Matthew Forster (1786 – 2 September 1869) was a
British Whig politician and merchant.
Forster was elected Whig MP for
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
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. At the ensuing by-election, his son
John Forster was elected as a Whig candidate.
Forster attempted to regain the seat at the
1857 general election but ranked bottom of the poll.
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
The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 c ...
.
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.
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
The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions.
* Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...
, but to a House of Commons committee that Forster himself was part of.
Unsurprisingly, this committee rejected most of Madden's findings.
References
External links
*
UK MPs 1841–1847
UK MPs 1847–1852
UK MPs 1852–1857
1786 births
1869 deaths
Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies
English businesspeople in shipping
19th-century British businesspeople
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