Sir Charles Forbes, 1st Baronet

Sir Charles Forbes, 1st Baronet (1774–1849) was a Scottish politician, of

Forbes was one of the earliest to advocate the claims of women to the franchise. In the session of 1831 he asked upon what reasonable grounds they could be excluded from political rights, pointing out that ladies had the power of voting for directors of the East India Company, and maintaining that if the right of voting was grounded on the possession of property, there ought to be no distinction of sex. Forbes was a strong opponent of the Reform Bill of 1831–2. During the debates in the former session he spoke of the measure as "the vile Reform Bill, that hideous monster, the most frightful that ever showed its face in that house". He promised to pursue it to the last with uncompromising hostility, and if it were carried to abandon parliament. He put forward an urgent plea for Malmesbury. The borough, after much angry discussion, was left with one member only. Forbes vainly contested Middlesex against Joseph Hume at the general election of 1832.

Philanthropy in India

He was most distinguished in connection with India. From his long residence in the East, he knew the people intimately, and he spent a large portion of his fortune in their midst. In parliament and in the proprietors' court of the East India Company his advocacy of justice for India was ardent and untiring. One of his last acts was the appropriation of a very large sum of money to procure for the inhabitants of Bengal a plentiful supply of pure water in all seasons. His fame spread from one end of Hindostan to the other. When he left India he was presented by the natives with a magnificent service of plate, and twenty-seven years after his departure from Bombay the sum of £9,000 was subscribed for the erection of a statue to his honour. The work was entrusted to Sir

Forbes was of a bluff but kindly nature, diffident as to his own merits, of a straightforward and manly character. On the death of his uncle in 1821, Forbes succeeded to the entailed estates of the Forbeses of Newe, and was created a baronet by patent in 1823.^[2]

He married Elizabeth Cotgrave (d. 1861) in 1811. Forbes died in 1849. Their eldest son, John, had predeceased his father: the title was inherited by their second son, Charles. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married General, Lord James Hay, second son of the seventh Marquess of Tweeddale.^{[citation needed]}

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Forbes, Charles (1774-1849)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Forbes