Thomas Forster

Thomas Forster (1683 – October 1738), of Adderstone Hall, Northumberland, was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1716. He served as a general of the Jacobite army in the 1715 Uprising and subsequently fled to France. Early life Forster was baptized on 29 March 1683, the eldest son of Thomas Forster (1659-1725) of Adderstone, MP for Northumberland from 1705 to 1708. His mother was Frances Forster, daughter of Sir William Forster of Bamburgh Castle. He was educated at Newcastle School, and was admitted at St John's College, Cambridge on 3 July 1700. In 1701, he inherited, with his aunt Dorothy Crew (wife of Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham) the estates of his uncle Ferdinando Forster, of Bamburgh and Blanchland. The estates had incurred substantial debts, and in 1704 the creditors instituted actions in Chancery to force the heirs to sell them. Career Forster was returned as Tory Member of Parliament (MP) for Northumberland at the 1708 British general election. In 1709 he and his aunt, sold the indebted estates to his aunt's husband, Bishop Crewe, and were left with very little of the proceeds. In 1710 he voted against the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell. At the 1710 British general election he was returned again himself for Northumberland in a contest and tried unsuccessfully to return Tory candidates at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Morpeth. He was listed as one of the ‘Tory patriots’ who had opposed the continuation of the war, and one of the ‘worthy patriots’ who had helped to detect the mismanagements of the previous ministry. He supported the efforts of the Earl of Hertford and James Lowther, both Whigs, in carrying forward a bill to regulate trade on the border with Scotland. On 18 June 1713, he voted in favour of the French commerce bill. He was returned again at the 1713 British general election but was inactive in Parliament. He was returned as MP for Northumberland at the 1715 British general election but his activities were diverted into supporting the Jacobite cause. Jacobite rebellion and exile The Forsters were cousins to the Radcliffes. The head of the family Lord Derwentwater, himself a cousin of the Old Pretender, was a leader of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion.