Forbes, SIR WILLIAM

Forbes, SIR WILLIAM, of Pitsligo, an eminent Scottish banker, son of Sir William Forbes, Bart., advocate, was born in Edinburgh, April 5, 1739. In his fifteenth year he entered the bank at Edinburgh of Messrs John Coutts & Co., and in 1761 was admitted a partner; and in 1763 a new company was formed of which Sir William Forbes ultimately became the head. In 1781 he purchased the estate of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, which had been forfeited by Lord Forbes of Pitsligo for taking part in the rebellion of 1745. He published a Life of his friend Beattie, the poet, in 1805; also Memoirs of a Banking House, being the history of his own (1803; ed. by Robert Chambers, 1860). He died November 12, 1806. His bank became in 1830 the Union Bank of Scotland. One of his sons was John Hay Forbes, Lord Medwyn.