[6] The next mention is a John Forbes, whose name dates from a 1306 roll containing a list of demands by English and Scottish loyalists to Edward I of England for the forfeited lands of Scotsmen, the lands of John Forbes being demanded or requested by both a William Comyn and a Robert Chival.

[8] In 1378, a charter was granted to John and his wife Margaret by the Bishop of Moray for the lands of Fynrossie on the loch of Spynie.

William was the progenitor of the Pitsligo line, John the ancestor of Tolquhonline while the houses of Skellater and Inverernan were founded by Alistair of Brux.

[12] Alexander had safe conduct from Henry V of England to visit his king, James I of Scotland at Rouen in 1421 and was allowed as his escort to bring forty Pikeman and other followers, up to one hundred men.

In 1536 he was charged with treason and was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, but was honourably acquitted after a long period of confinement.

[19] In 1529, Clan Forbes was involved in a feud with the citizens of Aberdeen, who withheld a sort of blackmail, a yearly tun of wine for the fishings of the Don.

On 19 December the following year, the magistrates served letters of law-burrows against Pitsligo, Tolquhon, Corsindae, Brux, Echt, and other gentlemen of the name of Forbes and Lord Pitsligo was obliged to find caution to the council at Perth for his own and friends good behaviour towards the town of Aberdeen.

[12] In the 1520s there were murders by both sides, and one of the most prominent killed by the Forbeses was Seton of Meldrum who was a close connection of the Earl of Huntly, chief of Clan Gordon.

[12] The Master of Forbes was accused by the Earl of Huntly of conspiring to assassinate James V of Scotland in 1536 by shooting at him with a cannon.

[12] Alexander, the 10th Lord Forbes, was a Lieutenant general under Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War.

Alexander, fourth Lord, was attainted after the battle of Culloden; living long secretly in one of his own gate lodges, he died in 1762.

Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhon commanded a troop of cavalry in the Scots army at Worcester; and when the King's horse was shot, mounted him on his own, put his buff coat and a bloody scarf about him, and saw him safe out of the field.

The fortunes of this house were probably consumed in the fever of the Darien Scheme, in which Alexander Forbes of Tolquhon (like many other good old Scottish families) appears to have embarked beyond his means, the stock he held (500) having been judicially attached.