Matthew Forster
Matthew Forster | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed | |
| In office 1 July 1841 – 25 April 1853 | |
| Preceded by | William Holmes Richard Hodgson |
| Succeeded by | Dudley Marjoribanks John Forster |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1786 |
| Died | (aged 83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Party | Whig |
Matthew Forster (1786 – 2 September 1869)[1] was a British Whig politician and merchant.
Forster was elected Whig MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed at the 1841 general election and held the seat until 1853 when he was unseated due to bribery and treating during the 1852 general election.[2] At the ensuing by-election, his son John Forster was elected as a Whig candidate.[3] Forster attempted to regain the seat at the 1857 general election but ranked bottom of the poll.[4]
Forster, "a wealthy and highly respected ship-owner and merchant" had mining interests, as a senior partner in Forster, Smith and Company, in both south County Durham and The Gambia.[3][5]
In 1840 Richard Robert Madden (the Special Commissioner of Inquiry into the British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa) reported that Forster was one of the London-based merchants who were actively (and illegally) helping the slave traders.[6] However, Forster managed to escape criminal prosecution. In 1841 there was a change of government, and the new government chose not to send the matter to the Queen's Bench, but to a House of Commons committee that Forster himself was part of.[6] Unsurprisingly, this committee rejected most of Madden's findings.[7]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)
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