Chapter Ferguson to Fielding of F by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Ferguson to Fielding

Ferguson, Adam (1723-1816). Philosopher and historian, son of the parish minister of Logierait, Perthshire, studied at St. Andrews and Edinburgh University, in the latter of which he was successively Professor of Mathematics, and Moral Philosophy (1764-1785). As a young man he was chaplain to the 42nd Regiment, and was present at the Battle of Fontenoy. In 1757 he was made Keeper of the Advocates’ Library. As a Professor of Philosophy he was highly successful, his class being attended by many distinguished men no longer students at the University In 1778-9 he acted as secretrayto a commission sent out by Lord North to endeavour to reach an accommodation with the American colonists. Ferguson’s principal works are Essay on the History of Civil Society (1765), Institutes of Moral Philosophy (1769), History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (1782), and Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792), all of which have been translated into French and German. Ferguson spent his later years at St. Andrews, where he died in 1816 at the age of 92. He was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott. The French philosopher Cousin gave Ferguson a place above all his predecessors in the Scottish school of philosophy.

Ferguson, Sir Samuel (1810-1886).—Poet and antiquary, born at Belfast, the son of parents of Scottish extraction, he was educated at Trinity Coll., Dublin, from which he received in 1865 the honorary degree of LL.D. He practised with success as a barrister, became Q.C. in 1859, and Deputy Keeper of the Irish Records 1867, an appointment in which he rendered valuable service, and was knighted in 1878. He was a contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, in which appeared his best known poem, The Forging of the Anchor, and was one of the chief promoters of the Gaelic revival in Irish literature. His collected poems appeared under the title of Lays of the Western Gael (1865), Congal, an epic poem (1872), and his prose tales posthumously (1887), as Hibernian Nights’ Entertainments. His principal antiquarian work was Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.

Fergusson, James (1808-1886).—w riter on architecture, born at Ayr, was engaged in commercial pursuits in India, where he became interested in the architecture of the country, and published his first work, Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindustan (1840), which was followed by An Historical Inquiry into the True Principles of Beauty in Art (1849), and A History of Architecture in all Countries from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1865-67). He also wrote Fire and Serpent Worship, etc., and a book on the use of earthworks in fortification.

Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774).—Scottish poet, son of a bank clerk, was educated at the University of St. Andrews. His father dying, he became a copying clerk in an Edinburgh lawyer’s office. Early displaying a talent for humorous descriptive verse, he contributed to Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine, then the principal Scottish receptacle for fugitive poetry. His verses, however, attracted attention by their merit, and he published some of them in a collected form. Unfortunately he fell into dissipated habits, under which his delicate constitution gave way, and he died insane in his 24th year. His poems influenced Burns, who greatly admired them.

Ferrier, James Frederick (1808-1864).—Metaphysician, born in Edinburgh, and educated there and at Oxford, he was called to the Scottish Bar in 1832, but devoted himself to literature and philosophy. In 1842 he was appointed Professor of History in Edinburgh, and in 1845 translated to the Chair of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy at St. Andrews. He published in 1854 Institutes of Metaphysics, and edited the collected works of his father-in-law, Professor Wilson (“Christopher North.”)

Ferrier, Susan Edmonstoune (1782-1854).—Novelist, daughter of James Ferrier, one of the principal clerks of the Court of Session, in which office he was the colleague of Sir Walter Scott. Miss Ferrier wrote three excellent novels, Marriage (1818), The Inheritance (1824), and Destiny (1831), all characterised by racy humour and acute character-painting. Her cheerful and tactful friendship helped to soothe the last days of Sir W. Scott.

Field, Nathaniel (1587-1633).—Dramatist and actor, was one of “the children of the Queen’s Revels,” who performed in Ben Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels in 1600. He wrote A Woman’s a Weathercock (1612), Amends for Ladies (1618), and (with Massinger) The Fatal Dowry (1632).