FORRESTER (occasionally Sorester), ANDREW, military officer in Acadia; fl. 1632.
He participated in the great colonization attempt launched by Sir William Alexander the elder during the 1620’s. As Alexander the younger’s lieutenant, he probably accompanied the Scottish settlers who occupied Port-Royal in 1628 or 1629. Here the expedition built Charles Fort, and Forrester assumed command of the garrison. Thirty of the party of 70 died of scurvy and hardship during the winter of 1629–30. Alexander the younger left for England in the fall of 1630, giving command of the colony to Sir George Home.
After the return of Home to Scotland, Forrester took charge of the colony. In 1632, following the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which transferred the country to France, Alexander sent directions to Forrester to prepare to abandon the settlement. However, on 18 September, and despite the fact that France and England were now at peace, Forrester assembled a force of 25 men and sailed to the Saint John River in 2 vessels with the purpose of capturing the French fort there. He entered the harbour that evening and no opposition to his landing was offered by Jean-Daniel Chaline who had been left in command of the fort by Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour. According to the sworn testimony made by Chaline and his men, and substantiated in good part during a hearing in Boston later, Chaline welcomed Forrester and his men and offered no objection to their entering the fort. Forrester and 15 of his party did so, but once inside they made the garrison prisoners and tortured Jean Beaujot of the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France to learn the whereabouts of the fort’s stock of furs, merchandise, and food. The prisoners were then taken to the vessels, as were the 1,550 pelts, the food, small arms, and powder seized. After knocking down the large wooden cross standing in the fort and the arms of France, Forrester sailed to Port-Royal where he landed the captured goods, and then took the prisoners to Pentagouet where they were turned over to the English.
In December, Isaac de Razilly appeared at Charles Fort and presented the order from the two crowns to take possession. Forrester complied, and soon after he and the 41 Scottish pioneers who chose to return home were given passage in the French vessel Saint-Jean. They landed in England early in February 1633.
ACM, B. 5654. PAC Report, 1912, App.B. Couillard Després, Saint-Étienne de La Tour. Insh, Scottish colonial schemes. Lanctot, Histoire du Canada. McGrail, Alexander. Beamish Murdoch, History of Nova-Scotia. Edmund Slafter, Sir William Alexander and American colonization (Boston, 1873). Winthrop’s journal (Hosmer) in Original narratives (Jameson).
George MacBeath, “FORRESTER (Sorester), ANDREW,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 9, 2024, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/forrester_andrew_1E.html.
Permalink: | https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/forrester_andrew_1E.html |
Author of Article: | George MacBeath |
Title of Article: | FORRESTER (Sorester), ANDREW |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1966 |
Year of revision: | 1979 |
Access Date: | November 9, 2024 |