William Forrester, Senior was probably born in the North of Ireland about the year 1725. When a young man he married Mary, maiden name unknown, and in 1749 he and his wife and their two children, Jane and William, emigrated from their home in Ireland and came to America. Shortly after landing in Philadelphia, Penn. they moved to Lancaster county where they resided two or three years before moving to Frederick county, Virginia (now Berkeley county, W.V.) William Forrester’s family lived in Frederick county for twenty five years. Shortly before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the family moved to Augusta County, Virginia. There they were living when the war began and it was from this county that two of William Forrester’s sons, William Jr. and Thomas, served in the war in the Continental line with the American forces.
Mary Forrester died sometime after 1763 in Frederick county, Virginia and later he married Margaret, surname unknown. After the war William Forrester and his wife Margaret moved from Augusta County to Botetourt County, Virginia where they settled on a nice plantation on the Catawba branch of the James River. Here on the fifth day of January 1796 William Forrester Senior made his will and it is probable that he died soon after.
The children of William Forrester and his wife Mary are: (this generation changed the spelling from Forrester to Forster).
1 Jane (Jean) Forster b. April 13, 1746 in Ireland m. John Burton. They moved to Buncombe County, N.C. where John Burton founded the town of Morristown (now Asheville). She died on January 28, 1824;
2 William Forster Jr. b. March 31, 1748 in Ireland;
3 Thomas Forster b. January 22, 1751 in Lancaster county, Penn. m. Mary Rafferty and died without issue on September 12, 1839 in Buncombe county, N.C.
4 Mary Forster b. July 23, 1753;
5 Margaret Forster b. October 19, 1755 m. James Barnes and 2ndly Henry Stevens Sr. ancestor of Buncombe county, N.C. Stevens;
6 Ann Forster b. March 2, 1858;
7 Dorcas Forster b. September 16, 1760;
8 David Forster b. March 17, 1763;
9 William Forrester and his 2nd wife, Margaret were the parents of Mary Forster; John Forster; Samuel Forster.
Publications source: Heritage I, article 334, p. 204
|