Matthew Forster

Matthew Forster (1786 – 2 September 1869)[1] was a British Whig politician and merchant.

Matthew Forster
Member of Parliament
for Berwick-upon-Tweed
In office
1 July 1841 – 25 April 1853
Preceded byWilliam Holmes
Richard Hodgson
Succeeded byDudley Marjoribanks
John Forster
Personal details
Born1786
Died (aged 83)
NationalityBritish
Political partyWhig

Forster was elected Whig MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed at the 1841 general election and held the seat until 1853 when he was unseated due to bribery and treating during the 1852 general election.[2] At the ensuing by-election, his son John Forster was elected as a Whig candidate.[3] Forster attempted to regain the seat at the 1857 general election but ranked bottom of the poll.[4]

Forster, "a wealthy and highly respected ship-owner and merchant" had mining interests, as a senior partner in Forster, Smith and Company, in both south County Durham and The Gambia.[3][5]

In 1840 Richard Robert Madden (the Special Commissioner of Inquiry into the British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa) reported that Forster was one of the London-based merchants who were actively (and illegally) helping the slave traders.[6] However, Forster managed to escape criminal prosecution. In 1841 there was a change of government, and the new government chose not to send the matter to the Queen's Bench, but to a House of Commons committee that Forster himself was part of.[6] Unsurprisingly, this committee rejected most of Madden's findings.[7]

References
  1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)
  2. "The Berwick Election and Mr. Richard Hodgson". Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury. 30 April 1853. p. 5. Retrieved 8 April 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Wickham, Michael John (2002). "Electoral Politics in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, 1832–1885" (PDF). Durham E-Theses Online. Durham University. p. 44. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  4. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
  5. Perfect, David (2016). Historical Dictionary of The Gambia (Fifth ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 156. ISBN 9781442265226. Retrieved 8 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  6. Boyd, Andrew (2005). "The Life and Times of R. R. Madden". Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society. 20 (2): 150. doi:10.2307/29742754. ISSN 0488-0196. JSTOR 29742754.
  7. Miller, Lucasta (5 March 2019). L. E. L.: the lost life and scandalous death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the celebrated "female Byron". ISBN 9780375412783. OCLC 1040169641.


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