Newcastle University

Dorothy Forster 1686 - The Heroine of the "Fifteen"

Dorothy and her brother Tom lived in Bamburgh Castle which had been owned by the Forster family from the 16th Century. During the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 Tom enlisted to fight for the Stuart cause and was known as the General of the English army. He was captured and held in Newgate Goal, London.

Dorothy, disguised as a servant travelled to London, and in a daring plan using a duplicate key, helped her brother to escape and he fled to France. Dorothy arranged for a coffin to be filled with sawdust and placed in the family vault at Bamburgh to outwit the authorities.

When Tom died in 1738 his body was returned to England and laid to rest in the Crypt of St Aidan's Church in Bamburgh. After Dorothy's death she was buried alongside her brother. Her story is told in the novel Dorothy Forster written by Walter Besant in 1890.

Material used:

Clarke Collection:
Dorothy and the Forsters of Bamburgh.
Saint Aidan's Church Bamburgh
The Lord Crewe Arms Blanchland
All written by J.Bird

Friends Collection:
The Annals of King George… For the Year 1716.
An account of Tom's escape.

Robinson Collection:
A Royal Proclamation.
A reward for the recapture of Tom.

1801-1850 Collection:
Dilston Hall, or Memoirs of the Earl of Derwentwater.
This gives an account of Tom's escape and the opening of the Crypt in St Aidan's Church in 1837.

18th Century Collection:
The History of the late Rebellion by Robert Patten 1st edition and 3rd editions
The later edition gives a more detailed account of Tom's escape.

Victorian Collection:
Dorothy Forster by Walter Besant.