Forbes, Duncan

Forbes, Duncan, 1685–1747, Scottish statesman, known as Forbes of Culloden. As lord advocate of Scotland (1725–37) and lord president of the court of session (1737–47), his influence and diplomacy did much to consolidate the union of England and Scotland, but his plan to create royal highland regiments to prevent clan uprisings was not adopted until 1739 when the famous regiment, the Black Watch, was founded. He actively opposed the Jacobite rebels in 1715 and 1745 and urged lenient treatment in pacifying the country after the defeat and massacre of the rebels at the battle of Culloden Moor (1746).

See biography by G. Menary (1936).

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