Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE FERGUSSONS OF KILKERRAN 411
in the parish of Dailly, so that when the river was in
spate, it should not flood the holms along its course. He
was a man of high ability, with a nice sense of honour,
and of a most affable address. Throughout the whole
district he was recognised as of a benevolent and kindly
disposition, and as exemplary in every relation of life.
Sir James was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Charles
Dalrymple Fergusson, born 1800, who married, 1829,
Helen, daughter of the Right Hon. David Boyle, and by
her, who died June 26, 1869, he had surviving issue,
four sons and seven daughters. Sir Charles, who died
March 18, 1849, was a man of exceptionally fine, all-round
character, who occupied a leading place in the public
work and in the beneficent and philanthropic life of
Ayrshire. It was said of him when he died that " he
lived to do good ; and to every scheme having for its
object the welfare of his fellow-creatures, gave the
benefits of his business talents, of his eloquence, and of
his wealth." To him, and to Mr. Hamilton of Carcluie,
Ayrshire was mainly indebted for the Agricultural
Association, which has done so much for agriculture in
every department, in the West of Scotland. The
County Prisons Board found in him one of the most
efficient and laborious of its members. He took a keen
interest in education. In Sir Charles's day the rural
and more remote parts of the county were not by any
means too well supplied with schools, and he set himself
to rectify this condition of affairs. Under his fostering
care there grew up an Educational Association whose
business it was to provide sufficient salaries for the
teachers of schools in localities too sparsely populated or
too destitute to find the money for themselves. He built
schools himself, and was a liberal contributor towards
the erection of churches and their subsequent main-
tenance. An elder in the Parish Church during a highly
eventful period in the history of the Church of Scotland,
he was recognised as among the most efficient office-
bearers the National Zion had during the troubles that
accompanied and that followed the Ten Years' Conflict.
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