Career
He was the gardener for the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. He was the author of Salictum Woburnense (1829), Hortus Woburnensis (1833), Journal of Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium and Participant of France in. 1835 (1837) and Pinetum Woburnense (1839).
Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785 – 1865) named the species Oncidium forbesii (in the family of Orchidaceae) after him.