After extending his education at Paris in the 1390s, he returned to Scotland to continue clerical and ambassadorial duties for the monarch, and was awarded with the bishopric of Brechin in 1407.
[1] The Forresters were a middle-ranking family of English origin who rose to greater prominence during Walter's lifetime.
[6] He was Keeper of the Privy Seal for a short period in 1386 (filling in for Duncan Petit), and served an auditor of the exchequer from March 1386.
[5] On or before 11 March 1391, he resigned to other members of his family his own land at Inverdovat in Forgan parish, Fife, reserving for himself a life-interest; this perhaps indicates that he had set himself on an ecclesiastical career.
[10] At a royal council in Perth in January 1398, he was named as one of 20 assistants of the Duke of Rothesay as lieutenant of the realm.
[9] He also continued his ambassadorial role, serving as leader of a mission to England in 1408 to negotiate the release of James I, the nominal king.
[14] Like other bishops of Brechin, Forrester does not seem to have been very active in his diocese, on several occasions obtaining papal indults legitimizing procurations without visitation.
[14] He is recorded presiding over statutes issued by his cathedral chapter in 1410, and later in the year pursued land claims successfully with the support of Governor Albany and his sheriff in Angus.
[15] By 7 June 1426, when his successor John de Crannach was provided to the see at the papal court, he must have been dead for some time.
[15] He was probably dead by the exchequer audit of 15 April, when John de Scheves was acting as Clerk of the Rolls and Register (an indication that Bishop Forrester was no longer available to perform this office).