Francis Blackwell Forbes

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Francis Blackwell Forbes (1839 - 1908) was a China merchant, opium trader and botanist. He and other members of the Forbes family were active in the Opium trade and China trade during the Opium Wars, amassing a large fortune. Due to his family's deep involvement with the opium trade and opium, Forbes developed a lifelong interest in the poppy and other plants, and in Chinese botany in general.

He was the son of James Grant Forbes I and brother of John Murray Forbes. He married Isabel Clarke Forbes and was the father of William Forbes and James Grant Forbes. He is a maternal great-grandfather of 2004 US Presidential candidate John Kerry.