There was a Templar knight, Guy de Foresta, who was Master of the Temple, n 1290–1294.
One Adam ate forest appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Kent in 1300.
In Scotland the name is first mentioned in the Morton Register of 1376 where William de Forest is found in Newlands, Scottish Borders.
The Forrest baronets of Comiston in Edinburgh had a coat of arms containing three oak trees and the motto "vivunt dum virent" (they live while green).
The prominent pioneer family of Western Australia, including Sir John Forrest, also have this motto and similar arms in their history.