FERGUSON, ADAM (1723-1816).--Philosopher and historian, _s._ of the parish minister of Logierait, Perthshire, studied at St. Andrews and Edin. Univ., 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 Prof. of Philosophy he was highly successful, his class being attended by many distinguished men no longer students at the Univ. In 1778-9 he acted as sec. to a commission sent out by Lord North to endeavour to reach an accommodation with the American colonists. F.'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. F. spent his later years at St. Andrews, where he _d._ in 1816 at the age of 92. He was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott. The French philosopher Cousin gave F. a place above all his predecessors in the Scottish school of philosophy. FERGUSON, SIR SAMUEL (1810-1886).--Poet and antiquary, _b._ at Belfast, the _s._ of parents of Scottish extraction, he was _ed._ 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 _coll._ 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).--Writer on architecture, _b._ at Ayr, was engaged in commercial pursuits in India, where he became interested in the architecture of the country, and _pub._ 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.