John Forbes

John Forbes (1733–1808) of Scotland, often known as Forbes-Skellater, became a general in the Portuguese army. He accompanied the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil in 1808, dying shortly thereafter. He was the second son of George Forbes of Skellater in Aberdeenshire who fought for the Jacobites during the rising of 1745-46, and escaped across the Channel after they were soundly defeated at the Battle of Culloden, joining the Jacobite forces in France.

Forbes entered military service at the age of fifteen as a volunteer on the French side at the Siege of Maastrict of 1748, probably together with his father, and was successful in winning a commission as a lieutenant. In 1754 he was briefly arrested in Edinburgh but was released after assuring the authorities that he was only in Scotland for personal reasons.

Nothing is then known about him until 1763 when he was a captain in the French Royal Scots (Royal Écossais), a regiment of Scottish Jacobite exiles in French Service, famous for fighting in the 1745 Jacobite Rising in Scotland. A month later he challenged the English radical politician, John Wilkes, to a duel in Paris, but Wilkes wisely left the country.

At the request of the Marquis of Pombal, the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe led the allied troops in Portugal against the Spanish invasion of 1762-63. Successful in this endeavour, Pombal requested Lippe to stay on for a year after the peace agreement in 1763, to strengthen the Portuguese army, particularly as the British forces were returning home. When Lippe made it known that he needed officers to reorganise the army, Forbes was one of the first to volunteer.

He was given command of a company of Grenadiers in the Peniche Regiment. 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 and in 1775 he was promoted to brigadier. In 1778 he was appointed military governor of the province of Beira.

The family legend is that he married a Portuguese princess, King José I being forced to allow the marriage because his daughter was literally dying for love of Forbes. It is true that, from 1764, the Infanta Dorotea was described as being hysterical, accompanied by an almost total lack of appetite which had reduced her to a state of extreme weakness, leading to her death in 1771, but this was not because of Forbes.

He did, however, marry Anna Joaquina d'Almeida, possibly a Lady-in-Waiting in the palace and possibly a relative of Pombal. Her status was such that Forbes was forced to appeal to the Scottish authorities to prove his noble lineage before the wedding was permitted. The marriage may have contributed to his meteoric rise in rank. The couple had three daughters.

He served for many years as adjutant-general of the Portuguese army, being asked to resign in 1789 due to the jealousy of the Portuguese officers. In 1793 he was made a knight of the Military Order of Aviz and promoted to lieutenant general. During his career he was given several other honours.

When Portugal decided to join the French Revolutionary Wars, Forbes was recalled from retirement and given command of the 5,000-strong division which, together with a 22-gun brigade of artillery, was sent to assist the Spaniards in the War of the Pyrenees (1793–1795).

At the end of November 1807, he accompanied Dona Maria I, the prince regent and the Royal Court when they fled for Brazil before Junot and the French forces could enter Lisbon. On arrival he was appointed military governor of Rio de Janeiro on 2 April 1808, but he died a few days later.

Sources: A Soldier of Fortune by James Neil, and Wikipedia