Sir William Forbes
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 Portrait by Raeburn - hangs in Callendar House |
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| Born: | 1756 Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire |
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| Died: | 1823 Falkirk, Scotland |
| Occupation: | Landowner |
| Net worth: | c. £500,000 (c.$1 billion today) |
| Spouse: | Margaret McAdam, Agnes Chalmers |
| Children: | William, John, Katherine, Jessie, Agnes |
Sir William Forbes of Callendar (1756 - 1823) was a prosperous coppersmith and landowner who lived in Callendar House in Falkirk, Scotland.
[edit] Biography
Forbes was a self-made man. The son of an Aberdeen merchant, he began work as a coppersmith and won a government contract to sheath ships’ hulls in copper. With the fortune he made (equivalent to over $1 billion in today's terms), he purchased the estates of Callendar and Linlithgow near Falkirk, which had been forfeited by the Jacobite Earl of Linlithgow after the 1715 Jacobite Rising. He bought the estates at auction and is said to have astounded bystanders by producing a banknote for £100,000, specially printed for the occasion, at the age of just 40. At the time he was the greatest landowner in the county, with some of the largest collected lands in Scotland. He was the proprietor of the world-renowned Carron Iron Company, which produced all sorts of ironwork from cannons to fireplaces for use all over the globe. He was not popular with local people, but nevertheless his family retained great influence over the area for two centuries.
Wishing to set himself up as a 'landed gentleman', Sir William purchased further vast estates in Ayrshire, Earlstoun, Kircudbright and Dumfriesshire. He spent ten years making improvements to Callendar House, dividing his time between the house and London. He gave orders for the complete renovation and refurnishing of the entire house, adding a new wing and ripping out old rooms. He added the various turrets and exterior decoration which give the house its chateau-like appearance today. Although Sir William preferred the newest fashion (and purchased the best furniture and household goods from makers in London and Edinburgh) he did not spend money recklessly, ordering the new servants' wing to be furnished 'in the cheapest way'.
His first wife was Margaret McAdam, daughter of John McAdam of Craigengillan. She died childless in 1801 and Forbes remarried in 1806 Agnes Chalmers, daughter of John Chalmers of Old Machar in Aberdeen. This union produced two sons and three daughters. The Forbes household settled down after Sir William's marriage and he began to spend more time in Callendar House and give his brother David greater control of the business in London.
In 1794, aged 51, he retired to become a full-time landowner, rejecting the idea of employing a factor trained in the needs of estate management and elected to manage the 8000-acre estates himself. His first son William, 2nd of Callendar, went on to become Conservative MP for Stirlingshire.
Forbes' descendants sold the Callendar Estate in the 1960s and are listed in Burke's Landed Gentry.
