Clan Forbes

Origin of Clan Forbes

Clan Forbes is one of the great northeast Scottish clans, holding a dominant position in Aberdeenshire and Strathdon for centuries. The name derives from the place Forbes in Aberdeenshire, which in turn comes from the Gaelic word forba, meaning a field or a district of land. The clan's origins are typically traced to one Ochonacher, who is said to have received lands called Forbes in the twelfth century as a reward for killing a great bear that had terrorised the district — a legendary founding story that, whatever its historical basis, establishes the clan's deep roots in Aberdeenshire.

The Forbes family were among the most powerful of the northeast Scottish nobility, holding the title Lord Forbes — one of the oldest lordships in the Scottish peerage — and contending with the rival Gordon clan for dominance of the region. The Forbes-Gordon rivalry is one of the defining conflicts of Aberdeenshire's history, extending across two centuries and costing both families dearly in blood and treasure.

Forbes Territory — Strathdon and Aberdeenshire

The heartland of Clan Forbes is the Don valley in Aberdeenshire — Strathdon, the stretch of the River Don running west from Aberdeen through a landscape of fertile farmland, ancient castles, and upland heather moor. Castle Forbes, the seat of Lord Forbes at Alford on the Don, sits in the middle of this country. The Forbes territory extended across much of the central Don valley and into the upland parishes to the north and west.

The landscape of Strathdon retains visible traces of the clan's presence: castle ruins, estate policies, and parish churches where Forbes names fill the memorial stones. The Grampian mountain backdrop, the rich agricultural land of the valley floor, and the proximity to the North Sea coast give the Forbes country a character quite different from the Highland landscapes further west — a northeast Scotland that is simultaneously agricultural, seafaring, and deeply traditional.

Clan Forbes Through History

The Forbes-Gordon Feud

The prolonged rivalry between Forbes and Gordon is one of the great clan conflicts of the northeast. The Gordons, rising to prominence as Earls of Huntly from the late fourteenth century, represented the Catholic and ultimately Jacobite tendency in northeast Scotland. The Forbes, by contrast, were typically associated with Protestant and anti-Gordon interests. The feud erupted into direct violence repeatedly from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, with battles fought, castles besieged, and individuals murdered in a cycle of reprisal that drew in the wider Aberdeenshire nobility.

Reformation alignment

The Forbes clan's Protestant alignment became clear during the Reformation of 1560 and the religious conflicts that followed. While the Gordons maintained Catholic sympathies under their powerful Earls of Huntly, the Forbes supported the reforming cause. This alignment had political consequences: during Mary Queen of Scots' reign, the Forbes were among the northeastern families who resisted her Catholic supporters, and the Battle of Corrichie in 1562 — in which the Earl of Huntly was defeated and died on the field — represented a temporary Forbes-aligned victory.

Later history

The Forbes clan maintained their territorial power in Aberdeenshire through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though the great clan conflicts gradually gave way to a world of improving agriculture and estate management. Unlike many Highland clans, the Forbes were not systematically involved in the Jacobite risings, though individual Forbes men served on both sides. The clan's political character in the eighteenth century was broadly Whig and Presbyterian — aligned with the Hanoverian settlement and Scottish Enlightenment rather than Jacobite sentiment.

Forbes in the Diaspora

The Forbes name spread widely through the Scottish diaspora, particularly through the northeast Scottish communities that provided significant emigrant populations to the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. Aberdeen was one of Scotland's major emigrant ports, and Aberdeenshire families — Forbes among them — appear consistently in the records of Scottish settlement in North America from the eighteenth century.

In the United States, Forbes families are found throughout the areas of Scottish settlement, from the Carolinas to New England to the frontier regions. The name has also become well-known in American business and media, partly through the Forbes publishing family whose ancestors came from Aberdeenshire. In Canada, Forbes families settled particularly in Nova Scotia and Ontario. In Australia and New Zealand, the name is widespread in the Scottish-descended communities of both countries.

Researching Forbes Ancestry

ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople.gov.uk) — Aberdeenshire parish records are well represented. Strathdon, Alford, Keig, and the surrounding parishes hold the core Forbes genealogical documentation from the sixteenth century onwards.

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives — holds estate records, local authority records, and documentation relevant to Forbes research in the northeast. Forbes estate papers are significant for understanding the family's territorial activities.

Gordon Castle and Haddo House (National Trust for Scotland) — as the seats of the rival Gordons, these properties hold records that contextualise Forbes history. The Haddo Papers at the National Records of Scotland include material on northeast Scotland relevant to Forbes research.