as an act of impiety. Fond of riding, Fergusson covered long distances in his tours through a province of 123,000 square miles. In earnestness of purpose and indefatigable energy he almost rivalled Sir Richard Temple. He did much to develop the port of Bombay, and took deep interest in education, laying the foundation of the native college at Poona which is called by his name. He was assisted in his government by his colleague, Sir James Peile [q. v. Suppl. II], and at the close of it by (Sir) Maxwell Melvill (1834–1887), a man of rare distinction. With Peile's aid he was able to satisfy Lord Ripon by the steps taken in Bombay to develop rural and urban self- government. If the Bombay government was unable to go as far as that viceroy wished, it went further than any other province in India. Altogether Fergusson's administration in Bombay was successful, and he well merited the honour of G.C.S.I. which he received on 25 Feb. 1885.
Fergusson did not await the arrival of his successor, Lord Reay, but after making arrangements for the Suakin campaign relinquished the government on 27 March 1885, hurrying home to resume a political career. On 9 June 1885 Gladstone resigned, and on 27 Nov. Fergusson was returned as one of the members for Manchester (N.E. division). He held the seat until January 1906. On the return of Lord Salisbury to power on 3 Aug. 1886, Fergusson served from 1886 to 1891 as under-secretary in the foreign office, and was responsible for answering questions and otherwise representing that department in the House of Commons. He performed his duties with stolid discretion. In 1891 he was made postmaster-general, retaining the office until Gladstone's return to power in August 1892. He did not take office again, but at the opening of the new parliament in 1901 he proposed the re-election as speaker of William Court Gully, afterwards Viscount Selby [q. v. Suppl. II]. Meanwhile Fergusson's business capacity found scope as director of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the National Telephone Company, and similar concerns. In the interests of the first-mentioned company he went to Jamaica in January 1907 to attend the conference of the British Cotton Growing Association. On the first day of the conference, 14 Jan., Kingston was overtaken by a terrible earthquake, followed by a destructive fire. Fergusson was walking in the street near his hotel, when he was killed by the fall of a wall. He was buried in the churchyard of Half Way Tree, near Kingston, and a memorial service was held on 21 Jan. in the Guards' Chapel, London.
Fergusson was thrice married: (1) at Dalhousie Castle on 9 Aug. 1859 to Lady Edith Christian, younger daughter of James Andrew Ramsay, first marquis of Dalhousie [q. v.]; she died at Adelaide on 28 Oct. 1871, leaving two sons and two daughters; (2) in New Zealand on 11 March 1873 to Olive, youngest daughter of John Henry Richman of Warnbunga, South Australia; she bore him one son, Alan Walter John (1878–1909), and died of cholera at Bombay on 8 Jan. 1882; (3) on 5 April 1893 to Isabella Elisabeth, widow of Charles Hugh Hoare, of Morden, Surrey, and daughter of Thomas Twysden, rector of Charlton, Devonshire. She survived him without issue. His elder son by his first wife. Major-general Sir Charles Fergusson, D.S.O., succeeded him in the title.
Fergusson's friends in Ayrshire, where he was much beloved for his charitable and kindly acts, erected to his memory a statue in bronze at the corner of Wellington Square in Ayr. It was executed by Sir Goscombe John, R.A., and unveiled by the earl of Eglinton in October 1910. In Jamaica, too, his memory is preserved in the restoration of the church of Half Way Tree and a mural tablet.
[The Times, 17 Jan. 1907; Kinglake's Crimea; Colonial and India Office Lists; Administration Reports of Bombay; Lucy's Salisbury and Balfourian Parliaments; and Parliamentary Reports.]
FERRERS, NORMAN MACLEOD (1829–1903), Master of Caius College, Cambridge, and mathematician, born on 11 Aug. 1829 at Prinknash Park, Gloucestershire, was only child of Thomas Bromfield Ferrers, stockbroker, of London (a descendant of the Taplow Court branch of the Ferrers family), by his wife Lavinia, daughter of Alexander Macleod of Harris. After spending three years, 1844–6, at Eton, he lived for about a year as a private pupil in the house of Harvey Goodwin [q. v. Suppl. I], the mathematician, then vicar of St. Edward's, Cambridge, afterwards bishop of Carlisle. Admitted a freshman of Caius College, Cambridge, on 6 March 1 847, Ferrers graduated B.A. in 1851 as senior wrangler of his year, being also first 'Smith's prizeman.' Next year he was elected fellow of his college, and immediately afterwards went to London to study law. He was called to the bar, as a member of Lincoln's Inn, in 1855.
