Forster, John
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Biographical note
John Forster (1812-1876) was one of England's more influential writers and editors. He was born April 2, 1812 in Newcastle, England. At the age of 15, in June 1827, he wrote a singularly clever and elaborate paper entitled A Few Thoughts in Vindication of the Stage. Entering University College in London in 1828 as a law student, Forster became friends with such fellow students as James Emerson Tennent and James Whiteside. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, but seldom practiced law thereafter.
Forster was an editor and a contributor to many magazines and newspapers including The Examiner, Foreign Quarterly Review, Daily News, and the Edinburgh Review. In 1836, the first of his five volumes of Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth was published as part of Lardner's Cyclopaedia. This set included a biography of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford which would cause a controversy concerning authorship after Forster's death. He also published biographies of such notables as Oliver Goldsmith (1854), Landor (1869), and the first volume of a biography of Jonathan Swift (1876). Perhaps his most famous biography, however, was that of his friend Charles Dickens which appeared in three volumes in 1872, 1873, and 1874.
First married to L. E. Landon, a poetess, he became estranged from his wife and on September 12, 1856, married Eliza Ann (Crosbie) Colburn. Eliza was the daughter of Captain Robert Crosbie, R.N., and widow of Henry Colburn, a well-known publisher. There were no children as the result of either marriage.
John Forster died on February 2, 1876. He had been working on the first volume of Life of Jonathan Swift at the time.
From the guide to the John Forster Papers, 1828-1894, (The Huntington Library)
Epithet: of St. Helens, county Lancashire
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000d4
Epithet: attorney, of Lincoln's Inn
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000c6
Epithet: Archdeacon of London
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000c5
Epithet: son-in-law of Sir T Cook
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000410.0x000332
Epithet: Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000ca
Epithet: Warden of the Middle Marches
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x000108
Epithet: biographer
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000208.0x00018f
Epithet: alias Forrester; of Stonegarthside
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000c4
Epithet: of Add MS 34624
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000d1
Epithet: Minister of the Savoy Chapel
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000cd
Epithet: of the Temple
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000d5
Epithet: junior, administrator of J Ley, late Warden of Tonge College
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000cc
Epithet: Warden of the Marches al Foster
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000295.0x0003a4
Epithet: of Add MS 31910
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000d0
Epithet: of Add MS 29189
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000cf
Epithet: barrister and author
British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001345.0x0000c7
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Subjects:
Occupations:
Places:
- Siena, Italy (as recorded)
- Genoa, Italy (as recorded)
- Lynsted, Kent (as recorded)
- Eltham, Kent (as recorded)
- Romford, Essex (as recorded)
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (as recorded)
- Alverstoke, Southampton (as recorded)
- Northumberland, England (as recorded)
- Greece, Europe (as recorded)
- Wigtown Burghs, Wigtownshire (as recorded)
- London, England (as recorded)
- Cocklaw, Teviotdale (as recorded)
- Chester, Cheshire (as recorded)
- Birmingham, Warwickshire (as recorded)
- Italy, Europe (as recorded)
- Norwich, Norfolk (as recorded)
- Leith, Edinburgh (as recorded)
- Linlithgow, Linlithgow (as recorded)
- Portersfee, Essex (as recorded)
- Scotland, United Kingdom (as recorded)
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (as recorded)
- Barbary, North Africa (as recorded)
- St Albans, Hertfordshire (as recorded)
- Eyemouth Cantle, Berwickshire (as recorded)
- Cockermouth, Cumberland (as recorded)
- Sudan, Africa (as recorded)
- Calais, France (as recorded)
- Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire (as recorded)
- Bristol, Gloucestershire (as recorded)
- Lambeth, Surrey (as recorded)
- Shetland Islands, Scotland (as recorded)
- India, Asia (as recorded)
- High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire (as recorded)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
- Strathbogy, Aberdeenshire (as recorded)
- Mar, Aberdeenshire (as recorded)
- Orkney Islands, Scotland (as recorded)
- Old Romney, Kent (as recorded)
- Cork, Ireland (as recorded)
- Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Rushbury, Shropshire (as recorded)
- Teviotdale, Roxburghshire (as recorded)
- Kars, Turkey (as recorded)
- Dingwall, county Ross (as recorded)
- Lubeck, Germany (as recorded)
- Spain, Europe (as recorded)
- Hume Castle, Berwickshire (as recorded)
- Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire (as recorded)
- Home Castle, Berwickshire (as recorded)
- Buchan, Aberdeenshire (as recorded)
- Aldbourn, Wiltshire (as recorded)
- Burntisland, Fifeshire (as recorded)
- Glasgow, Scotland (as recorded)
- Scotland, United Kingdom (as recorded)
- Netherlands, Europe (as recorded)
- Scotland, United Kingdom (as recorded)
- Roxburgh Castle, Roxburghshire (as recorded)
- Ombersley, Worcestershire (as recorded)
- Canterbury, Kent (as recorded)
- Liddesdale, Roxburghshire (as recorded)
- Lauther Castle, Berwickshire (as recorded)
- Hertford, Hertfordshire (as recorded)
- Tain, Ross and Cromarty (as recorded)
- Dunstanburgh, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Mantes, France (as recorded)
- Shrewsbury, Shropshire (as recorded)
- Preston, Lancashire (as recorded)
- Dunfermline, Fifeshire (as recorded)
- Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk (as recorded)
- Isle of Man, England (as recorded)
- Kent, England (as recorded)
- Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Havering atte Bower, Essex (as recorded)
- Essill, Moray (as recorded)
- Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (as recorded)
- Skirbeck, Lincolnshire (as recorded)
- Preswen, Cumberland (as recorded)
- Worcestershire, England (as recorded)
- Hammersmith, Middlesex (as recorded)
- Suffolk, England (as recorded)
- Chester, Cheshire (as recorded)
- Reading, Berkshire (as recorded)
- Lincolnshire, England (as recorded)
- Ross-shire, Scotland (as recorded)
- Naples and Sicily, Kingdom of, Italy (as recorded)
- Montgomeryshire, Wales (as recorded)
- Birmingham, Warwickshire (as recorded)
- Ross-shire, Scotland (as recorded)
- Boston, Lincolnshire (as recorded)
- Merse, Scotland (as recorded)
- Staincliff in Craven, West Riding of Yorkshire (as recorded)
- Suffolk, England (as recorded)
- Taunton, Somerset (as recorded)
- Lothian, Scotland (as recorded)
- King's Langley, Hertfordshire (as recorded)
- Bamburgh, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Cologne, Germany (as recorded)
- Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Wallingford, Berkshire (as recorded)
- Sunderland, Durham (as recorded)
- Brenzett, Kent (as recorded)
- Scotland, Kingdom of, United Kingdom (as recorded)
- Ipswich, Suffolk (as recorded)
- Banbury, Oxfordshire (as recorded)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
- Bolivia, South America (as recorded)
- Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire (as recorded)
- Yorkshire, England (as recorded)
- Fast Castle, Berwickshire (as recorded)
- Gariauch, Aberdeenshire (as recorded)
- Southwark, Surrey (as recorded)
- Mauritius, Indian Ocean (as recorded)
- London, England (as recorded)
- India, Asia (as recorded)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
- St Omer, Pas-de-Calais (as recorded)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
- East Friesland, Germany (as recorded)
- Carlisle, Cumberland (as recorded)
- Edinburgh, Scotland (as recorded)
- Houghton St Giles, Norfolk (as recorded)
- Surrey, England (as recorded)
- Tavistock, Devon (as recorded)
- Tindale, Northumberland (as recorded)
- Essex, England (as recorded)
- Chester, Cheshire (as recorded)
- Lucca, Italy (as recorded)
- Peebles, Scotland (as recorded)
- Tonge, Shropshire (as recorded)
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (as recorded)
- Ireland, Europe (as recorded)
- Dublin, Ireland (as recorded)
- London, England (as recorded)
- Banffshire, Scotland (as recorded)
- Sebastopol, the Crimea (as recorded)
- York, Yorkshire (as recorded)
- Mauritius, Indian Ocean (as recorded)
- London, county of, England (as recorded)
- Xanthus, Lycia (as recorded)
- Heavitree, Devon (as recorded)
