About Forrester, Joseph James
Joseph James Forrester was a winemaker, merchant and wine shipper, artist, pioneer photographer and botanist, he was also a surveyor and cartographer.

FORRESTER, JOSEPH JAMES, Baron de Forrester in Portugal (1809–1861),born at Hull 27 May 1809 Joseph went to Oporto in 1831 to join his uncle, James Forrester, partner in the house of Offley, Forrester, & Webber. He early devoted himself to the interests of his adopted country, and a laborious survey of the Douro, with a view to the improvement of its navigation, was one of the principal occupations of the first twelve years of his residence. The result was the publication in 1848 of a remarkable map of the river from Vilvestre on the Spanish frontier to its mouth at St. João da Foz on a scale of 4½ inches to the Portuguese league. Its merit was universally recognised, commendatory resolutions were voted by the Municipal Chamber of Oporto, the Agricultural Society of the Douro, and other public bodies, while its adoption as a national work by the Portuguese government gave it the stamp of official approbation. It was supplemented by a geological survey and by a separate map of the port wine districts, reprinted in England in 1852 by order of a select committee of the House of Commons.
In 1844 Forrester published anonymously a pamphlet on the wine trade, entitled "A Word or two on Port Wine". This was the first step in his endeavours to obtain a reform of the abuses practised in Portugal in the making and treatment of port wine, and the remodelling of the peculiar legislation by which the trade was regulated. The author of the pamphlet was easily identified and bitterly attacked by the persons interested. The inhabitants of the wine country, however, supported him warmly, and he received addresses of thanks from 102 parishes of the Upper Douro.
He was created Baron de Forrester for life by the crown of Portugal, made knight commander of the orders of Christ and Isabella la Catolica, and received the cross of chevalier of various orders of his adopted country. He was member of the Royal Academies of Lisbon and Oporto, of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin, of the English Society of Antiquaries, of the Royal Geographical Societies of London, Paris, and Berlin, and received the highest gold medals reserved for learned foreigners by the pope and by the emperors of Russia, Austria, and France. Charles Albert, king of Piedmont, during his residence in Oporto, not long before his death, detached from his own breast the cross of SS. Maurice and Lazarus, worn by him throughout his campaigns, in order to affix it to the coat of Baron de Forrester.
Joseph James Forrester drowned when his boat capsized in the rapids of Valeria Gorge.

[Annual Register, 1861, ciii. 438; Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. July 1861, ii. 88; private information from W. Offley Forrester.