FERGUSON. 542 FERGUSSON. assistant engineer, on the construction of the Erie Canal in 1817-19; was assistant surveyor in the boundary commission appointed in accordance with the Treaty of Ghent from 1819 to 1822, and was astronomical surveyor of this commission from 1822 to 1827. From 1833 to 1847 he was first assistant in the United States Coast Survey, and from 1847 until his death was assistant as- tronomer of the United States Naval Observa- tory. He discovered several asteroids, and was a frequent contributor to scientific and other magazines. FERGUSON, Patrick (1744-80). An Eng- lish soldier, and inventor of the first practical breech-loading rifle. He was born in Scotland, and was educated at a military academy in London. Before he was fifteen years old he was appointed coronet in the Royal North British Dragoons, or Scut- Greys, and served with them in the German campaign. The skill of the Ameri- can marksmen during the first year of the Revolutionary War prompted him to devise sev- eral new forms of breech-loading firearms. In the first the breech was closed by a vertical screw- plug, which was lowered to admit the intro- duction of the ball, followed by the cartridge or charge ; in the second, the breech was closed by a perpendicular or horizontal turnplate ; and in the third, a sliding transverse-bar was used. Ferguson was ordered to America, where, early in 1777. he formed a corps of riflemen, consisting of volunteers from British regiments, armed them with breech-loading rilled carbines with screw-plug action, and sighted for 100 to 300 yards. The corps distinguished itself at the battle of Brandywine (September 11. 1777). but was afterwards disbanded by Sir William Howe because he had not been previously consulted as to its formation. Ferguson subsequently played a conspicuous part in the war in the Carolinas, Lut was ultimately defeated and killed in the engagement at King"s Mountain. S. C. (October 7. 1780). FERGUSON, Robert (?-1714). A British political writer and pamphleteer, known as the 'Plotter.' He was born in Scotland, was prob- ably educated at the University of Aberdeen, entered the ministry, and held a living in Kent, from which in 1663 he was expelled by the Act of Uniformity. The Shaftesbury party in 1GS0 sought and secured his service- a- a writer of political pamphlets attacking the Government. lie unite pamphlets of remarkable ingenuity, attempting to prove the marriage of the King to Lucy Walter-, the Duke of Monmouth's mother, ami opposing the Exclusion Bill. He was implicated in lt;s:i in the live Eouse Pint, although he afterwards asserted that he entered it only in order to frustrate it. Me saved him- self In lleeing til Holland, lie aeennipallieil Mull mi iii th as his secretary and chief adviser on his ex- pedition to the wesl of England in 1684, and after the battle of Sedgmoor, in 1685, escaped again to Holland. He accompanied William of Orangi to
- in 1688, and wrote various pamphlet- in
his behalf, but nui receiving the recognition he had hoped fur. -mM.iih became an ardenl Ja- il was a part to t of the numerous pint- during William'- reign, He was several times arrested and imprisoned, but never brought to trial. Beside hi- religious and political pam- phlets he wrote: A History of the Revolution (1706); Qualifications Requisite in a Minister of State (1710) ; The History of All the Mobs, Tumults, and Insurrections in Great Britain (1715). Consult Ferguson, Ferguson the Plotter (1887). FERGUSON, Sir Samuel (1810-86). A Brit- ish poet and antiquarian, born at Belfast, Ire- land. He studied at Belfast, and afterwards went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he gradu- ated in 1826. He practiced law for some time, and was then made deputy keeper of the public records of Ireland (1867). For his services in this difficult position, which entailed much re- search, he was knighted in 1878. His poems and stories appeared constantly in the Dublin I ni versity Magazine, and he was also a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine. In 1882 he was elected president of the Royal Irish Academy. It is said that his imperfect knowledge of the Irish lan- guage interfered with an entirely characteristic rendering by him of the ancient traditional ma- terial of the country; but many of his stories are very popular, especially Father Tom and the Pope (1838). His epic poem, C'ongal, in five books (1872), is probably his most important volume; other volumes are: Lays of the Western Gael (1865) : Poems (18S0). Tales from Black- wood (1st series, vols, iii., vii., viii., and xii.i contain several examples of his work. A collec- tion of his stories and poems, including among the latter many early ones, was edited by Lady Ferguson, and called Hibernian Nights' Enter- tainments (1887). He also wrote several anti- quarian studies, of which the best-known is Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland. Wales, and Scot- land, edited by Lady Ferguson (1887). FER'GUSSON, James (1808-86). A Scotch architectural writer. He was born at Ayr. and was educated at the high school in Edinburgh. He afterwards entered the firm of Fairlie, Fer- gusson & Co. at Calcutta, India. Having made a fortune in the indigo trade, he retired from business and devoted himself to the study of areluieological and architectural subjects. In 1857 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission to inquire into the defenses of the United Kingdom. He received a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1871, and was a vice-president of the Royal Asia tie Society at the time of his death. His important writings include Illustrations in the Rock-Cut Temples of India (18451 ; The Illustrated Hand- book of Architecture (1855) : A History of Archi- tecture in All Countries from the Earliest Tii to the Present Day (1867-76); History of East- ern and Indian Architecture (1876). FERGUSSON, Robert (1750-74). A Scottish poet, lie was born in Edinburgh, and was edu- cated at the Dundee grammar school and at the I niversity of Saint Andrews. Giving up the Church, for which he was at first intended, and refusing to study medicine, ho returned to Edin- burgh, where lie found employment a- i pyist in (lie nili if tl iimmissary clerk. This po i inm he held, for the must part, till his death. His poems, which were contributed chiefly to Ruddiman's Weekly Magaxine, gained him great local reputation. His society was eagerly sought, and in that convivial time he was led into ex-
