Person:Jannette Forsythe (1)

Jeanette Forsythe was born about 1660 in Edinburgh, Scotland and died circa 1755-59. Some sources think she lived to be 100. She may even have been born July 16,1655 at Edinburgh, the daughter of James Forsythe (b.Apr 14,1626 at Edinburgh) and Margaret (Cowan) Forsythe (b.Jan 25,1641 at Dysart, Co.Fife).Jeannette or Janette (her name was probably also spelled Janet or Jonet, common Scots variants of this name) was a Forsyth or Forsythe. The Scottish genealogists Kenneth Robertson and James Dinwoodie proposed that she may have been a daughter of a certain John Forsyth and Catherine Morisone, but it's unclear what evidence there is to support that hypothesis. B. Frank Severance's old Stewart Genealogy says her father was named either William or James, but that was a misreading of Old Joseph Stewart's letter of 15 March 1819, in which Joseph said his mother was named Elizabeth Forsyth, and that his maternal grandfather was named either William or James. So William or James were among the names of the possible father of Elizabeth Forsyth, second wife of John Stewart/Stuart, son of Robert Stewart and Janette Forsyth.

As for the tradition of the lost estate that Janette's son Samuel returned to Scotland to recover, it's unknown what that "estate" may have been. Janette's husband Robert was born in Gartnafuaran in Perthshire, but as a younger son of a tacksman of Balquihidder Parish, there certainly were no Perthshire lands on his father's side that he could have recovered. It's possible, however, that the estate (whatever it was) was something inherited from Janette's family the Forsyths -- and perhaps it was near Edinburgh, which might account for the persistent family traditions linking Robert and Janette to Edinburgh.

Her husband was born in 1655 and died in 1714 before the ships could be procured for their voyage to America.

She came to America with her son John in 1718. She apparently outlived him, and is buried, along with her daughter-in-law, in Colrain,MA. Marriage

Jeanette Forsythe was married to Robert Stewart of Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1682. Children

Robert and Jannette/Jeanette had four children:

1. John Stuart. b.1682,

2. Robert Stuart. b.1684,

3. Julianne Stuart. b. c1686,

4. Samuel Stuart. b. c1688.

These last two are conjecture. There is no history on the daughter. Tradition has it that because he (Robert b.1655) was a Covenanter and had fled to Northern Ireland, he wanted to maintain the Scottish births, and Jannette always went back to Edinburgh for the birth of their children. However the Stewart lands were in Gartnafuran, Balquidder, Perthshire.

Son Samuel stayed in Scotland to retrieve lands lost to the crown when his aged mother and two brothers came to America in 1718.

Son Robert came to America without a wife and two young sons. He is possibly buried in Amherst,NH, as that is where he last lived with his son John who married Keturah Holt of Andover,MA.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ancestry.com - OneWorldTree (discontinued in 2013): - extremely unreliable source.

   Ancestry.com. One World Tree (sm) [database online]. Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc.