Forbes, John (1750–97), MP and governor general of the Bahamas, was born possibly at Newstone, Co. Meath, youngest child of John Forbes and his wife Sophia, daughter of John Curtis of Mount Hanover, Meath. After studying with a Mr Williamson, he entered TCD as a pensioner (8 July 1764). On completing his BA (1769), he entered London's Middle Temple (1770). Immediately on his return to Ireland, he devised a plan for entering parliament. In this, he had the support of his uncle William Forbes, a wealthy merchant, Dublin alderman, and past lord mayor (1763–4, 1772). Alderman Forbes's tragic death in a shipwreck on the Irish Sea (17 October 1775) left his nephew with the financial resources to secure election as MP for the borough of Ratoath (1776–83). Forbes was called to the Irish bar in 1777 and five years later was appointed recorder (magistrate) of Drogheda (1782–96). He later became MP for Drogheda (1783–96), giving up his seat at Ratoath to his older brother Arthur.
Forbes's network of personal and political friendships was extensive. In addition to membership of the Dublin Society and the RIA, he also belonged to the Patriot clubs, the ‘Society of Granby Row’ and the ‘Monks of the Screw’. In his parliamentary career he worked closely with – among others – Henry Flood (qv), Henry Grattan (qv), George Ogle (qv), and William Ogilvie (qv). He attended the debates on Irish trade in the British parliament and visited Edmund Burke (qv), who referred to him as a friend. Throughout the 1780s Forbes served with Lord Charlemont (qv), as an important link between the Dublin and Westminster oppositions. More a whig than a Patriot, he walked a narrow line between the demands of Irish independence and British supremacy. Forbes also played a role in the foundation of a whig party in Ireland (1785) and later the Whig Club (26 June 1789) with Grattan and Charlemont. The club, which often met at his Dublin home on Kildare St., provided an important locus for opposition politics in the 1790s. Perhaps Forbes's most important extra-parliamentary act was to help to reconcile Grattan with both Flood and Charlemont. Given that Grattan and Flood had only narrowly been prevented from duelling, this was a significant accomplishment.
Forbes's most notable parliamentary achievement was his eventual success, after repeated failures, in passing bills reforming parliamentary representation and patronage. His place bill (1793) required MPs appointed to places of profit to seek reelection. Forbes had also introduced bills to secure judicial independence and various ‘responsibility’ bills to oversee government expenditure, and worked with Grattan on tithe reform. His efforts brought him to the attention of Jeremy Bentham, the English reformer, who wrote with a standing offer of hospitality at his home. In the regency crisis of 1788, arising from the incapacity of King George III, Forbes supported Grattan's attempt to offer the regency to the prince of Wales, as regent of Ireland. Forbes also strongly supported the catholic reforms of Sir Hercules Langrishe (qv) and Robert Hobart (qv) in the early 1790s. Indeed, the Catholic Convention was established in a meeting at his home and Forbes, along with Grattan, met the prince of Wales to secure his support for catholic relief.
In general, Forbes seems to have successfully balanced his principles with his acknowledged ambition. Grattan's son wrote of him that he ‘was incorruptible; he was one of the most amiable and estimable of men; mild and gentle in his nature and in his manners, but firm and honest of purpose. He was offered place, and he refused it . . . He served the people faithfully, and his name should be prized by every lover of liberty’ (Grattan, iii, 34–5). By the mid 1790s, embarrassing personal finances and declining health, which increasingly led Forbes to visit warmer climates, convinced him to leave parliament. While he had earlier declined Portland’s offer of the office of solicitor general (1782) and refused any position in Ireland, he finally agreed to accept Portland's offer of the governorship of the Bahamas. Forbes's letters show the difficulty of the decision as well as (in the light of his health) a deepening, and touching, religious faith.
His acceptance of the position was to prove, however, an unfortunate choice. Forbes replaced an elderly peer as governor, but, in consideration of his predecessor, he was given the title of ‘lieutenant-governor’. Within a fortnight of his arrival on New Providence island, a hurricane destroyed the ship on which Forbes had arrived and on which his predecessor was to leave. The latter's continuing presence significantly undermined Forbes's efforts to correct the financial irregularities in the colony. While taking the post was related to Forbes's health concerns, it turned out to hasten his death. When yellow fever struck the island, Forbes died suddenly at Nassau on 3 June 1797. He was buried in Christ Church (New Providence). The dispatch clarifying his authority on the island did not arrive till August.