He was called to the Bar in 1812 and became a Crown Law Officer in Bermuda and married Amelia Sophia Grant in 1813, returning to England in 1815.
Rather than return to Newfoundland’s maritime climate, Forbes accepted a position as Chief Justice of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.
4. c. 96) which, along with the Charter of Justice issued under it on 13 October 1823, replaced the legal tribunals of convict days with a Supreme Court possessing comprehensive jurisdiction.
The Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was impressed by Forbes, and in his dispatches of 1 July and 12 August 1824 reported that "since the arrival of the chief justice the state of the Colony has assumed a new tone".
It was proposed to pass acts for the purpose of restraining the liberty of the press, and Forbes refused to certify them as he considered them repugnant to the laws of England.
[8] After great discussion the issue went to the Colonial Office, whose legal advisors were of opinion that Forbes was right in refusing to certify the act for licensing newspapers.
On 14 October 1824, in the court of Quarter Sessions (so named because they met four times per year), 12 men who had not been convicts were sworn in as the first jurors.
After recovering from two bouts of influenza, he made it to St James Palace on 5 April 1837 to be dubbed by King William IV.
[11] His dream of a comfortable retirement at ‘Edinglassie’, a rural retreat he built on his property in the Nepean, was never realised as he needed to be close to his doctors.
[13] It was given with words of high praise: "Nothing but the highest moral firmness and integrity, combined with that genius and learning for which you are so eminently distinguished, could have overcome the opposition and difficulties which you have had to encounter.
"[17] These grateful "colonists" had raised the mighty sum of 260 pounds, 5 shillings and 6 pence (at least AUS$33,000 in 2016 money) through public donations.