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

OE FERGUSON 19
Burns. Professor Adam Ferguson, son of the minister of
Logierait, took up his pen to write the first Memoir of the
gallant young soldier Patrick Ferguson, son of Lord Pitfour,
who fell at King's Mountain. James Ferguson, afterwards
Lord Pitfour, as counsel at Carlisle, was successful in obtain-
ing the acquittal of James Fergusson of Dunfallandy — ' Baron
Fergusson' — when tried for high treason after the last Jacobite
rising. The Clan Fergusson of Athole joined Viscount Dun-
dee's army immediately after Killiecrankie, but in that fierce
conflict Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch had fallen, and
James Ferguson, ancestor of the family of Kinmundy, had
been taken prisoner, both fighting under the banners of
William of Orange.
In 1727, Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran acted as arbiter
in some family transactions between James Ferguson of Kin-
mundy and his cousin James Ferguson of Pitfour. Sir James
Fergusson of Kilkerran and William Ferguson of Kinmundy
sat together upon a Royal Commission appointed by Lord
Beaconsfield's Government ; and Sir James Fergusson of Kil-
kerran and George Arthur Ferguson of Pitfour both served
with the Grenadier Guards in the Crimea. James Ferguson,
the famous astronomer, executed portraits about 1740 of
James Ferguson of Kinmundy, his wife and son.
In the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the Perthshire
Fergussons were doubtless among the gallant Athole men who
first rallied to the standard of Montrose when, after the long
ride from Carlisle, he appeared in Highland dress to lead the
Cavalier clans to Tibbermuir and a long series of subsequent
victories, and who remained the nucleus and reserve of his
fighting strength. Shortly before, the Marquis of Huntly
had made the house of William Ferguson of Badifurrow his
quarters when he hoisted the Royal Standard at Inverurie,
and after the Restoration his host was present at ' the True
Funerals ' of Montrose. Sir John of Kilkerran deeply embar-
rassed his estate in the service of King Charles, was with
Montrose at Loudoun hill, and with Alaster Macdonald at
Kilmarnock ; a Fergusson of Craigdarroch was one of the first
to sign the Solemn League and Covenant, and another headed
a small body who defeated a largely superior force of Crom-
well's army at Glencairn.