1798. This marriage greatly increased his wealth and importance, and Ferguson found no difficulty in getting further employment. On his return to England he was promoted colonel on 1 Jan. 1800, and in that year he held a command in Major-general the Hon. Thomas Maitland's attack on Belle Isle, and in Sir James Pulteney's expedition against Ferrol. He was one of the officers who returned home in disgust at Pulteney's refusal to attack Ferrol. In 1804 Ferguson was appointed brigadier-general commanding the York district, and in the following year he took command of the highland brigade, consisting of the 71st, 72nd, and 93rd highlanders, in the expedition sent under Sir David Baird to recapture the Cape of Good Hope. He performed the difficult task of landing his brigade in the face of the Dutch troops and covering the disembarkation of the rest of the army, and by his conduct in the following engagements he won the repeated thanks of Sir David Baird. He was forced to leave the Cape by severe illness. On his return to England he was elected M.P. for the Kirkcaldy burghs in 1806, a seat which he held for twenty-four years, and on 25 April 1808 he was promoted major-general. In that year he was appointed to command a brigade in the army under Sir Arthur Wellesley, destined for the assistance of the Portuguese, and at the landing of the expedition at the mouth of the Mondego he was placed in command of a brigade consisting of the 42nd and 78th regiments. At the battle of Roliça Ferguson's brigade was employed upon the extreme left, and twice turned Laborde's right, after an advance along a difficult mountain road. At the great battle of Vimeiro it was posted on the left of the English army, and Ferguson had just begun to pursue Junot when he was checked by Sir Harry Burrard [q. v.] Ferguson was spoken of in the highest terms in Sir Arthur Wellesley's despatch, and was thanked in his place in the House of Commons for his services. He also received a gold medal and was gazetted colonel of the Sicilian regiment on 25 Jan. 1809. In the parliamentary session of 1809 he distinguished himself by his speeches against the Duke of York in the debates on the Clarke scandal. In spite of this, and of his advanced liberalism, he was nominated to a command in the force sent under Sir David Baird to join Sir John Moore in the Peninsula, but reached Corunna too late to be of any service. In 1810 he was appointed second in command to the army in Cadiz, but was obliged by illness to return to England in a few months. On 4 June 1813 he was promoted lieutenant-general. In 1814 he acted for a short time as second in command to Sir Thomas Graham in Holland, and in the following year he was made a K.C.B. Ferguson never again saw service, but continued to sit for the Kirkcaldy burghs until 1830, and throughout this period of tory ascendency distinguished himself in the House of Commons by his decided liberalism. He was a consistent supporter of all measures tending to civil and religious liberty, an earnest advocate for catholic emancipation, and both spoke and voted for the ballot and for triennial parliaments. On 24 March 1828 he was transferred to the colonelcy of the 79th Cameron highlanders, on 22 July 1830 he was promoted general, and in 1831 he was made a G.C.B. at the coronation of William IV. In 1830 he was defeated for the representation of the Kirkcaldy burghs by the tory candidate, Lord Loughborough, the eldest son of General the Earl of Rosslyn; but he was immediately elected for Nottingham, for which place he continued to sit until his death, in Bolton Row, London, on 10 April 1841. In the previous December he had succeeded to the family estate of Raith, on the death of his elder brother, Robert Ferguson, who had also for many years been a radical M.P., and he was succeeded in all his Scotch estates by his only son, Colonel Robert Ferguson, who sat for the Kirkcaldy burghs from 1841 to 1862, and took the additional name of Munro on acceding to some of the estates of his grandfather, Sir Hector Munro of Novar, Ross, and Cromarty.
[Foster's Members of Parl. (Scotland); Army Lists; Royal Military Calendar; Hook's Life of Sir David Baird; Napier's Peninsular War; and a long notice, with a portrait, in the Military Panorama for August 1813.]
FERGUSON, Sir SAMUEL (1810–1886), poet and antiquary, third son of John Ferguson of Collon House, co. Antrim, was born in Belfast on 10 March 1810. He was educated at the chief public school of Belfast, the Academical Institution, and thence proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1826, and M.A. in 1832, and was created LL.D. honoris causâ in 1864. In 1838 he was called to the Irish bar, and obtained some practice on the northeast circuit of Ireland. In 1859 he was made a queen's counsel, but in 1867 retired from practice on his appointment as deputy-keeper of the public records of Ireland. He was the first holder of the office, which entailed much investigation and arrangement of documents. Just before Ferguson's appointment one of the chief officials in charge of the records had publicly stated that the Irish
