[1] He was born at Garmouth in Morayshire to carpenter John Forsyth and Helen Young.
He worked on the railways and in the timber trade before migrating to New South Wales in 1848.
He logged cedar on the Northern Rivers before following the gold rush across New South Wales and Victoria.
He was married three times: firstly on 21 January 1854 to Sarah Corbett, with whom he had nine children; secondly on 24 October 1877 to Sarah Spottiswood Emmett née Blackham (widow of Edward Nucella Emmett);[2] and thirdly around 1906 to Harriet Grace Walker.
A general merchant from 1862 to 1864, he established the first rope factory in Sydney in 1865.