FORSTER, RICHARD, M.D. (1546?–1616), physician, son of Laurence Forster, was born at Coventry about 1546, and was educated at All Souls' College, Oxford. He graduated at Oxford, M.B. and M.D., both in 1573. He became a fellow of the College of Physicians of London about 1575, but his admission is not mentioned in the 'Annals.' In 1583 he was elected one of the censors, in 1600 treasurer, and Lumleian lecturer in 1602. He was president of the college from 1601 to 1604, and was again elected in 1615 and held office till his death on 27 March 1616. He had considerable medical practice, and was also esteemed as a mathematician. Camden, when recording his death, describes him as 'Medicinae doctor et nobilis Mathematicus.' Clowes, the surgeon, praises him, and in 1591 (Prooved Practice, p. 46) speaks of him as 'a worthie reader of the surgerie lector in the Phisition's college,' showing that he gave lectures before the Lumleian lectures were formally instituted in 1602. Forster had been introduced to Robert, earl of Leicester, by Sir Henry Sidney, and dedicated to the earl in 1575 his only published work, a thin oblong quarto, entitled 'Ephemerides Meteorologicae Richardi Fosteri artium ac medicinae doctoris ad annum 1575 et positum finitoris Londini emporii totius Angliae nobilissimi diligenter examinatae.' Besides the prose dedication, in which astronomy is said to be the handmaid of medicine, twenty lines of Latin verse on Leicester's cognisance, the bear, precede the tables of which the book is made up.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 74; Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol. i.; Preface to Forster's Ephemerides; Clowes's Surgical Works.]
FORSTER, Sir ROBERT (1589–1663), lord chief justice. [See Foster.]
FORSTER, THOMAS (fl. 1695–1712), limner, is known from a number of small portraits, drawn with exquisite care and feeling, in pencil on vellum. The majority of these were no doubt intended for engraving as frontispieces to books, and the following were so engraved by Michael Vander Gucht and others: J. Savage, Sir Thomas Littleton, the speaker, William Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Humphry Hody, Rev. John Newte, and others. Unlike David Loggan [q. v.], Robert White [q. v.], and John Faber, sen. [q. v.], who drew portraits ‘ad vivum’ in the same style, Forster does not appear to have been an engraver himself. A number of his drawings were exhibited at the special Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures at the South Kensington Museum in 1865; they included Robert, lord Lucas, Archbishop Ussher, Sir Thomas Pope Blount, bart., Lady Blount, John, lord Somers, and Admiral Sir George Rooke. A drawing of Margaret Harcourt is in the print room at the British Museum. His portraits are highly valued.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Cat. of Special Exhibition of Miniatures, South Kensington Museum, 1865; Bromley's Cat. of Engraved British Portraits.]
FORSTER, THOMAS (1675?–1738), the Pretender's general, was a high-church tory squire of Ederstone or Etherston, Northumberland, who at the outbreak of the rebellion in Scotland in 1715 represented his county in parliament (first elected 27 May 1708, expelled 10 Jan. 1715–16). He was a man of influence, and was mentioned as one of the disaffected to parliament in 1715, when an order for his arrest was issued with the consent of the house. Timely notice was given him, and at the head of a body of servants and a few friends he at once joined some of the north-country gentry. They failed in an attempt to seize Newcastle, and after proclaiming James III at various places in Northumberland and Durham, and avoiding an encounter with General Carpenter, they succeeded in joining the south-country Scots on 19 Oct. at Rothbury, and the following day a body of highlanders under Mackintosh at Kelso. On account of his social position, and to propitiate the protestants, the Pretender appointed Forster to the command of this little army. He had no experience or capacity. When once face to face with the king's forces at Preston he seems to have lost heart. He at once surrendered at discretion, in spite of the entreaties of his officers. He was among the prisoners of the better class who were sent to be tried in London, and was led with a halter on his horse's head. At Barnet he and others were pinioned, to add to their abject appearance rather than for security, and from Highgate they were escorted into the city by a strong detachment of the guards, horse and foot, amidst the enthusiastic cheers of a vast concourse of people. He was lying in Newgate 10 April 1716, three days before his intended trial. His servant had, by a cunning device, got the head-keeper's servant locked in the cellar, and Forster, who had induced Pitts the governor and another friend to have wine with him, left the room. A few minutes later Pitts tried to follow, and found that he was locked in. Forster and his servant had been provided with keys, by which they not only secured their liberty, but delayed pursuit; and notwithstanding the offer of 1,000l. reward, they made good their escape by a small
