Forster, William

Forster, William a member of the Society of Friends, was born at Tottenham, England, in 1794. He was carefully trained by his parents, who were excellent "Friends," and at nineteen began to exercise his gifts as a "minister." Most of his life was devoted to missionary journeys through the British Islands, the Continent of Europe, and the United States, on his third visit to which, "with an antislavery address to the president and governors," he died in Tennessee, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. In the preceding year, 1852, he visited the Vaudois of Piedmont, and printed a large number of books and tracts in Italian for circulation. Everywhere he scattered blessings by word and deed, "leaving his mark for good on everything he set his hand to." His son, William E. Forster, is (1869) a member of the British Parliament, and an eminent Liberal in politics. — Seebohm, Memoirs of William Forster (London, 1865, 2 volumes); Christian Remembrancer, January, 1866, art. 4.