Sir Matthew Forster, Sheriff of Northumberland

From "Archaeologia Aeliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, edited by C.H. Hunter Blair (1917), Pg. 6, Sheriffs of Northumberland:

http://www.archive.org/stream/archaeologiaael00tynegoog#page/n22/mo...

The union of the crowns in 1605 brought peace to the Borders, it was no longer a duty of the sheriff to defend the Marches of England towards Scotland, nor to rais the array of the county to "preserve the English tongue from destruction," nor to keep the royal casltes of his bailiwick garrisoned and fortified. Their lives became more a record of the peaceful administration of county business and of a gradual diminution of power as their duties were delegated to other authorities.

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1620. Matthew Forster, knight

Silver a chevron vert between three hunting horns sable with due difference.

Illegitimate son of Thomas Forster of Adderstone, knighted by james I at Durham, 23 April 1617, married Catherine, daughter of Sir Ralph Grey of Chillingham, succeeded to Beadnell by his father's will and to Adderstone by the will of his grandfather Thomas (sheriff 1564)