Patrick Ferguson

???? - 1780


Biography

Original grantee of North East division (St John parish) lot no. 25 (300 acres) 09/05/1769, which became Castara estate, in Tobago, which on his death passed to his brother George Ferguson 'the Governor' (q.v.).

  1. Ferguson was the second surviving son of James Ferguson of Pitfour, SCJ, and his wife Anne Murray (daughter of 4th Lord Elibank). He acquired the Castara estate for the family when serving with the 70th Foot in Tobago in 1769, in emulation of his cousin and senior officer, Colonel Alexander Johnstone, who already had an estate there.

  2. "The humble petition of Edward Hicks, Patrick Ferguson, Robert Irving, Boulter Johnston, William Cumberland Campbell and James Sharpe, officers in his Majesty's 70th Regiment who have purchased lands in the ceded Islands", dated c. 1773, stated that during their 10 year stationing in the West Indies, due to the unhealthy and undeveloped nature of the islands, the high cost of local provisions and the "impossibility of living on their pay", the officers had purchased land on the islands in order to profit from rises in land prices. The petitioners argued that "the failures in England...have rendered it impossible to Sell the New Lands for the prices paid for them, much less for any profit" and therefore they asked for "either to be allowed further time for the payment of the Installments due to the Crown... or that they may be permitted to resign their Lands upon being reimbursed the expences they have been at for their purchase." The petitioners also argued that they had "contributed much to increase the value of the Lands, and consequently the price given at the Sales, by their Activity in quelling the frequent Insurrections of the Slaves, particularly in the Island of Tobago, where the Lands in question are mostly situated, and having gone through much fatiguing service, and having lost one sixth part of that Division of the Regiment stationed there, in different engagements with the Insurgents."

  3. In the will of Patrick Ferguson Captain in his Majesty's 70th Regiment of Foot made at Portsmouth 15/03/1777 and proved 13/08/1782, Patrick Ferguson left his part of the estates in Tobago amounting to 750 acres which he owned with his brother George Ferguson to his brother, together with a patent for improvements to firearms, with the proviso that when the combined income had risen above £2000 p.a. from the estates and the patent, George Ferguson would pay £200 p.a. to 'my mother Lady Pitfour' and £100 each to his sisters Annie, Betty and Jeanie Ferguson. If the income had not reached £2000 by 1780, George was to pay out the female members of the family one-fourth of the income there was, in the ration 2/5:1/5:1/5:1/5.


Sources

'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971); John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 48-49.

  1. Email from the author, 02/10/2014, sourced to M. M. Gilchrist, Patrick Ferguson: "A Man of Some Genius" (Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland Publications, 2003).

  2. Auction listing for "Extremely rare, signature of Patrick Ferguson, famed", https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/83734932_extremely-rare-signature-of-patrick-ferguson-famed [accessed 04/01/2021].

  3. PROB 11/1094/190

We are grateful to M. M. Gilchrist and Pamela Miller for their assistance with compiling this entry.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1770 [SY] - 1780 [EY] → Owner

Relationships (4)

Brothers
Uncle → Nephew
Brothers
Nephew → Uncle
Notes →
Hon. Alexander Murray lent £8000 to his nephews George and Patrick Ferguson in...