Petrels collected during the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger’ (‘Zoology of the Challenger,’ iv. pt. xi. 1882). Forbes's last journals, published in the ‘Ibis,’ 1883, are included in the memorial volume. Forbes also edited the collected edition of Professor A. H. Garrod's papers, 1881, and wrote the memoir of Garrod which accompanies it.
[Forbes's Collected Papers, 1885; Ibis, 1883, p. 384.]
FORBY, ROBERT (1759–1825), philologist, born in 1759 of poor parents at Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, was educated at the free school of Lynn Regis, under David Lloyd, LL.D., and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship (B.A. 1781, M.A. 1784). Sir John Berney, bart., induced him to leave the university, and to become tutor of his sons, presenting him in 1787 to the small living of Horningtoft, Norfolk. Afterwards he fixed his residence at Barton Bendish, where he took pupils; and on their number increasing, he removed to Wereham. Two years subsequently, in 1789, by the death of his uncle, the Rev. Joseph Forby, he came into possession of the valuable rectory of Fincham, Norfolk. He removed thither in 1801, and continued to reside in his parish till his death, which occurred suddenly while he was taking a warm bath, on 20 Sept. 1825, aged 66. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1798, and was a distinguished scholar. At one time, though at what period is uncertain, he was resident at Aspall, Suffolk, as tutor to the children of Mr. Chevallier.
He published some small pieces of ephemeral interest, and an important philological work entitled 'The Vocabulary of East Anglia; an attempt to record the Vulgar Tongue of the twin sister counties, Norfolk and Suffolk, as it existed in the last twenty years of the Eighteenth Century, and still exists: with Proof of its Antiquity from Etymology and Authority,' 2 vols. London, 1830, 8vo. This was edited by the Rev. George Turner of Kettleburgh. Prefixed to vol. i. is the author's portrait, engraved from a painting by M. Sharp. Vol. iii., being a supplementary volume by the Rev. W. T. Spurdens, was published at London in 1858.
Forby assisted Mr. Mannings in his 'Pursuits of Agriculture,' and in 1824 wrote the prospectus of a continuation of, as supplement to, the new edition of Blomefield's 'Norfolk.'
[Memoir by Dawson, prefixed to the Vocabulary; Davy's Athenæ Suffolcenses, iii. 166; Graduati Cantabrigienses. 1846; Gent. Mag. xcvi. 281; Britton's Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, iii. 13*.]
FORCER, FRANCIS, the elder (1650?–1705?), composer, is mentioned by Hawkins as the writer of many songs, five of which may be found in Playford's 'Choyce Ayres and Dialogues,' bk. ii. 1679, one in the edition of 1681, and two in that of 1683. Some of his music is in the Fitzwilliam Collection, Cambridge, an overture and eight tunes are in the Christ Church Library, Oxford, and a set of instrumental trios, with a jig and gavotte for organ, among the British Museum manuscripts. He was one of four stewards for the celebration of St. Cecilia's day of 1684. Towards the end of the seventeenth century Forcer, who may have had some previous interest in the concern, became the lessee of Sadler's Wells music house, garden, and water at Clerkenwell, with one James Miles (about 1697) as his partner. To Miles was assigned the control of the good cheer, the building or 'boarded house' becoming known as Miles's Music House, while the waters were advertised as Sadler's Wells. The musical entertainment at such places of resort at that period was said by Hawkins to be hardly deserving the name of concert, i.e. concerted music, for the instruments were limited to violins, hautboys, and trumpets playing in unison, and when a bass was introduced it was merely to support a simple ballad or dance-tune. 'The musick plays, and 'tis such music as quickly will make me or you sick,' comments an old writer upon the efforts of a rival establishment; and Ned Ward describes the combination of attractions at Sadler's Wells in the lines,
- The organs and fiddles were scraping and humming,
- The guests for more ale on the table were drumming.
Lady Squalb rose to sing, and 'silenced the noise with her musical note,' and a fierce fiddler in scarlet ran 'up in alt with a hey diddle diddle, to show what a fool he could make of the fiddle.' It appears that these primitive entertainments were announced 'to begin at eleven, to hold until one.' Forcer obtained a license to marry Jane Taylor of Worplesdon, Surrey, 30 July 1673. He was then described as 'of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, London, gent., bachelor, about twenty-three.' He died in 1704 or 1705, leaving (by a will dated 1704) to his son, Francis Forcer, various properties in Durham and in Fetter Lane, without mention of Sadler's Wells. Nor was Sadler's Wells among the property left by James Miles upon his death in 1724. By the latter's will his daughter Frances, wife of Francis Forcer the younger, became entitled to an annuity, and lands in Berkshire, Essex, &c. are settled upon Henry and
