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

FERGUSSONS IN DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY 431
Dumfries, belongs, are descended from a Ferguson who came
from the north fully three centuries ago. Mr. Ferguson pos-
sesses a Bible dated 1590, which belonged to his forefathers.
Two brothers originally came, it is said, from Aberdeenshire
to the neighbourhood of Moffat, about 1590, one of whom
returned after a few years, while the other settled in the
south. About a century ago a branch migrated to Close-
burn.
The following notices of a family remarkable for their
services to education have been communicated by Mr. George
T. Fergusson. They appeared in a notice of the parish of
Morton, in the Dumfries Courier, May 5th, 1874 : —
' George Ferguson, A. 31., LL.D. — Dr. Ferguson, though a
native of Tynron, having been born about 1798, properly
belonged to Morton, where he received his education at the
parish school from Mr. Hamilton, who was a distinguished
teacher in the early part of the century. He was appointed
to the parish school of Dunscore in the year 1816 or 1817,
Avhich he retained for some time; but, proceeding to the
University of Edinburgh, he distinguished himself so as to
attract the attention of the late Professor Pillans. By his
recommendation he became tutor in the family of Mr. Loch,
M.P. for the Wick Burghs, and in 1824, when the Edinburgh
Academy was instituted, he was appointed one of the Classical
Masters. There he continued till 1847, when he succeeded
to the Professorship of Humanity in King's College, Aber-
deen; and on the union of King's College with Marischal
College he retired on a pension. He died in 1866. Dr.
Ferguson was a distinguished classical scholar, and edited
many school-books, which have proved by their scholarship
so useful that they have never yet been superseded.
' His elder brother, Alexander Ferguson, A.M., was also an
eminent teacher, having commenced his career at a small
school at Burnhead, in the parish of Dunscore, in 1814. In
1818 he was elected parochial schoolmaster of Mouswald, and
in 1828 he was transferred to the parish school of Dryfesdale,
at Lockerbie, where he continued till 1873, thus completing
fifty years' service in that parish. In 1868 a Jubilee enter-