John Forbes

Genealogical records suggest that John Forbes, though never married, had children with a widow in Mobile, Alabama, named Marie Isabelle Narbonne (1770–1822). The couple had two children named Sophia Forbes (1797–1823) and Juana Forbes. A third child named Margaret Forbes is mentioned in genealogies but not confirmed by historical records.[5][6] The family moved to an estate in Matanzas, Cuba in about 1818, where Forbes ran a sugar mill with his sons-in-law. Marie Narbonne died in 1822.[7] A letter received by James Innerarity states that John Forbes died of dysentery on May 13, 1823 while sailing to New York.[8]

John Forbes (1767–1823) and his older brother Thomas (died 1808) were Scottish Indian traders in British East Florida, West Florida, Spanish Florida and the southeastern borderlands during the American Colonial and post-Revolutionary period. John Forbes & Company took control of the assets of its precursor trading firm, Panton, Leslie & Company, after William Panton died in 1801, followed by John Leslie in 1803.[1]

When trade in deer hides and ammunition declined due to the War of 1812 and the Creek War, Forbes & Company sought repayment of losses through lawsuits against British officers and negotiations with Indian tribes. Creek and Seminole Indians ceded large tracts of land to the firm as payments for their debts, and the Spanish governor ratified the title. What became known as the Forbes Purchase equaled over 1.4 million acres acquired by Forbes and Company during the period from 1804–1812, making it the largest land grant in Spanish Florida.[2] In 1817, the Forbes Purchase was sold to two merchants named Carnochan and Mitchel, who later formed the Apalachicola Land Company. In territorial Florida (1821–1845), the title to land near the Apalachicola River was not settled until 1835, and lawsuits related to land claims in the Florida Panhandle by heirs of Thomas Forbes were contested as late as 1887. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_and_Company

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Aug 7 2018, 22:17:09 UTC