Dr. Andrew Forrest and Jane Graydon
Husband Dr. Andrew Forrest 1 2
Born: Abt 1754 - Philadelphia, PA Christened: Died: 26 Jan 1818 - Milton, Northumberland Co, PA 3 Buried:
Father: Thomas Forrest ( - ) 2 Mother:
Marriage: 31 Dec 1778 3
Wife Jane Graydon 3
AKA: Rachel Graydon 4 Born: Christened: Died: - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA Buried: - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA
Father: Alexander Graydon (1714-1761) 3 4 5 Mother: Rachel Marks ( -1807) 3 5
Children
1 F Rachel Forrest 1 3 6
Born: Christened: Died: 1804 - Erie, Erie Co, PA 1 6 Buried:Spouse: William Wallace (1768-1816) 1 3 6 7 8 9 10 Marr: 1803 1
2 F Fanny Forrest 3
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Robert Patterson ( - ) 3
3 M William Graydon Forrest 3
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
General Notes: Husband - Dr. Andrew Forrest
He was educated at the academy of his native city, and was apprenticed to a prominent apothecary there. At the expiration of his term of service, the fires of the Revolution were burning, and being "active, capable, and more than commonly adroit in the military exercises," was commissioned second lieutenant January 8, 1776, of Col. John Shee's (Third Penn'a) Battalion, and assigned to Capt. Alexander Graydon's company. At the surrender of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776, he was taken prisoner, and sent on parole to Flatbush, Long Island. Graydon in his "Memoirs," gives us the following account: "It had been a settled opinion among us at Flatbush, that if the place, or we who were stationed there by a military operation, should fall into the hands of our people for ever so short a time, we were, ipso facto, released from the obligation of remaining with the enemy, notwithstanding our parole; and it was under this idea, combined with a lucky and unexpected adventure, that Forrest found himself a freeman. I know not how far this opinion of ours may be conformable to the jus belli as established among, nations but it was our deduction from principles, which we held to be correct, and of general and equal application. I think it is also recognized in the old play of prison-base, from which, if the idea was not original, it is more probable we derived it, than either from Grotius, Preffendorf, or Vattel. One Mariner, a New Yorker, in revenge for some real or supposed ill-treatment from Matthews, the Mayor of that city, made a descent with a small party upon the island, with the view of getting Matthews into his clutches, who had a house at Flatbush, and generally slept there. He had it also in view to obtain the release of a Capt. Flahaven, who had been billited in my (Capt. Graydon) place on Jacob Suydam. Disappointed in both objects he liberated Forrest by means of his magical power, and made prisoners of Mr. Pache and Major Moncrief, the latter of whom spent much of his time at Flatbush, where he had a daughter. But I will give the relation in the words of Mr. Forrest, who on my application for the particulars of the event, has thus communicated them in answer to certain queries proposed: 'Mariner was the man who took me from Long Island. He was a shoemaker, and had been long confined and cruelly used, as I understand by Matthews, who it seems knew him personally. The name of the officer who lodged with me was Flahaven, a captain, who had been in the provost with Mariner, and whom he particularly wished to release; but having changed his quarters he could not be got at. Mariner crossed from the Jersey shore, and retreated to, and landed at, the place of his departure, or near it, a distance of two miles across. His party consisted originally of twenty militia men, in two flat-bottomed boats. At his landing on Long Island, he left his two boats under the guard of five men, while he visited the interior; but these five hearing a firing which was kept up upon us by the Flatbush guard, while we were taking our prisoners, concluded Mariner was defeated and taken; so, without further ceremony, they took one of the boats, and made their escape. The other boat, as we reached the shore, was just going adrift. We were much crowded in her, but it, fortunately, was very calm, otherwise we could not have weathered it. Matthews was on the top of his house at the time of the search for him. We got, from our place of landing, in wagons, to Princeton. Mr. Bache and Moncrief lodged there in the same house with me for two or three days. How they were disposed of afterwards I do not know, as I was sent on with an explanatory letter from Governor Livingston to Gen. Washington; but Bache, I think, was sent home shortly, and Moncrief also (who was a good judge) as a prisoner on parol. Mariner's party must have stayed at Flatbush nearly two hours, for they were there some time before the alarm was taken. and there was afterwards time to dispatch an express to Brooklyn for assistance, and the reinforcements which came in consequence was pretty close upon us, as we could see them on the shore when we had left it about a quarter of an hour. This happened on the 15th of June, 1778, the very day two years I had marched froin Philadelphia.'"
Dr. Forrest, however, was not regularly exchanged until the 25th of October, 1780, but retired from the service, not being able to get his rank, although Col. Cadwalader certified that he was entitled to a captaincy from April 10, 1778. After the war, while residing at Reading he was appointed collector of excise for the new county of Dauphin, and removed to Harrisburg with his family. In 1792 he was appointed by the War Department one of the medical examiners at Harrisburg, for invalid pensioners of the Revolution. He was elected member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Dauphin county to the session of 1793-4, and appointed, October 27, 1794, by Gov. Mifflin register and recorder, which office he held until displaced by Gov. McKean, January 7, 1800. While at Harrisburg, he kept a drug store on Chestnut street, and practiced medicine until 1804, when he removed to Milton, Pennsylvania, where he died.
1 William Henry Egle, History of the County of Dauphin in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 545.
2 Wm. H. Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Lane S. Hart, Publisher, 1884), Pg 44.
3 Wm. H. Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Lane S. Hart, Publisher, 1884), Pg 46.
4 William Henry Egle, History of the County of Dauphin in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 496.
5 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 167.
6 —, Nelson's Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Erie County, Pennsylvania (Erie, PA: S. B. Nelson, Publisher, 1896), Pg 553.
7 William Henry Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1894), Pg 372.
8 —, History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner, Beers & Co., 1887), Pg 823.
9 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 82.
10
—, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 148.
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