FERGUSSON, Alexander (1685-1749), of Craigdarroch, Dumfries.

Fergusson, whose father was killed serving as a lieutenant-colonel of foot in King William’s army at Killiecrankie, received the Duke of Argyll’s letter of mobilization on the outbreak of the Fifteen rebellion,J. Fergusson & R. M. Ferguson, Recs. of Clan and Name of Fergusson, 387-8, 398-9. during which he was engaged in the defence of Dumfries. Returned unopposed as a Whig in 1715 in succession to his uncle by marriage, Sir William Johnstone, who had moved to the county seat, he voted with the Government on the septennial bill in 1716. His name does not appear in the list of Whigs voting against Lord Cadogan in June 1717, but three days later he was present at a dinner given by Cadogan’s rival, the Duke of Argyll, one of whose followers describes him as having ‘acted a prodigious honest part’ in the affair.More Culloden Pprs. ii. 175. He was absent from the division on the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts but voted for the peerage bill in 1719. Defeated in 1722, he was also unsuccessful for the county in 1734, petitioning without success on each occasion. He died 8 Mar. 1749.