Forrester Clan Crest
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CREST: A hound’s head erased Proper collared Gules MOTTO: Blaw hunter blaw they horn TRANSLATION: Blow Hunter Blow Thy Horn VARIATIONS: N/A |
| The history of the Scottish Clan Forrester is a long and fascinating one, spanning over 800 years. The clan is believed to be of Celtic druidic origin, descending from Marnin the Forester, who held lands in Dunipace, Stirlingshire, around 1200.
The first known member of the Forrester family was Sir Adam Forrester, who is considered the founder of the clan. He was an ambassador, merchant, Provost of Edinburgh, Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, and Deputy Chamberlain of Scotland. In 1376, he acquired the estate of Corstorphine in Midlothian, where Corstorphine Castle and the Collegiate Church of Corstorphine were built by the family. Sir Adam’s son, Sir John Forrester the Elder, also held important positions, including Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and Chamberlain of Scotland. |
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| The Forrester clan had several landed cadets, including the Forresters of Garden, who were hereditary keepers of the Torwood to the Scottish kings. They owned the barony of Garden, with the Tower of Garden as well as the Torwood, where the ruins of Torwood Castle still stand. Sir Duncan, first of Torwood, was Comptroller of the Royal Household to James IV. The Forrester Aisle, a former private family chapel, is located in the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling.
The family also had two French cadet branches, Le Forestier du Buisson-Sainte-Marquerite, and Le Forestier de Foucrainville, in Normandy, which descend from Sir Adam, and M. Jean Le Forestier is their head. One of the Fifeshire Chieftains, the Forresters of Strathendry, who built Strathendy Castle, a sixteenth-century tower house in Leslie in Fife, was a cadet of Garden. Strathendry Castle is the only inhabitable Forrester stronghold today. The Forrester clan’s history is marked by several notable events and individuals. Sir James Forrester, the seventh chief, was killed in the disastrous Battle of Pinkie in 1547. The tenth chief, Sir George Forrester, was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia and raised to the peerage as Lord Forrester of Corstophine in 1633. The male line of the family eventually died out, and the title descended through heiresses to the Earls of Verulam. Forresters fought and died at various battles, including Sauchieburn, Pinkie, and Langside in Scotland; Halidon Hill, Flodden, and Preston in England; Oudenarde and Malplaquet in Flanders; and the Battle of Ivry fought by the Le Forestier cadets. They were also accessories to the murder of David Rizzio, secretary and close friend of Mary, Queen of Scots, and involved in her imprisonment in Holyrood House. Among the clan relics and heirlooms are the Corstorphine Pendant, an armorial pendant of gilded bronze, in the Royal Scottish Museum; Sir Duncan Forrster’s Antiphony, a fifteenth-century vellum book of Eastertide Music, in the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling; and the Corstophine Casket of carved oak mounted in silver, a reputed gift from Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV. Today, the Forrester clan is recognized as one of the Lowland clans of Scotland, with Sir John Duncan Grimston, Baronet, seventh Earl of Verulam, sixteenth Lord Forrester of Corstophine, and patron of the Clan |
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