Richard Forrest

• Birth date            1792-1794
• Marriage              About 1823 to Mary Ann (unknown) of Henley Oxfordshire
• Death date          1870 ?

Born at Dalkeith, where his father was a nurseryman and florist, he very early in life was placed under the tuition of Mr Macdonald, the very talented horticulturist to the Duke of Buccleuch, whose labours in promoting his favourite art are well known. Thence he went to the Royal Gardens at Kew, and finished his professional education under Mr William Aiton, with full benefit of the study of all the plants in the royal collection. While yet but a youth Mr Aiton recommended him to Earl Grosvenor (now the Marquis of Westminster), for whom he executed the gardens and pleasure grounds at Eaton Hall, where, in the course of six years, he converted a marsh into a paradise. After this he planned and executed, for the Duke of Northumberland, the magnificent improvements at Sion House, where the gardens and grounds are not surpassed, and the rack work and conservatory are unequalled. When the works at Sion were perfected, he offered his services to the public, first as a landscape gardener and designer of works, and secondly, as the same and a nurseryman and florist jointly. [Monthly Magazine or British Register Volume 24 July-Dec 1837 page 690]

In 1836 Richard Forrest acquired the Kensington Nursery at a prime location in one of the most fashionable parts of London.

 The Kensington Nursery, lately occupied by Wm. Malcolm and Co., has been taken by Mr. Forrest, the landscape-gardener, who is about to erect a splendid new range of glass, and plant single specimens of all the more interesting and valuable hardy trees and shrubs; in short, a select arboretum and fruiticetum. We have long recommended this step to the principal London nurserymen, and more especially to the late, and present, Mr. Lee; being persuaded that, while it would greatly improve the public taste with regard to trees and shrubs, it would contribute to their own benefit in a commercial point of view. — Cond. [Gardener’s Magazine Vol 12 1836 page 697

 Elected a Fellow of the London Horticultural Society in 1837 [Gardner’s Magazine 7 February 1837 page 191] Richard Forrest advertised regularly in the Gardener’s Chronicle until 1846. With the lease of the Kensington Nursey shortly to expire, he purchased the former William Swallow Nursery at Reading, taking his son Richard Thomas Forrest into partnership and in March 1847 the whole of the nursery stock together with all the utensils in trade at Kensington was auctioned off. However, the new nursery failed to match the success of the former, and the partnership with his son ended on 8 May 1848. By September 1850 Richard Forrest had been declared bankrupt and incarcerated as a debtor in Queen’s Prison. Ten years later Richard Forrest, Landscape Gardner and Garden architect was in lodgings in High Street, Newchurch, Isle of Wight with his daughter, Elizabeth.  He fails to be recorded in the 1871 census and is assumed to  be the Richard Douglas Forrest whose burial took place at Ventnor on 23 February 1870.

WORKS

Gardens and pleasure grounds at Eaton Hall, to Earl Grosvenor (later the Marquis of Westminster)
Gardens and pleasure grounds Sion House for the Duke of Northumberland
Kensal Green Cemetery (1833)
Bristol and Clifton Zoological Gardens,
Cheltenham Zoological Gardens,
Botanical Garden Bath
The Botanical and Zoological Garden at Cheltenham, one at Manchester, and another at Bath, all laid out by Mr. Forrest, are in progress. [Gardeners Magazine Vol 3 1837 page 540]
Public Parks, Manchester
CHECK- Lancashire Independent College 1842
 
Address
1836    Kensington Nursery
1846    49 Market Place Reading. [Gardner’s Chronicle 21 February 1846 page 127]

Residence
1848    Richard Forrest, Crown-street, Reading, Berkshire,
1849     Woburn, Bedfordshire,
1850     Pine-villa, Battersea, Surrey;
1861    High Street, Newchurch, Isle of Wight