John FORSTER

                   Sir John Forster of Bamborough Castle, Knighted in 1547. He was Knight,and  Capt. and for 37 years Lord Warden of the Middle Marches and of her Magesties Councell, established in the North, died in 1602. Sir John was noted for having many bastard children. He lived to be 102 years old.  He paid his servants well as it was noted that the servants could spend money on their wife's appearance.  It was said that the Armstrongs seem to have  found Graham and Forster girls particularly attractive, and vice Versa.  The same thing happened all along the Border:  one of the charges levelled against Sir John Forster, was that he tolerated inter-racial marriages,  the Forsters with the Humes and Selbys with the Tutherfords, the Collingwoods with the Halls of Teviotdale, the Reades with the Armstrongs, and so on.  He was able to amass sufficient wealth to purchase from Henry VII, all the church lands in Bamburgh, resulting from the dissolution of the monastries.  Forster sunk deep as he was in Border Politics, doubtless had his own private reasons for permitting these alliances, but these apart he was too old and worldly-wise to try to impose government's law on Nature's.  It was considered Treason to intermary with the Scots.  John Forster was considered the only native Warden of the Middle March as most of the others were imports.  This may have been the fact that he was there so long and lived so long.  John didn't get the financial backing of London that he was intitled to and often said that the payment was not sufficient to maintain his house.  The costs were usually paid from his private funds or what could be recovered from rustling and other efforts.
John lost two brothers-in-law and one son -in-law, all murdered. They had gone out on a declaired day of peace and some one charged from the Scotish side which started a fight, killing the Forster family.  At the time of John's death he was still being chased by robers.
It was said to have been a tradition among the Borderers that when a male child was christened, his right hand should be excluded from the ceremony, so that in time of feud, he would be better equiped to strike "unhallowed" blows upon his family's enemies. In 1560 he commanded a large force of light horse at the siege of Berwick, under the Duke of Norfolk.  Following this he was appointed Deputy Governor of Berwick and, in 1563 Deputy Warden of the East Marche.  In 1569 he helped suppress the large uprising on the north which was led by the Earl of Westmorland with the support of the Earl of Northumberland.  As a result both Alnwick Castle and Warkworth Castle fell into his hands and he stripped them of everything of value.  He also stripped the Abby of glase, led, and types.  John Forster and the Earl of Moray, a notable killer of reivers, marched in concert in 1569 to harry Liddesdale, and burned every house in the valley.  Sir John was restored as Warden until 1595 when he was releaved of his duty partly because of age and partly because of renewed charges of dishonesty and incompetence. By 1569 the boarder conditions had changed with King James uniting the two kingdoms.  He went home and spent his declining years at Bamborough Castle.  Even though he had been a friend of the Scots in his day there were those who regarded him with deadly hostility, and on a night in October 1597 a band of 30 riders came over the line to Bamborough with the intent to settle his accounts at last.  Forster was in his bed but Lady Forster saw the raders comming up the stairs and with great presents of mind she got the door  closed and bolted.  2nd Son of Sir Thomas Foster of Alderstone, of Bamburgh castle, by grant of the Crown: dep. warden or warden of the Middle or East Marches for 37 years: knighted 1547: sheriff of Northumberland in 1549.  Will Dated 1601: proved 15th Jul 1802, by Dame Isabell Forster the widow and Nicholas Forster the son,heirs of Bamburo Castle.  Sir John was a valiant man and he took an active part in many wars.  He was the escort to  Mary Queen of Scotts over Halidon Hill towards Berwick. John sent a letter to his cousin which reads as follows--"Cousin Forster"- After righte heartie commendations unto you, ye shal understand yt I have received yr letter wherein you desire to know of yr pedigree, for that yr grandfather, as ye have learned descneded out of the house of Etherston, and to know whether he was one elder, second, or third, or forth brother and wherefor he fled and countrie of Northumberland, I assure you I can trowhlie satisfie you therein; for you grandfather, called Roger Foster was my great uncle, and there were XIX brothers and he was the second brother, His fathjer was called Thomas Forster, and his mother's name was Fetherstonehaugh; his eldest son was called Thomas Forster, who was my great-grandfather, and it happened that four of the said brethern at a hunting, and rideing homeward through a town called Newham, for the bitting of a greyhound they and a company of Karrs fell out, and there began bloodshed and fueds which continued until there was but one Karr of the greyhound living; during which time my grandfather and yours and another brother of theirs, called Nicholas Forster- mine being twenty years old, yrs 17 years, and Nicholas a child of 14, being a-hunting-were waited on by opne of the Karrs and two of their allyance called Too and King, who set upon the three brothers and Too were slain there, and the Karr fled, insomuch that after the said slaughter, my grandfather flet to Ridsdale and ye countie, because he was safe there, and yours fled unto south parts, of whom I never heard of since yt time till now... At my house near Alnwick, 17th Apr, 1590, your loving cousin, John Forster.
He married Jane Radclyff, heiress to the Blanchland estates, which in this way, became part of the Forsters estate.  By Jan he had several daughters.  He also sowed quite a few wild oats and had a number of other children, including sons, who were illegitimate.  His heir, Nicholas was born out of wedlock, possibly by Isabel Sheppard, whom Sir John later married as his second wife.  John's Funeral feast was his final flamboyant gesture.  It cost over 450 pounds which was rougly equal to one third of his estate, and bearing in mind what he had paid for Bamburgh, it must have been quite a party.