Margaret (Stirling) Forbes (1754-1806)

Her story of her arrival in Virginia is told as follows: Margaret was said to be the only daughter and sole heiress of the last Laird of Herbertshire, George Stirling (d.1769). Having been orphaned at age fifteen, she was taken into the care of her aunt, Jean Stirling, who was married to Lord Alva. Some sources say she lived at Dumbarton Castle, but it would appear more likely that she lived with the Alvas at Drumsheugh House near Edinburgh. As the niece of one the most powerful legal men in Scotland and heiress to the Herbertshire estate, Margaret was expected to marry accordingly. But, she fell in love with a doctor (albeit the younger son of a Baronet) which did not meet with the high expectations placed upon her. Refusing to relinquish her love, she married David Forbes in 1774 at Edinburgh. According to family legend, she was stripped of her inheritance (the Herbertshire estate) and her family turned their backs on her. Her husband became a Surgeon in the British Army and went to America during the Revolution, taking Margaret with him before settling in Virginia after the war. Fitting with the story, it is worth mentioning that Margaret is notably absent from David Allan's painting of Lord Alva and his family in 1780. The painting shows the Lord with his second wife (Jean); his three children by his first marriage (Jean, John and Isabella); and, portraits in the background of his deceased son (Charles) and first wife (Margaret MacGuire).