Their son John was a Catholic, as was his elder brother William, who had gone to Flanders and joined the Capuchin order, and his uncle, James Gordon, the Jesuit.
On recovering his liberty he learned Flemish and Latin; and on 2 August 1593 became a novice in the Capuchin monastery at Tournai.
[1] The life of John Forbes was written in Latin by Faustinus Cranius of Diest, under the title of Alter Alexius, natione Scotus, nobili familia oriundus, nuper in Belgium felici S. Spiritus afflatu delatus, et in familiam Seraphici Patris S. Francisci Cappucinorum adscriptus, sub nomine F. Archangeli, Cologne, 1620.
It was translated into Italian as Narrativa della Vita d'un Figlio et d'una Madre, Modena, 1634.
An English version, with Forbes's portrait prefixed, engraved by J. Picart, was printed at Douay, 1623, together with a memoir of Father Benedict Canfield, and The Life of the Reverend Fa.