HISTORY, WRITING AND IMAGINATION
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Children of James Murray Ferguson and Jessie Todd and also with his second with Helen Sinclair Malcolm.
 Jim standing, Maud in pram, Jessie, William , John Todd,  Agnew , dogs name not known.


 JAMES FERGUSON  1815 - 1888
(other surnames: Murray, Templeton, Simpson, Johnston)

 
Little is known about the early life of  James Ferguson, eldest child of Robert and Mary. But he became an influential man in Ayr when he began work as a Tobacco Manufacturer in Ayr. 

He married Elizabeth Murray who was born in Ayr and baptised on 2nd April 1815. She was the  daughter of Hugh Murray and Jane Templeton.  Hugh and Jane (also known as Jean) married on 28th July 1809 in Ochiltree, Ayrshire.  Hugh’s father was James Murray, a farmer, and his mother Jane Simpson. Jane Templeton’s  father was John and her mother Jean Johnston.
Read insert for more information about Ochiltree as it was at the
end of the 1700’s.

Tobacco manufacturing was a major industry at the time.  John Staworth reported on Ayr’s tobacco industry and noted that  “the importation of  tobacco in Ayr can  be traced as far back as 1679 . In 1739 a brick warehouse was built in the Citadel near the harbour......and in 1750 storehouses were built for another firm in the tobacco trade. After mid-century several Ayr merchants appear in the customs records as importers of tobacco.”  (The History of Ayr, 1989)

The list includes 
a James Ferguson but a connection with our
Fergusons cannot be verified .However what is known that for the next two generations tobacco manufacturing was a family
business.

What Staworth fails to mention is that although the importation and treatment of tobacco was a major source of employment and income for Ayr, the tobacco was grown in the Americas  where rich landowners relied almost entirely on the labour of slaves until 1865.  See more about the Tobacco Lords below
Excerpts for the Statistical Account written 1837 and reported 1845. 

Ochiltree
 
​Polpulation.- The number of inhabitants according to a bill taken this year (1792) amounts to 1150. The return to Dr Websater in 1753 was 1250 souls. The average of births for 5 years is about 37. The average of marriages and burial cannot be on account of the inaccuracy of the parochial registers. about 220 families in the parish and 67 of these in the village.

There are about 5 to a family taking country and village together but taking them separately there are six in the  former and four in the latter; a circumstance which strongly proves the superior healthiness of a country life. There are 30 more females than males. 
For more amusing and informative accounts go to the below link ad type in Ochiltree. 

edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/

 



​James and Elizabeth had seven children all born in Ayr.
  • James Murray born 3rd April 1837 in Ayr Scotland, died 17 Mar 1916 and is buried in Ayr Cemetery (Section J lot 82.) A great deal is known about James Muarry Ferguson as he was a significant figure in Ayr and so he has  have a chapter devoted totally to him.
 
  • Hugh born in 1841 and died aged 1.
 
  • Peter Stewart born 1850 died June 1925. He also worked as a Tobacco Manufacturer , presumably with his father. On 5th June, the day before his father died, he married Margaret Douglas Young who was born in 1861. In 1891 17 year old Jeanie Ferguson was living with them listed as a daughter. Perhaps she was a daughter from a previous marriage although there is no record of this.
 She was only  13 years younger than Margaret
and born well before their marriage.
 
  • Jane Templeton born on 27 Feb 1839  and married
Anthony Burns Cowan who works as  a Bank Agent
 in 1888 in Troon.
 
  • Mary born in 1846  and died 19th Oct 1929 in Ayr . Mary
          married David Robson McCall. David was born in 1836 .                They resided at9 Cromwell Rd, Ayr in 1891. David worked             as a Stationer from at least 1891 until 1901. The lived for                  some time in Boston Massachusettes where they had 2                children
                   Elizabeth (Bessie) McCall was born in 1877
                   Mary (Mamie) McCall was born in 1884 .
                  Mamie worked for The Observer with her uncle                              James and her cousin Gracie. She died at age 83, and                    was buried in Ayr Cemetery.
 
  • Quentin Macadam.who worked as a Cashier in
          1888 in Glagow.
 
Elizabeth Murray died  in 1865 at age 50, and was buried in The Auld Kirk, Ayr.  James then  married Agnes Carse in 1869.  Agnes died in 1880. They had no children together.
 
At the time of his death in 1888 at age 75, James Ferguson  lived at 24 New Bridge Street , Ayr. He owned various properties in Ayr which are mentioned in his Will (See right).  


Read on to learn about  James Murray Ferguson and his daughter Gracie Craik Ferguson



​Tobacco Lords
Tobacco, sugar, and cotton were grown in North America and the West Indies using slave labour. These commodities made immense profits for the Scottish merchants who shipped them first to Glasgow and then on to Atlantic and European consumers.
One of the main ‘Tobacco Lords’, as they were known in Glasgow, was William Cunninghame, whose family roots lay in Caprington, Ayrshire. He was the protégé of Andrew Cochrane, the owner of the King Street Sugarhouse in Glasgow, himself the son of an Ayr merchant.
Cunninghame made vast profits from speculating on the price of tobacco during the American Wars of Independence, and was one of the few Glasgow merchants to survive the colonies’ revolt without being financially ruined. In 1778 he bought the estate of Lainshaw in Ayrshire, and also built a mansion (at the immense cost of £10 000) on the present site of the Gallery of Modern Art on Queen Street in Glasgow.
http://www.ayrshirearchives.org.uk/exhibition/blackhist/blackhist3.htm​
Extract of Will of James Ferguson 1888.
 
 "to my son Quentin Macadam  Cashier Residing

St Johns, The Auld Kirk of Ayr,

  Excerpt of Will of James Ferguson dies 1888,

 "to my son Quentin Macadam  Cashier Residing
in Glasgow my gold watch and chain

to James Murray Ferguson the large field situated
at the head of McCall Ave which I acquired from
John Taylor Gordon
to my son Peter Stewart Ferguson the properties
belonging to me at number 24 and 26 New Bridge St
 Ayr with backhouses.
to Jean Ferguson or Cowan 300 pound sterling
to Mary Ferguson or McCall wife of David Robson
 McCall the house and shop and backhouses at
28New Bridge St with the ground behind acquired
 by me from David Dundas Wigham.
all the rest to Peter Stewart but then
the field in McCall Avenue Newton
belonging to Peter to go to Jean"
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  • Books
    • Published Work
    • Short Stories
    • More About Jennifer
  • Events
  • Blog
  • RESEARCHING INFORMATION
    • Researching Vivaldi's Lost Concerto >
      • Newbattle Abbey
      • Venice
    • Research for Missing Pieces >
      • The Scottish Clearances
      • Kelp Production in the Hebrides.
      • Icelandic Sagas and Cape Breton
      • British Museum
      • Blackhouses
  • Dunbar Todd Ferguson Family History
    • Todds in Ayrshire
    • Todds in Galloway >
      • Abbey of Luce
    • Fergusssons , Dalmellington,
    • Fergusons Ayr >
      • Fergusons of Ayr- Photos
      • James Murray Ferguson
      • James, John Todd and William Ferguson
      • John and Grace Ferguson in Manchester
      • Gracie Craik Ferguson
    • Dunbars in Wigtownshire
    • Dunbars in Manchester
    • Creers
    • Falconers
    • GRACE DUNBAR AND JOHN FERGUSON IN MANCHESTER
    • Hugh F Dunbar
  • Contact