Eli Forbes

Reverend Eli Forbes
Christian Gullager (1759-1826)
Massachusetts, 1785-87
Oil on canvas 
Gift of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little 

Eli Forbes (1726-1804) served as minister for Brookfield, Massachusetts. In a controversial sermon delivered in 1771, Forbes condemned tyranny but defended the British military occupation of Boston as “necessary to the preservation of the public peace.” Facing harassment from his fellow colonists, Forbes and his family left their parish in 1775. Christian Gullager painted this portrait of Eli Forbes after he fled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and became minister of its First Church.