David Forrest was a Scottish mint official, as the "General", and a supporter of the Scottish Reformation.Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), pp. 25–43: Martin A. Forrest, "David and Alexander Forrest and their part in the Scottish Reformation", Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists Society 25 (2003), pp. 13–24.
Career Forrest was treasurer to Haddington burgh council. He married Isobel Yule. Their eldest son, also called David, died in 1584. His name is sometimes spelled "Forres" or given as "Forrester".Alexander Montgomerie, "Forrests of Gimmersmills", East Lothian Antiquarians and Field Naturalist Society Transactions, 5 (1952), pp. 43, 45.
John Knox mentions visiting Forrest at Haddington, East Lothian in 1546 while George Wishart was preaching in the town.David Laing, Works of John Knox, 1 (Edinburgh, 1846), p. 137. During the war known as the Rough Wooing, Forrest offered some assistance to the English garrison at Haddington and may have been an "Assured Scot".Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), pp. 29–31.
Mary of Guise appointed him General of the mint in 1554 and in 1556 an auditor of the exchequer.Timothy Slonosky, Civic Reformation and Religious Change in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Towns (Edinburgh, 2024), pp. 136–137. The General was a superior administrative officer.Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), pp. 29–31. In 1555, Forrest employed an English technician or metallurgist called Meservy as master coiner. His work proved fraudulent and he was imprisoned in the Tolbooth.Accounts the Treasurer of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 261, 296.
According to Knox, Forrest was a moderate or temporiser who tried to prevent Protestants seizing the statue of St Giles carried in procession through Edinburgh on 1 September 1558.Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), p. 34.
Forrest went to England in November 1559. He returned to Scotland in 1561 and to his post at the mint, and was nominated by the General Assembly in 1560 and 1562 to be a minister of the kirk. He did not become a minister.David Laing, Works of John Knox, 1 (Edinburgh, 1846), pp. 563–564.History of the Church and State of Scotland by Robert Keith, 3 (Edinburgh, 1850), pp. 57, 64. In 1564, he was involved in payments made to John Huntar, who kept sheep for Mary, Queen of Scots, in Holyrood Park.Michael Pearce, "Account of George Wishart of Drymme", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 17 (Edinburgh: SHS, 2025), pp. 4, 16, 14, 36.
In December 1565, David Forrest, John Achesoun, and the officers of the mint were directed to coin a new "Marie ryall" worth 30 shillings, depicting a crowned palm tree, with a tortoise, called a "schell padocke" (a toad in a shell) climbing the trunk, with the motto "Dat Gloria Vires", with "Exurgat Deus et Dissipentur Inimici Eius" around the edge. On the other side the coin had the royal arms and an inscription for Mary and Lord Darnley, "Maria et Henricus Dei Gratia Regina et Rex Scotorum".John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1545–1569, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 101.
Forrest signed the audit of the exchequer accounts on 16 July 1567.Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 19, (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 353, 396. After Mary, Queen of Scots, was captured at the battle of Carberry Hill, some of her silverware from Holyroodhouse Palace was sent to be minted into coins.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1863), p. cxlviii. Forrest signed receipts for silver plate at the mint on 14 August 1567.Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), p. 38 citing National Records of Scotland E105/8: Robert Cochran Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland: From the Earliest Period, 1 (Edinburgh, 1867), p. 251.
Forrest also signed as a witness the band for mutual defence between William Kirkcaldy of Grange as Captain of Edinburgh Castle and Edinburgh town, represented by Simon Preston of Craigmillar, made on 8 May 1568.History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1843), pp. 412–413. After the assassination of Regent Moray in January 1570, Forrest obtained a copy of a satirical pamphlet lampooning Knox and Moray which he gave to Alison Sandilands, the wife of John Cockburn of Ormiston.Jane Dawson, John Knox (Yale, 2015), p. 280. She gave it to John Knox. Richard Bannatyne noted the text in his Memoriales.Amy Blakeway, "A Scottish Anti-Catholic Satire Crossing the Border, and the Redeswyre Raid of 1575", The English Historical Review, 129:541 (December 2014), pp. 1359–1360: Robert Pitcairn, Memoriales of the transactions in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), pp. 5–14. During the Marian Civil War, Forrest received a bonus for working "in the time of trouble".Robert Cochran Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland: From the Earliest Period, 1 (Edinburgh, 1867), pp. 244–245.
One of Forrest's books, John Calvin's Commentarii in Isaiam Prophetam (Geneva, 1551) is kept at the John Rylands Library. He signed the book on 17 July 1552.Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), pp. 25, 38 fn. 3.
References
External links Martin A. Forrest, "David Forrest, the Scottish Reformer and a Reattributed Provenance of a Calvin Commentary in the John Rylands Library", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 96:1 (Spring 2020), pp. 25–43