Francis Blackwell Forbes

Francis Blackwell Forbes (New York, August 11, 1839 - Boston, Massachusetts, May 2, 1908) was a China merchant, opium trader and botanist, son of Rev. John Murray Forbes, Rector of St. Luke's, New York (New York, May 5, 1807 – Elizabeth, New Jersey, October 11, 1885) and his wife (m. December 26, 1838) Anne Howell ( – July 21, 1849).

He and other members of the Forbes family were active in the opium trade and the Old China Trade during the First and Second Opium Wars, amassing a large fortune. Due to his family's deep involvement with the opium trade and opium, Forbes developed a lifelong interest in the poppy and other plants, and in Chinese botany in general.

He married in New York City, New York on May 8, 1867 Isabel Clark, born in New York, c. 1846, daughter of William Mather Clark, a banker (Litchfield, Connecticut, May 26, 1805 – Berkley House, 5th Avenue, New York City, New York, November 21, 1878) and wife Isabella Staples (New York, c. 1805 – living 1870). She died of coronary thrombosis, with underlying arteriosclerosis in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 1, 1931 with the age estimated of 89 years and 2 months. They were the parents of William Hathaway Forbes and James Grant Forbes.

He was the grandson of James Grant Forbes I and cousin of John Murray Forbes. He is a maternal great-grandfather of 2004 US Presidential candidate John Kerry.

External links

• Forbes family genealogy
• Forbes family papers at Massachusetts Historical Society
• The Ancestors of Senator John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943)