Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackenzie, William Forbes
MACKENZIE, WILLIAM FORBES (1807–1862), of Portmore, Peeblesshire, politician, born on 18 April 1807, brother of Charles Frederick Mackenzie [q. v.], was third and eldest surviving son of Colin Mackenzie, writer to the signet in Edinburgh, deputy-keeper of the signet, and a friend of Sir Walter Scott. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Forbes [q. v.] of Pitaligo, bart. The family was descended from the Mackenzies of Balmanully, a younger branch of the Mackenzies of Gairloch, who claimed as their progenitor Hector, son of Alexander, sixth baron of Kintail. Forbes Mackenzie was educated for the law, and was called to the bar in 1827. He succeeded to the estate of Portmore on the death of his father in September 1880, and in 1881 was appointed deputy-lieutenant of the county of Peebles. He also sat in the House of Commons as member for that county from 1837 to 1841, 1&41-7, and 1847-52. During 1845-6 he was a lord of the treasury. On 9 July 1852 he was elected one of the members for Liverpool, but in the following year he was unseated on petition, and he was not again returned to parliament. His only claim to notice is as the author of the act for the regulation of public-houses in Scotland, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 67, 15 Aug. 1853, known as the Forbes Mackenzie Act, which provides for the closing of public-houses on Sundays and at ten p.m. on week days. He died suddenly while on a visit to the Glen, Peeblesshire, on 24 Sept. 1862. By his wife Helen Anne, daughter of Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope, baronet, he had a son, Colin, and a daughter, Elizabeth Helen, who died young.
[Mackenzie's Hist. of the Mackenzies; Chambers's Hist. of Peeblesshire; Forster's Members of Parliament for Scotland; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Ann. Register, 1862, p. 372.]