FORSYTH NOTES March 1, 2002

Welcome to the forty-third issue of Forsyth Notes . Forsyth Notes is published bi- monthly by Clan Forsyth Society of the USA, and is your e-link to your extended Forsyth family.

2003 Clan Forsyth Reunion in Scotland --- UPDATE

The Reunion Tour departs from the US on Wednesday, June 18, 2003. Our Reunion participants will meet in Chicago, and fly together direct from Chicago to Glasgow. We are flying American Airlines. American has the best seats in coach because of the additional legroom so the ride over to Glasgow should be much more comfortable.

Note: You must book the Clan Forsyth Reunion tour through Marti Van Horne at Maupin Travel. Identify yourself as a member of the Clan Forsyth Group. If you would like to receive a printable Application for the Clan Forsyth Reunion Tour, e-mail Jim Forsythe at [email protected] and request your Application today.

Whether or not you expect to participate in the Reunion Tour, you are invited to take the virtual pre-tour tour of the new itinerary by going to http://forsythe.sytes.net/clanforsyth/2003%20Reunion/Reunion.htm . Here you will find the itinerary for the trip, pricing, contact information, and enough links to keep you busy until time for the trip to begin. If you would like additional information regarding the tour, send your request to Marti Van Horne at [email protected] or Jim and Patti Forsythe [email protected] . We expect a great trip, and we invite each of our cousins to join us.

A Wee Bit of Scottish Humor

Did you hear about the war that broke out between England and Scotland?

The English kept lobbing grenades and the Scots were pulling the pins and throwing them back!

Who am I?

I was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 3 April 1891. I enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 13 August 1914 at the age of 23 and embarked for Egypt as a sapper in the N.Z. Engineers. I served on Gallipoli from May to July 1915 and again from August to November of the same year before I was evacuated to Britain due to illness.

In April 1916 I joined the 3rd N.Z. Field Company, N.Z. Engineers, in France. In August 1918 I was attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Auckland Infantry Regiment to gain experience before being recommended for a commission.

I was killed in action on 24 August 1918. My posthumous Victoria Cross was bestowed upon me for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in an attack at Grevillers, France, in which engagement I was killed by an enemy sniper. The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

My citation reads as follows

"On nearing his objective, his company came under heavy fire. Through Sergeant Forsyth's dashing leadership and total disregard of danger, three machine-gun positions were rushed and the crews taken prisoner before they could inflict many casualties on our troops. During a subsequent advance his company came under heavy fire from several machine guns, two of which he located by a reconnaissance. In his endeavour to gain support from a tank he was wounded. But after having the wound bandaged, he again got in touch with the tank which, in the face of very heavy fire from machine guns and anti-tank guns, he endeavoured to lead, with magnificent coolness, to a favorable position. The tank, however, was put out of action. Sergeant Forsyth then organised the tank crew and several of his men into a section and led them to a position where the machine guns could be outflanked. Always under heavy fire, he directed them into a position which brought about a retirement of the enemy machine guns and enabled the advance to continue. This gallant NCO was at that moment killed by a sniper. From the beginning of the attack until the time of his death, Sergeant Forsyth's courage and coolness, combined with great power and initiative, proved an invaluable incentive to all who were with him and he undoubtedly saved many casualties among his comrades." (London Gazette, 18 October 1918)

I am buried in the Adanac Military Cemetery at Miraumont, France. My headstone shows age 25 years. Who am I?

Did You Know?

William Forsythe 1737-1894 Gardner at Chelsea Physic Garden 1771-1784

WILLIAM FORSYTH, a Scot from Aberdeen, succeeded his former mentor Philip Mifier from whom he received the keys of the Garden on 6 February 1771 . Miller’s forced resignation, due to his intolerance of the Committee formed by the Apothecaries to run the Garden, rebounded on his successor who was forced to promise to ‘in all things, be subject and obedient to the Directions of the Committee’. Forsyth agreed to abide by nine ‘Rules and Orders to be observed by the Gardener’, among which was a prohibition on setting roots or plants ‘or even exchanging any without the Committee’s consent’.

Forsyth settled down under the tighter regime at a salary of £50 a year, two staff and apartments in the greenhouse. He was closely supervised by the apothecary who had caused the downfall of Miller, Mr. John Chandler, and by the Demonstrator, Stanesby Alchorne, who repeatedly visited and ‘found the business carrying on with diligence’.

The business of the Garden in the early 1770’s was largely taken up with the embanking of the river and, in the summer of 1771 , the large water tank in the center of the Garden, visible on the Haynes’ map of 1751, was filled in with a ‘well dug to pump water from the Thames’. The Committee was as good as its word in providing detailed minutes of expenses and also, more interestingly, of all the species received and dispatched. Over the 13 years of Forsyth’s tenure, this provides a detailed view of the increase of species (especially tropical species) in cultivation in Britain. For example, Forsyth recorded dispatches from Banks and Solander, Dr Pitcairn, Mr. Bewick, Dr. Fothergill, Mr. Aiton (at Kew) and from the nurserymen Gordon and Lee, as well as from the Duke of Northumberland at Sion (now Syon) House where he had been formerly gardener in charge. From Dr Ryan at Santa Croix the Garden received 34 exotics including cotton seeds, wild ginger, the beautiful Poinciana puicherrima and the annatto tree, Bixa orellana, a species still grown at the Garden today. From Dr Clarke of Jamaica he received the allspice tree, Myrtus pimento, mahogany, “Sweetenia mahogania”, the lignum vitae Guaiacum officinale, the sandbox tree Hum crepitans, a species which had been featured on the Sloane series of Chelsea China, and Cassia herpetica, reputedly good for ringworm. In 1781 he reported the receipt of ‘more than five hundred different kinds of seed of plants which were collected in the late voyage around the globe’ of Sir Joseph Banks and also over one hundred from Alexander Anderson in St Lucia.

However, Forsyth became known to posterity less for his work at Chelsea than for his later publications on fruit. A selection of apple varieties shown at the Garden are taken from his Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees 1802.

The continuation of the rich tradition of plant exchange of his former master Miller came to cause problems. On 8 February 1775 Forsyth obtained a third laborer for the March to October period ‘to assist in the Labouring Work of the Garden, that I may be more at Liberty to take the proper care of the Plants and keep the Garden in due Order’. Since 1773 he had also been involved in rearranging the systematic arrangement of the plants ‘according to the system of Linnaeus’. A picture emerges of greatly increased work ‘by the numerous Collections of new Plants raised and cultivated in the Garden; and as many of them are of foreign Production, of tender natures and especially such as are raised from seeds, in Hot Bedds; and require frequent Shifting and changing of situation, and constant watchfulness, attention and care to preserve them...’. Forsyth complained of insufficient salary in May 1774 and it was agreed that he could sell superfluous plants, under proper restriction; later he was allowed a portion of the kitchen garden to raise plants ‘at his own Expense for his own Advantage’. Forsyth’s expenses were to increase further however by problems with the stove fires and flues in the greenhouse which he claimed were a danger to his family. On 28 July 1777 he petitioned the Garden Committee for relief due to his having to take a house elsewhere for himself and his family at a cost of £25 a year and as the income for himself and his undergardeners had been the same ‘for several years and every necessary article of Life having so much increased of late’. This prompted the thrifty Court of Assistants to ask Forsyth to obtain estimates for putting the flues to right — and indeed Forsyth’s successor, John Fairbairn, was then required to live above the greenhouse.

During Forsyth’s tenure two of the Cedars of Lebanon were felled, in 1771, and bricks from their uprooting (and the elimination of the water tank) were used in building new garden walls next to the river. But undoubtedly the most important event during his tenure was the building of the rock garden — a project in which he seems to have had no direct involvement since it appears to have been the personal project of two apothecaries, Stanesby Aichorne, the Praefectus Horti, and Uriah Bristow, first a member of the Garden Committee and later to become Master of the Society in 1804.

A great deal of misinformation has accumulated over the years about his rock garden which is today a listed Grade II structure and the earliest rock garden in Europe still functioning as such and on view to the public. It is interesting because it was built many years before the Victorian heyday of interest in rock gardening and is also a very early example of an interest in what we would now call ‘ecological planting’. It was not the only example of such an interest: the Garden Committee minutes record the deferring of an idea of ‘providing a Chalk Bed for such plants as require that Soil’ in 1771.

The project commenced with Aichorne purchasing, at his own expense, ‘about 40 tons of old stones from the Tower (of London)... for the purpose of raising an artificial rock to cultivate plants which delight in such soil’. (The connection with the Tower was that demolition work was taking place there. Later, Aichorne was to become Assay Master of the Royal Mint at the Tower.) Further donations were ‘a large quantity of chalk and flint’ by Mr. John Chandler and, most significantly, ‘a large quantity of lava bought from the volcano on Iceland, for the same purpose’ by Joseph Banks. This donation was of ships’ ballast at first thought to have come from Hekla but now known to be from the coast of Hafnaefjorthur, south of Reykyavik. This would have been dropped off Banks’ ship the St Lawrence as it sailed up the Thames. Further donations were given to Kew, from where they have since disappeared, and more went to Banks’ house at Twickenham where it still exists within the grounds of the present Thames College.

The Garden Committee felt that ‘a piece of artificial rockwork will be a very ornamental addition to the Garden and ‘very useful for the cultivation of such plants as will only thrive in stony soils’. The garden was built in the summer of 1773 and completed by 16 August at a cost of £2.9.6d in labor, as reported by William Curtis, Alchorne’s successor as Praefectus Horti. Other sources’ tell how this curious pile was further embellished by ‘tuffa, corals and madre(s) pores bought from Otahiti by Captain Cook, as ballast’ and indeed, one giant clam shell still remains at the Garden, fruit of that famous voyage on The Endeavour which first introduced Banks to the wonders of the Australasian flora.

Unfortunately there is virtually no information about what was grown on this rocky habitat. It is known that Forsyth topped up the structure with gravel and he was authorized in 1779 to procure further stones ‘to complete the Rock’. There are also no illustrations of the rock garden before one in the Illustrated London News in 1890, and the rather clearer etching by Walter Burgess of 1896, which remains at the Garden today. This shows an oval pond on top of the Garden which was almost certainly not original and added at some point between 1773 and 4 July 1836 when it appears on a map published by F P Thompson.

Rock gardens are often criticized as being ugly plum puddings, but this one certainly has geological ingredients of extraordinary historic value. They appear to have been gathered together really because of the limited means of the Society of Apothecaries and their consequent willingness to accept donations of materials from whatever source.

Forsyth resigned from the Garden on 18 June 1784 on being appointed Gardener to his Majesty at the Royal Garden of Kensington. He left on very good terms and ‘rec’d the thanks of the Committee for his great care of the Garden while in the Company’s service’. Forsyth went on to become a distinguished writer on fruit cultivation; first with Observations on the Diseases, Defects and Injuries of all Kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees in 1791 and then A Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees which first appeared in 1802 and went through three editions before his death in 1804. We still have his copy presented to the Apothecaries ‘as a small Token of Gratitude for the favours conferred on him by that Company’. He proved a clear writer, ably conferring his extensive practical knowledge on apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apples, pears, vines, figs, quinces, medlars, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, barberries, mulberries, service trees, almonds, filberts and hazelnuts, chestnuts and last, but not least, walnuts. These writings offer two brief insights into life at Chelsea, via reminiscences, the first of which reveals his early interest in fruit. He mentions a type of walnut known as ‘Barcelona’:

‘When at the Botanic Gardens, Chelfea, I once fowed feveral quarts of large Barcelona Nuts, in pots, in two frames at a confiderable diflance from each other, the Nuts were all carried off by the mice in one night. On fearching round the lining ofa frame where we kept green-houfe plants in Winter, I found above a quart of the Nuts in one hoard, which I again fowed immediately, covering them over with flates; from thefe Nuts I raifed fome very fine plants. The Barcelona Nut-tree is rather frarce in England, but it is well worth cultivating; it is a distinct fpecies, and grows to a fine timber tree. The Nuts that I fowed, as mentioned above, were produced from a fine tree in the Botanic Gardens at Chelfea.’

(Note: “s” is written as “f”)

He also describes the management of the hothouses with a technique rather in excess of what we would now call ‘damping down’:

When I lived at the Botanic Gardens, Chelsfea, I observed in hard Winters, when we were obliged to keep firong fires in the floves night and day, that the plants which flood on Jhelves in the dry floves were fo ftorched up that the leaves ufed to drop off, as from deciduous trees in Autumn, which gave them a very disagreeable appearance. This induced me to confider what could be done to prevent it; when the following method occurred to me; about eight in the morning, when the fun fhone out, and there was the appearance of a fine day, I threw in water till it covered the floor, which was of tile, from one to two inches deep, and kept the houfefhut the whole of the day, unleft the thermometer rofe to about eighty degrees, which feldom happens at that feafon of the year; in that cafe, I opened the door to admit a little air. By the middle of the day, the water was entirely exhaled, and the floor perfectly dry. This I ufed to repeat two or three times a week, in funny weather: the plants in about a week’s time began to throw out their foliage, and in a fortnight or three weeks they were in full leaf This fuccefs induced me to take the fame method with tan floves and other houfes in Sumnier, when troubled with infects; and I had the fatisfaction to find that it had the defired effect.’

Forsyth is remembered mainly fur three things: he gave his name to the popular spring flowering genus Forsythia; he caused controversy by promoting a bizarre wound- healing ‘plaister’ for forest and fruit trees; and lastly, in the year of his death, he supported the formation of the Horticultural Society, now the Royal Horticultural Society.

Forsyth’s ‘plaister’ was a practical remedy which he developed to cure defects in trees in Kensington Gardens and was the subject of a report submitted by the Commissioners of Forests to the Lords of the Treasury and hence to the House of Commons on 24 July 1789. The immediate concern was with oak for shipbuilding, essential for Britain’s navy and merchant shipping and considered recently to have diminished ‘to the manifest detriment and dishonour of our country’. Sir Hans Sloane was a member of the committee which produced the report in which he endorsed ‘a discovery which may be highly beneficial both to individuals and the public’. Forsyth’s remedy was made the subject of a sworn deposition to the Inland Revenue Office on 11 May 1791 wherein he was paid a reward for revealing the recipe: one bushel of fresh cow dung, half a bushel of lime rubbish of old buildings, half a bushel of wood ashes and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit or river sand.

Unfortunately Forsyth’s ‘plaister’ required some defense, which he appended to the Treatise of the Culture and Management of fruit Trees in 1802 as a supplement with testimonials to the success of his ‘composition’ in all climates from St Petersburg to Madras. The second edition of 1803 contained a preface where he referred to ‘libellous’ remarks in a pamphlet by Thomas Andrew Knight. This accused Forsyth of not being the sole author of the Treatise and conspiring with a Dr James Anderson, the real author, to share the profits, of improperly promoting a new kind of glasshouse for forcing in which Anderson had a patent and of providing fruit to the King obtained from Covent Garden rather than Kensington Gardens. Knight’s venom seems to have been produced by envy at the ‘reward’ which Forsyth gained from selling the recipe of his composition and was refuted with some indignation. In retrospect it is impossible to read Forsyth’s writings without sensing the depth of his practical knowledge. Although today it is arboricultural orthodoxy not to treat wounds with any applications, it was then common nursery practice and one which Forsyth was surely entitled to develop with trials on the King’s trees.

Shortly before he died in 1804 Forsyth, along with W T Aiton from Kew, were summoned to Hatchard’s hookshop in Piccadilly by Sir Joseph Banks, John Wedgwood and Charles Greville to discuss the idea of a Horticultural Society Also present were the botanists John Hawkins and R A Salisbury. One of the last acts of Forsyth’s life was therefore to generate Britain’s largest and most influential gardening society.

It is that time of year again when the forsythia starts to blossom. Think of William Forsyth when you see this beautiful plant brightening up the early Spring season.

THE BARD’S CORNER

Lady Carolina Nairne (1766-1845) has written a large number of poems which have become an important part of Scottish culture including "Caller Herrin'" and following beautiful poem, "Will ye no come back again". This is one of my personal favorites:

Will ye no come back again

Will Ye No' Come Back Again? Bonnie Charlie's noo awa Safely o'er the friendly main Mony a heart will break in twa Should he ne'er come back again. Chorus Will ye no' come back again? Will ye no' come back again? Better lo'ed ye canna be Will ye no' come back again?

Ye trusted in your Hielan' men They trusted you, dear Charlie They kent your hiding in the glen Death or exile braving.

English bribes were a' in vain Tho' puir, and puirer, we maurn be Siller canna buy the heat That beats aye for thine and thee.

We watch'd thee in the gloamin' hour We watch'd thee in the mornin' grey Tho' thirty thousand pound they gie Oh, there is nane that wad betray!

Ancient Scotland

Skara Brae Prehistoric Village

In June 2003, on our Clan Forsyth Reunion, we will visit the 5000 year old village of Skara Brae and see what life was like in the Stone Age. At Skara Brae you can see houses that were built before the Pyramids and Stonehenge, complete with furniture, hearths and drains.

Who lived here? What did they eat? What did they wear? These are the questions that have fascinated visitors to Skara Brae since it was uncovered by a storm in 1850. You can find the answers in the visitor centre at Skara Brae. Interactive displays, original artifacts and an audio-visual presentation tell the story of the village and its people. A replica house, which visitors can enter to experience life in a prehistoric house, completes the picture.

Skaill House

As part of our Skara Brae experience we will see the home of William Graham Watt, the 7th Laird of Breckness Estate who discovered Skara Brae in 1850. This important 17th- century mansion house was originally built for Bishop George Graham in 1620 and has recently been renovated and opened to the public by the present laird. Skaill House contains the Bishop's bed, Captain Cook's dinner service from his ship the Resolution, the gun room with sporting and military memorabilia and many other items collected during the lives of the past lairds who have lived at Skaill. Skaill house offers a unique insight into Orkney history.

Forsyth Message Board

Wayne A. Forsyth, Clan Forsyth Ohio State Representative, hosts a Forsyth Message Board where you can share information with other Forsyths; post photos and Genealogy information; meet with other Forsyth(e)s from around the world; leave links to other web sites of interest; help others find missing links and long lost relatives. By posting messages and information to this site you can help make this site a success, both for you and others. To join the discussion, simply go to http://forums.delphi.com/Clan_Forsyth/start . This is a great opportunity to share Forsyth information with your cousins.

Support a Forsyth Tent Near You

Make your plans now to attend the Scottish festivities in 2003, and to support your local Clan Forsyth Representative. Any assistance (physical or monetary) that you provide to your Clan Forsyth Representative will be greatly appreciated. If you are hosting a Forsyth tent in 2003, please send your tent information to [email protected] for publication in Forsyth Notes . In the near future, we will publish a schedule of event where you can visit a Clan Forsyth tent in 2003.

Show your Forsyth pride. Wear your Forsyth tartan – Support your Forsyth tent.

Clan Forsyth Society of the USA

Forsyth Notes is a publication of Clan Forsyth Society of the USA. If you are not a member of Clan Forsyth Society, we invite you to join us, and enjoy the full benefits of membership in your extended Forsyth family. If you are not a member of Clan Forsyth Society, and would like to join Clan Forsyth Society of the USA, go to http://alt.xmission.com/~forsyth/application.html and complete your membership application. A gift membership to Clan Forsyth makes a great gift for your child or grandchild. Acquaint your family with their illustrious Forsyth heritage. The cost is small – the rewards are great.

Be sure to regularly visit our official Clan Forsyth Society of the USA web site at http://alt.xmission.com/~forsyth for the latest information on Clan Forsyth activities. We welcome our Forsyth cousins to Clan Forsyth Society of the USA.

Closing

Answer to Who Am I? Sergeant Samuel Forsyth , New Zealand Engineers, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, attd. 2nd Bn., Auckland Infantry Regiment Campaign First World War

If you know an outstanding Forsyth(e) that you would like to see featured in “Who Am I?”, send a brief biographical sketch to Forsyth Notes at [email protected] .

It has been said that there are only two kinds of people in this world—those who are Scottish, and those who wish they were Scottish. Take pride in your Scottish heritage and in your distinguished name of Forsyth.

Jim Forsythe

Clan Forsyth Society of the USA James H. Forsythe Mid-Eastern Regional Director Tennessee State Representative 6410 Poplar Avenue, Suite 130 Memphis, Tennessee 38119

Phone: (901) 767-0057 or (901) 763-0057 Fax: (901) 767-0927 E-Mail: [email protected] Web: http://forsythe.sytes.net/clanforsyth

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