Robert Forth

Sir Robert Forth (c.1600-c.1663) was an Irish statesman of the seventeenth century, who was an influential figure in the political crisis of 1640-41. He sat in the Irish House of Commons and was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.[1]

He was the eldest son of Sir Ambrose Forth and Anne Cusack, daughter of Edward Cusack of Lismullen, County Meath and Elizabeth Aylmer. His father was an English-born lawyer who came to Ireland in 1573 to serve as the Irish Probate judge, and in 1575 became the first judge of the Irish Court of Admiralty.[2] His wife belonged to a leading Anglo-Irish landowning family: her grandfather had been Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Unlike his father, Robert never became a lawyer.[1]He was probably born in Cabra, Dublin, where his father had his main residence, which he referred to disparagingly as a "poor farmhouse".[3]Ambrose died in 1610; his widow made two further marriages.[1]

Robert came to prominence as one of the leaders of the Irish House of Commons in the critical years 1640-41, which saw the downfall and execution for treason of thep formerly all-powerful Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford.[1] Robert, who sat as MP forKilbeggan, belonged to the "moderate" Protestant party, who were anxious to find common cause with their Roman Catholic colleagues. He was a supporter of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the leader of the Irish Royalists.[1]

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 ruined the hopes of the moderate party: Ormonde went into exile, and Forth apparently retired into private life, residing on his estate in County Cavan. He re-entered political life at the Restoration of Charles II: he sat once more in the Irish Parliament, this time as member for Meath, and was sworn a member of the Irish Privy Council. However he died only a few years after the Restoration.

He had at least one daughter, Mary, the second wife of the wealthy former Cromwellian army officer James Stopford of Newhall, County Meath. [4] They had two daughters, Emily and Dorothy (Dolly). Dorothy was a close friend of Jonathan Swift: she married firstly Edward Brabazon, 4th Earl of Meath and secondly General Richard Gorges MP of Kilbrew.[5] Emily married Theophilus Butler, 1st Baron Newtown-Butler.