Records of the clan and name of Fergusson, Ferguson and Fergus

18 CLAN FERGUSSON
Fergus, witnessed a grant by Malise, Earl of Stratheam, in
the thirteenth century.
An esquire of the name is found in the War of Independence
in company very different from that with which his name is
generally associated. Among the garrison of sixty men, all
Scotsmen, under command of Walter Fitz-Gilbert, acting for
the owner, Aymar de Valence, who held the castle of Both-
well for the English until after the battle of Bannockburn,
occurs the name of Willelmus filius Fergusvi, described (in
1311-12) as one sociorum suorum scutiferorum ad arma
commorancium in municione praedicta quolibet capiente
per diem xii d. The esquires received the same pay as the
governor, that of an archer being ii d. per diem. In a list of
Equi appreciate, the colour of this William Ferguson's horse
is preserved. It was a brown charger ; and in the Bothwell
garrison, with the good Lord James of Douglas anxious for
admission into his own house, probably had enough of the
stable. ' Willelmus filius Fergusii . . . brunnum badium
X. Marc.' The esquires of the garrison appear, from their
names, to have been mostly south-country Scotsmen.
On the other hand, Fergusius cle Ardrossan was one of the
signatories of the famous letter addressed by the Scots
Barons to the Pope in 1320, in which the independence of
the realm was so worthily asserted.
Before dealing in more detail with the history of the race
in different districts of Scotland, and beyond Scotland, it is
convenient to collect a few facts of general interest illustrat-
ing the connection of the name with outstanding national
events, and indicating how the paths in life of various ' Sons
of Fergus,' hailing from widely separated parts of the country,
have occasionally crossed. David Fergusson, minister of
Dunfermline, a man noted both for his piety and his humour,
was one of the leading Scottish Reformers; his grandson,
and last male descendant, was minister of Strickmartine at
the Revolution, and his feeling of clanship gave a start in life
to young Adam Fergusson, afterwards minister of Logierait,
and father of the distinguished philosopher. It also prompted
an educational foundation at Dundee, which, in the succeed-
ing century, paved the way for the bright but brief and
clouded career of Robert Fergusson, the forerunner of Robert