John Kerry's Grandparents - James and Margaret Forbes

[angrydemocrat]

James Grant Forbes was born in Shanghai on Oct.22,1879 educated at Harvard and graduated in the class of 1901, and went into banking in Boston. He married Margaret Winthrop of Boston.

If those in the Forbes family of Massachusetts were famous for their business acumen, the Winthrops of Mass. were their equal in politics. The marriage of James Grant Forbes and Margret Winthrop had the air of a royal union, bringing together the Bay State's most famous families.

James Grant Forbes married Margret Winthrop on Nov.28,1906 and was blessed with eleven children. One of those eleven being Rosemary Forbes the senator John Kerry's mother. James Forbes was drawn to foreign business, and was soon working on railway ventures in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. When World War I began in 1914 he was living in Paris, and remained in France working on US relief projects and business ventures through the conflict.

Two years later Forbes aquired a magnificent estate named Les Essarts in the Brittiany resort town of Saint Briac where he and his family spent many summers. During the 1920's and 1930's, Forbes played a major role in setting up the coal and steel business in Europe, as well as working on locations from the Balkins and Iran.