Robert Bennet Forbes

1804 - 1889  (85 years)    Has 10 ancestors and 3 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Robert Bennet Forbes
  Birth	1804
  Gender	Male
  Prominent People	USA
  rich
  Death	1889
  Siblings	2 Siblings
  + 1. Robert Bennet Forbes,   b. 1804   d. 1889  (Age 85 years) ▻ Rose Greene Smith,  m. 1834   2. Thomas Tunno Forbes   d. Yes, date unknown   3. John Murray Forbes   d. Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I365173	Geneagraphie
  Links To	This person is also Robert Bennet Forbes at Wikipedia
  Last Modified	25 Jan 2002

  
  

  Father	Ralph Bennett Forbes   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Margaret Perkins   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F144646	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Rose Greene Smith   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	1834
  Children	1. Robert Bennet Forbes, Jr.   2. James Murray Forbes   d. Yes, date unknown   3. Edith Forbes   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F144648	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Jan 2002

  
  

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• Notes

  Fortune : 300,000 $ 1850 2,500,000 $ 1875 Activity : Shipping merchant Main property: Russell & Co Other activities: investments Associated properties: Michigan Central RR, Chicago Burlington & Quincy RR Robert Bennet Forbes was a born seaman, drawn to the sea ever since his first crossing of the Atlantic in 1811. At the age of 12, he apprenticed in the newly formed firm of Samuel Cabot jr, Thomas Perkins jr and James Perkins III. But clerking in a counting house was not Robert Forbes idea about a future and his uncle Thomas Handasyd Perkins noticed it early enough. In 1817, he was sent on his first sea voyage to China. Robert Bennet Forbes rose steadily until he got the first command of a Perkins vessel, the “Levant” in 1824; many more would follow. After his brother Thomas Tunno died, Robert Forbes, in the meantime a seasoned sea captain nicknamed Black Ben Forbes, sought a more profitable activity. In 1830, financed by John Cushing and William Sturgis, he set out with his own ship, the “Lintin” to take over the opium storage facility off-shore Canton which was popularly called the Lintin storage. Opium had in the meantime become an important exchange medium and commodity in the China trade. Whereas its consumption and trade where not forbidden by the American or British laws, it was strictly illegal in China. The Lintin off-shore storage operation served as the major gateway for British and American opium trades into China. From there the drugs were smuggled into Canton by Chinese. It was a profitable business and netted Ben Forbes about 30'000 $ a year until in 1832 he sold a half interest of the Lintin storeship to Russell & Co. He thereafter returned to Boston where he entered the mercantile business with Daniel Bacon. In 1834, he married and settled in his expensive mansion in Milton, Massachusetts. After initially successful years at the Boston end of the lucrative China trade, Robert Bennet Forbes’s fortunes turned against him during the crisis of 1837, when his associates went bankrupt and an unfortunate venture into Pennsylvania coal and iron, and a nail factory cost him much of his private fortune. By 1838, Black Ben Forbes was again on his way to China, where he became the head of Russell & Co, in the wake of what would become the opium war, opposing the British to the Chinese, with the American firms cashing in on their neutrality during the conflict. Robert Bennet Forbes recouped his losses and remained in the China trade during the 1840s, associated with his brother John Murray. Ben Forbes also followed his younger brother in his many railroad ventures and consequently built a sizeable fortune. During Civil War he sustained further losses through his outfitting of a private coast guard and building of Union navy ships, an enterprise which earned him patriotic credits.