Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macbean, Forbes
MACBEAN, FORBES (1725–1800), lieutenant-general royal artillery, born in 1725, entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet-matross, 16 July 1743, and passed out as a lieutenant-fireworker royal artillery, 25 March 1745. His subsequent promotions were: first lieutenant 1 March 1755, captain-lieutenant 1 April 1756, captain 1 Jan. 1759, brevet-major 22 July 1772, brevet lieutenant-colonel 29 Aug. 1777, regimental major 19 Jan. 1780, regimental lieutenant-colonel 2 Dec. 1781, brevet-colonel 26 Nov. 1782, colonel 1 Dec. 1782, major-general and colonel-commandant of the invalid battalion of artillery 1793, lieutenant-general 1798. Three weeks after his appointment in 1745 Macbean marched with the artillery from Ghent (see Duncan, i. 125, for a curious account of the order of march), and had command of two guns at the battle of Fontenoy, 30 April 1745 (ib. p. 127). On the news of the rising in Scotland, the whole of the artillery of the Duke of Cumberland's army (four companies) was sent home. Macbean joined Cumberland's army at Lichfield, and served at the siege of Carlisle in December 1745. In the following summer he went back to the Low Countries, and made the campaigns of 1746–8, commanding the battalion of the 19th foot at the battle of Roucoux, and a detachment of two guns at Val (Laffeldt).
In 1752, when the East India Company decided to form two new companies of artillery, one at Fort St. David, the other at Fort William (Wilson, Hist. Madras Army, i. 46–7), Macbean appears to have been recommended for the command, but to have been replaced by another officer at the wish of the Duke of Cumberland (cf. Proc. Roy. Art. Inst. vol. xiii.) In 1755 he was selected to command a detachment of royal artillery ordered to Ireland, which formed the nucleus of the royal Irish artillery, but the adjutancy at Woolwich falling vacant at the same time, he purchased it under the system then in force, and held it until promoted to a company in 1759. In April of that year he proceeded with his company to Germany, and commanded the heavy brigade of British artillery in the campaigns of 1759–60. At the battle of Minden (Thornhausen), August 1759, where his brigade consisted of ten medium 12-pounders, manned by two companies, he rendered conspicuous services, for which he received an autograph letter of thanks from Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and a gratuity of 500 crowns (Duncan, i. 201–14). He was again distinguished at Warburg, 30 July 1760, and at Fritzlar, 12 Feb. 1761, where he commanded a brigade of eight heavy 12-pounders (ib. pp. 215–16). On his return home on sick leave soon after, he was recommended to the king by Prince Ferdinand for some special mark of royal favour, which he never received. In 1762 he embarked with his company for Portugal, and made the campaign under the Count de la Lippe, of which he left a manuscript account, now in the Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich. Macbean was one of the British officers allowed to return to Portugal, on the prospect of a fresh misunderstanding with Spain the year after. He was appointed colonel of Portuguese artillery, and in 1765 inspector-general of Portuguese artillery, a post he held for four years, receiving a very handsome testimonial from the Conde d'Oeyras, the Portuguese secretary of state, on his departure.
Macbean commanded a company of artillery in Canada in 1769–73, and at home in 1773–1777. In March 1778 he was appointed to command the artillery in Canada, in succession to Major-general Thomas Phillips, and in 1780, on the prospect of an American invasion, was appointed to the left brigade, consisting of the 31st, 44th, and 84th regiments, covering Sorel, on which, as on various other occasions, his services received the approbation of General Haldimand [see Haldimand, Sir Frederick]. Macbean was made a F.R.S. in 1786, being the second artillery officer (the first was Thomas Desaguliers [q. v.]) to receive that distinction. The artillery service is greatly indebted to him for his private notes and memoranda, without which much valuable information relating to the earlier history of the corps would have been lost (ib. i. 6).
Macbean, a lieutenant-general and colonel-commandant, royal invalid artillery, died at his residence, Woolwich Common, 11 Nov. 1800, in his seventy-sixth year. His widow died at Greenwich in 1818, aged 88.
[Kane's Lists Officers Roy. Artillery (revised ed. 1891); Duncan's Hist. Roy, Artillery, 2 vols. passim; Official Catalogue Roy. Artillery Museum, Preface; Proc. Royal Artillery Institution, xiii. 189–91; Gent. Mag. 1800, pt. ii, p. 1117. Also General Orders of the Marquis of Granby, Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 28855; Macbean's Correspondence with General Haldimand, Add. MSS. 21796–8 passim, 21816 passim, 21835, f. 181.]