author

Robert Forbes

1708–1775

A Scottish bishop, historian, and committed Jacobite, he is best remembered for preserving vivid firsthand accounts of the 1745 rising. His great work, The Lyon in Mourning, became an important source for later generations trying to understand that turbulent moment in Scottish history.

1 Audiobook

The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1 or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1 or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

by Robert Forbes

About the author

Born in Aberdeenshire in 1708, he studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen and later entered the Scottish Episcopal Church. He served for many years in Leith and eventually became bishop of Ross and Caithness in the non-juring Scottish Episcopal tradition.

What makes him especially notable as an author is the remarkable care he took in gathering memories, letters, songs, and stories connected with the Jacobite rising of 1745–46. Rather than writing only from a distance, he collected testimony from people who had lived through the events, giving his work an immediacy that still draws readers and historians.

His best-known achievement is The Lyon in Mourning, a large compilation that preserved a rich record of Jacobite experience, including material linked to Charles Edward Stuart. Even when readers come to him for history, what stands out is his human eye for detail and his determination to save voices that might otherwise have been lost.