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Title Letters from James Murray Forbes in China to Family and Friends
Reference Ms. N-49, box 40
Library Massachusetts Historical Society
Collection Forbes Family Papers
Collection Series James Murray Forbes Papers, 1813-1930
Date 1865-1866
Author / Creator Forbes, James Murray
Description Recipients include Forbes's cousins Lilly and Augustus Thorndike Perkins, Russell Sturgis, and a friend named Olivia.
Document Type Manuscript, Correspondence
Theme(s) Social Life
Keywords family, friends, household, travel, domestic, news, business
Countries China; USA; Japan
Ports Shanghai, China; Hong Kong, China; Boston, USA; Nagasaki, Japan
People Francis Blackwell Forbes; Philip Kearney Dumaresq
Additional Information

James Murray Forbes was born in 1845, the son of Rose and Robert Bennet Forbes (1804-1889). He had a brother, Robert Bennet Forbes (1837-1891) and a sister Edith (1843-1925) who married Charles Elliott Perkins in 1864. In 1871, James married Alice Francis Bowditch (1848-1929), and the couple had three children: Allan (1874-1955), Mary Bowditch (1878-1961), and Dorothy Murray (1881-1944).

James Murray Forbes travelled abroad to China to work for Russell and Company in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton. After his marriage in 1871 he served as Russell and Company's agent in Boston for a time, and then worked as an officer for several railroad and investment companies. He maintained a house at 107 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, one at Milton, and one at Dark Harbor, Maine.

Please note that some of the metadata for this document has been drawn from the Massachusetts Historical Society catalogue.

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