Alexander Forbes

1. Trustees for Alexander Forbes held Aberdeen estate in St Elizabeth 1772-1782. Alexander Forbes 'of Scotland' had reportedly previously leased Aberdeen from Alexander McFarlane's Island estate, 'and [the estate] still belonged to an Alexander Forbes as a slave-and-sugar estate in 1772'. Neither man (if different) has yet been identified further, but either or both might be Alexander Forbes of Kingston (q.v.).

2. An article in the Philadelphia newspaper Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, the General Advertiser dated April 1788 describes an occurrence of February 16: "Last Wednesday fe'nnight major John James of Trelawny, accompanied by captain Alexander Forbes of St. Elizabeth's, having received information of a party of runaway negroes being at or near Bent's Tophill, in St Elizabeth's, set out with about 50 Maroons in the place, and after traveling all night came up with the haunts of the negroes, which they surrounded, that as few might escape as possible, and made prisoners of 30 negroes the first day. On Thursday and the following day they took about 10 more, who were on Sunday last sent down to the workhouse at Black River. Some of the negroes taken have been out upwards of 15 years."

We are grateful to Shay Cain for assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Gordon Collier and Ulrich Fleischmann (eds.) A Pepper-Pot of Cultures: Aspects fo Creolization in the Caribbean. Editions Rodopi B.V., 2003, p. 179.

2. Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, the General Advertiser. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Monday 21/04/1788, p. 3. Accessed 12/11/2022.