISOBEL RAMSAY.  She was born Abt. 1762.  He met (2) JANE WILSON in PROBABLY NEVER.    He met (3) MARY FROST Abt. 1793.

Notes for ROBERT FORRESTER:

Robert Forrester was tried at Justice Hall at the Old Bailey in London at the sessions which commenced on Wednesday 30 April 1783 before Mr. Justice Nares and the Second Middlesex Jury.  Robert Forrester and Richard McDale were indicted for
feloniously stealing on 29 April 1783, six pieces of gold coin of the realm called guineas to the value of Six Pounds and Six shillings English Currency being the property of Simon Hughes.  The offence was alleged to have taken place at the
dwelling house of Letitia Coleman a widow.  Both Forrester and McDale were found guilty and senced to be hanged.

ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA AS A CONVICT ON 21/1/1788 ABOARD "SCARBOROUGH". SHIPPED OUT OF PORTSMOUTH.

Robert Forrester arrived at Port Jackson in New South Wales, Australia on 26th January 1788 aboard "Scarborough" of the First Fleet.

This account is a preliminary outline of the life and times of Robert Forrester. The information contained in it has been drawn from two sources. The first is the forty or fifty descendants of Robert Forrester who are themselves engaged in
research into their First Fleet convicts genealogy and history. Many of them have been doing there own research in their own way for a longer period of time than the writer of this account. All have contributed in one way or another to this
story and it is difficult to mention one of them and not others. However it ought to be noted that Mr Geoffery Steer (18 Gumblossom Drive, Westleigh, New South Wales, Australia, 2120. has set himself the task of tracing and recording the basic
genealogical information (ie dates of births and/or baptisms marriages and deaths and/or burials) of every descendant of Robert Forrester. This is a great undertaking which will complement this outline or any other biography or history of
Robert Forrester. All descendants of Robert Forrester are asked to contact Mr Steer and provide him with details of their families who have descended from Robert Forrester.

The second source of information on Robert Forrester has been two professional record agents. Mr Michael Yelland (of Ancestry Research Associates, 9 Home Court, Maple Road, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 4AZ England UK) was commissioned to search for
information on Robert Forrester's birth, trial and goal movements in England and he reported on 28 June 1982 and 4 October 1982. Mrs Joanna Richards (3 Wellington Street, Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia, 2025) was commissioned to search
for information on Robert Forrester generally in New South Wales and on Norfolk Island and to keep a watchong brief on information relating to Robert Forrester for the future. Mrs Richards reported on 1st June 1982, 20th August 1982, 1st
September 1982, 4th September 1982 and 23rd October 1982. Mrs Richards has provided much information about Robert Forrester's early days at Port Jackson and on Norfolk Island.

Mr Yelland's information and Mrs Richard's information has been incorporated into this account.

Origins

The date and place of Robert Forrester's birth is not yet known. At his trial in 1783 Robert Forrester in his defence stated that he was "a stranger in London". Mr Yelland is inclined to believe the statement because so many defendants gave the
same defence. Robert Forrester's entry in the Old Bailey Sessions Roll at the Greater London Record Office staes that he was "late of the parish of St. Giles in the Fields in the County of Middlesex". However Mr Yelland suggests that addresses
given in court proceedings generally were addresses or locations where the crime was committed.

St Matthews Anglican Church Windsor Burial Register records Robert Forrester's age at time of death on 14th February 1827 as sixty nine years which indicates a date of birth of around about 1758.

Mr Yelland searched the registers of St Giles in the Fields but did not find the baptism of a Robert Forrester there around about 1758. The closest is Robert Forrester son of Robert and Mary Forrest baptised on July 8, 1759. Mr Yelland believes
that the big London parishes kept accurate records and that this is most certainly not a case of Forrest being wrongly used for Forrester. However if Robert Forrester was illiterate he might have made the mistake and as a youth (perhaps
separated from his parents) he might have assumed that his surname was Forrester whereas it was really Forrest.

The International Genealogical Index (IGI) records for London the baptism of Robert Forrester son of Robert Forrester in September 1757 at Founders Hall in London. Mr Yelland has advised that Founders Hall was the Scots Church at Lothbury in
the City of London.

It will be difficult to trace Robert Forresters origins further as in both England and New South Wales, Australia Forrester is often mixed with and used instead of Forester, Forster and Foster!

Trial

Robert Forrester was tried at Justice Hall at the Old Bailey in London at the Sessions which commenced Wednesday 30th April 1783 before Justice Nares and the Second Middlesex Jury.

For a full account of the trial see the Old Bailey Sessions Papers 1782-1785 pp 485-487, 523 and 941 and the Old Bailey Sessions Roll April 1783.

Robert Forrester and Richard McDale (sometimes McDeed or M'Deed) were indicted for feloniously stealing on 29th April 1783 six pieces of gold coin of the realm called guineas to the value of Six Pounds and Six Shillings English Currency being
the property of Simon Hughes. The offence was alleged to have taken place at the dwelling house of Letitia Coleman a widow. Both Forrester and McDale were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.

The judgement was recorded at the end of the same Sessions. Both were pardoned at the end of the Sessions which commenced on 10th September 1783. The record reads that the "prisoners who had been capitally convicted at the former sessions were
called to the bar and received his Majesty's gracious pardon on the annexed condition". The "annexed condition" in the case of Robert Forrester and Richard McDale was that of "transportation respites". However transportation to America was
diminishing quite dramatically at about the same time because of the American independence movement and the war which accopanied it. Robert Forrester and Richard McDale were transported to New South Wales, Australia for reasons which are not
readily apparent.

Robert Forrester and Richard McDale were received at Newgate Prison (probably from the cells at the Old bailey) on 5th May 1783 as capital convicts. Mention is made in the Newgate Prison records of their pardon and transportation. On 4th
October 1783 both were delivered "to Duncan Campbell Esq to be transported to Northern America". They must have gone to another prison or to one of the hulks but no record of this has emerged so far.

Valerie Ross in her Matthew Everingham A First Fleeter and his Times (Sydney Library of Australian History 1980) states that Duncan Campbell was "a contractor who had previously been engaged in transportation to the American colonies, bought
two vessels, the Justitia at two hundred and sixty tons and the Censor, an old frigate, from the Admiralty, dismantled them of rigging and moored them in the stream at the Thames between Gallions Reach and Barking Reach at Woolwich" p 20.

Marriage in England

Robert Forrester would have been about twenty five years of age in 1783 if St Matthew's Windsor Burial Register is correct about his age in 1827. He would have been of marriageble age prior to his incarceration. There is however no indication
in either the English or Australian records that he married prior to his transportation to New South Wales, Australia. The IGI has an entry for the marriage of Robert Forrester to Mary Pratt on 22nd May 1780 at St Andrews Enfield but there will
never be any way of determining that this marriage is the marriage of the Robert Forrseter who was transported to New South Wales, Australia.

Voyage to New South Wales, Australia

There are several short readable accounts of the voyage of the First Fleet to New South Wales. A Good one is Chapter 7 of Charles Bateson's The Convict Ships 1787-1868 (Sydney A H & A W Reed 1974) (pp 94-119). Another good one is Victor
Crittendens The Voyage of the First Fleet (Canberra Mulini 1981). A recent good one is Jonathan King The First Fleet (Sydney Macmillian 1982). Valerie Ross has a good chapter in her Matthew Everingham A First Fleet and his Times (pp 23-34).
There are several excellent journals and accounts of the voyage of the First Fleet by people who were part of it. One is The Journal of Philip Gidley King: Lieutenant, R.N. 1787-1790 (Sydney Australian Documents Library 1980).

Residence in New South Wales

Robert Forrester resided at Port Jackson until November 1791. During this time he had several shirmishes with the authorities. On 29th December 1790 or thereabouts he was a member of the watch and was sent to investigate a riotous party at the
residence of William Whiting and to take him into custody. Instead he seems to have joined the party and got drunk himself. He and Whiting and two others appeared before Justices of the Peace (David Collins the Reverend Richard Johnson and
Augustus Alt). Forrester was discharged from the watch into a work gang.

The Register of Marriages of St Philip's Anglican Church Sydney records the marriage of Robert Forster and Mary Frost on 19th October 1791. The Reverend Richard Johnson Chaplain solemnised the matrimony. John Cobley in his Sydney Cove 1791-1792
identifies Robert Forster with Robert Forrester on the basis presumably that no convict named Robert Forster arrived Port Jackson prior to 19th October 1791. It is very likely of course that the variety of pronunciations of Forrester etc
combined with limited abilities to spell and to write accounts for the various uses of Foster, Forster, Forester and Forrester.

This marriage presents not only the problem of proper identification of Robert Forster but also the problem of where the marriage took place. Robert Forrester went to Norfolk Island in October 1791 (see Residence on Norflok Island). Mary Frost
arrived Port Jackson on 28th June 1790 aboard "Neptune" of the second Fleet. She and many other female convicts were transferred aboard "Surprise" bound for Norfolk Island where she arrived on 7th August 1790. She was victualled on Norfolk
Island throughout 1790 and 1791 and wholly ot partly through to 1793 maybe 1795. The Norfolk Island Victually Book from which this information comes also lists a second Mary Frost who was victualled through to March or April 1793 and she too
arrived on Norfolk Island on 7th August 1790. The proper identification of Mary Frost is very complicated and cannot be made on present information nor can the proper identification of the Mary Frost who married Robert Forster on 19th Octoner
1791 nor can it be properly determine where that marriage took place.

Free By Servitude

Robert Forrester's crime took place in 1783 and he received a conditional pardon of his death sentence and a sentence of transportation for seven years. His sentence of transpotation would have expired around 1790 but his misdemeanours might
have carried it on until late 1791. In any case Robert Forrester received settler status on Norflok Island. Receiving settler status was the way that a convict's sentence had expired at least on Norfolk Island.

Residence on Norfolk Island

Robert Forrester sailed for Norfolk Island on 26th Octoner 1791 aboard "Atlantis". In the Norfolk Island Victually Book 1792-6 in the Archives Office of New South Wales, Robert Forrester is stated to have arrived on Norfolk Island aboard
"Atlantic" on 4th November 1791 and to have settled on Norfolk Island on 6th December 1791 and to have departed from Norfolk Island on 9th March 1793 aboard "Kitty".

Robert Forrester is listed in Historical Records of Australia in a Return of Lands Granted in His Majesty's Territory of New South Wales and dated 5th November 1791. He is described in the return as a convict whose sentence had expired and he
is said to have been married. His grant was of ten acres of land.

"Atlantic" arrived Port Jackson on 20th August 1791. She was a 460 ton ship under the command of Archibald Armstrong with James Thomson a ships Surgeon. "Atlantic" sailed from Plymouth in company with "Salamander" and "William and Ann" on 27th
March 1791 with Lieutenant Richard Bowen as naval agent in charge. "Atlantic" embarked 220 male convicts of whom 18 died on the voyage. She disembarked 220 male convicts at Port Jackson on 20th August 1791. "Atlantic" voyage is described
together with other ships of the Third Fleet in Charles Bateson's The Convict Ships 1787-1868.

There is an account of the arrival of "Atlantic" and "Queen" off Norfolk Island in November 1791 in The Journal and Letters of Lt. Ralph Clark 1787-1792. Clark states that "there is also 29 Discharged Marines come in this ship to Settle on this
Island" (p121). Clark does not mention discharged convicts.

It is likely that towards the end of 1791 there are some official recognition of the fact that Robert Forresters term of transportation would expire by the end of that year. Forrester might of course have been living with Mary Frost prior to
their marriage (she had arrived on 28th June 1790 aboard "Neptune") and married her on 19th October 1791. They left Port Jackson on 26th October 1791 aboard "Atlantic" and arrived off Norfolk Island on 2nd November 1791. Forrester received his
land grant on Norfolk Island on 5th November 1791 and became a settler there on 6th December 1791.

Robert Forresters name appears in several documents held by the Archives Office of New South Wales. The most notable of these documents is the Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-6. Robert Forresters entry includes the following information.

Category Settlers and Free People

No 93

Date of Arrival 4th November 1791 "Atlantic"

Qualities Nil

Departed 9th March 1793 "Kitty" Port Jackson

Victualled 1792 350 days All species 7 days Meat only

1793 Nil 7 days Meat only

(no entries for 1794 and 1795)

Time when Settled 6th December 1791

A list of persons settled on Norfolk Island but who had not received their land grants shows Robert Forrester as a convict settler who settled there on 6th December 1791 and who lived at Mount Pitt Path Queensboro' Town and had twelve acres of
land.

These are records of some small commercial transactions by Robert Forrester on Norfolk Island. he sold grain between 21st December 1792 and 30th January 1793 (eleven bushels of maize) and was paid in Spanish dollars (at the rate of 5/- Sterling
for every Spanish Dollar). Between 27th December 1792 and 31st January 1793 he sold an additional 80 1/2 bushels for the same price. he signed two bills for this grain with his mark.

Robert Forrester appears to have liked Norfolk Island not at all nor Mary his wife as it seems almost certain that he left them both on 9th March 1793 aboard "Kitty" and returned to Port Jackson where the next phase of his life in the antipodes
began to unfold.

Residence In New South Wales

Robert Forrester received a grant of land on 3rd December 1794 at the Hawkesbury. It consisted of thirty acres with a river frontage. It was not the only grant Robert Forrester received. he was to receive an additional seventy acres on 16th
July 1804 at Mulgrave Place from Governor Philip Gidley King.

Robert Forrester commenced a de facto relationship with Isabella (or Bella) Ramsay soon after he arrived back at Port Jackson which was to last for more than a decade.

There is abundant evidence that Robert Forrester and Isabella Ramsay lived together and had children. The Register of Baptisms of St John's Anglican Church at Parramatta conatins the following entries

Isabella Ramsay appears in the 1806 Muster in New South Wales as "Housekeeper to R Forster". The concept of "housekeeper" in the early days of the Colony of New South Wales nearly always carried the connotation of a de facto relationship.

More About ROBERT FORRESTER:

Burial: 15 January 1827, ST matthews Windsor Cemetery NSW Australia

Occupation: 1800, farmer

Record Change: 14 November 1998

Residence: 1814, NSW MUSTER LIVING WITH ROBERT FORRESTER

Notes for ISOBEL RAMSAY:

Isabella Ramsay was convicted on 6th August 1790 in Carlisle in the County of Cumberland in England and was sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales. She arrived in Port Jackson on 9th July 1791 aboard "Mary Ann" of the Third
Fleet. The Register of Marriages of St John's Anglican Church at Parramatta contains the record of the marriage of James Manning and Issabella (sic) Ramsey (sic) on 10th June 1792. The Reverend Richard Johnson solemnised the marriage and the
entry is endorsed that he acted by "Special Permission". Jame Manning was a First Fleet marine who arrived in New South Wales which cannot properly be identified on present information.

NB. Many thanks to Ros Taylor who provided me with the above information.