The following three traditions paint a picture of a Scottish ancestor serving as an officer in the army of William of Orange. That ancestor settled in county Antrim, Ireland after the Williamite War ended 1691. Soon thereafter sons or grandsons of that ancestor emigrate establishing branches of the family in Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
A direct ancestor was James Ferguson, who migrated with his wife Rachel (Walker) and their children from County Antrim, Ireland, to America, landing in Philadelphia about the middle of the eighteenth century. He settled in Franklin county, near Back Creek and west of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania [Universities and Their Sons, 1899]
"Family tradition says that James Ferguson, who came to America from County Antrim, Ireland, sprang from a Major Ferguson who was the sole male representative of his branch of the family, or of his family of fighting age, who survived the siege of Derry; that he married - whether before or after that siege is not known - a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Walker, an Episcopal clergyman prominent in that siege ; that he moved to County Antrim, and had three sons (or they may have been grandsons if said marriage occurred before the siege of 1689); that the oldest was in or connected with the army as a surgeon, or in some other capacity, and was expected to take the family estates ; and that the two younger brothers emigrated to America, one settling in Pennsylvania, and the other after a time going to one of the Carolinas, and that he or his son or grandson was a member of Congress from that State". There was in fact such a Ferguson in the Carolinas. [Supplement p. 138]
Thomas Ferguson (1726-1786) of South Carolina is an ancestor of the General. Thomas was a member of the Commons House in 1769, of the Provincial Congress in 1775, of the Council of Safety, of the Legislative and the Privy Council, and at the fall of Charles Town in 1780 was sent a political prisoner to St. Augustine [The dwelling houses of Charleston, South Carolina By Daniel Elliott Huger Smith, 1917]
In his memoirs the General says "My great grandfather on my fathers side was from Scotland, but from what part of the country my father could not tell me. He however supposed from Craigdarragh, as the seal used by my grandfather bore the arms of that branch of the Ferguson family. The seal referred to is not the original but a copy, which my grandmother had made in Philadelphia when banished to that city by the British during the Revolutionary War. My father felt sure that neither his father nor grandfather would have used arms to which they were not entitled for in those days gentlemen were particular in such matters. I have forgotten much that my father told me about the aforesaid ancestor, James Ferguson." [Lowery, p. 7]
The General's brother Major Thomas Barker Ferguson (1841-1922) indicates there were three branches of his family, "one settling at Philadelphia, one in the West Indies (from which branch the family in South Carolina came) and the third in Holland" The one settling in Philadelphia fits with Arthurs' relative settling in Pennsylvania. [Leiding, p. 56]
A descendant of Thomas Ferguson (1726-1786) has yDNA tested and he falls within I2 > M223 > L126 >Y4750Isles/Sc - 16. One of his closest matches is to a descendant of James Brownrigg Ferguson.
James Brownrigg Ferguson Sr. emigrated with his family to Canada in 1830. James Brownrigg Ferguson III was born about 1842 in Canada, was a medical officer in the United States Army for twenty-seven years and died 1926 in Minnesota. [Supplement, p.145-146]
"When I was a child," writes Dr. Ferguson, "I have heard my father say that originally our family was from Scotland, and that an ancestor of our had crossed over to Ireland, as an officer in the army of William Prince of Orange, who at the close of the war with James the Second settled in Ireland"
The siege of Derry in 1689 referred to by Edward Ferguson Arthurs was part of the wider Williamite War waged between the Protestant William of Orange and the Catholic King James II. It seems that the "Major" referred to by Arthurs is the "officer" mentioned by Dr. James B. Ferguson. So far as the ancestry of that officer is concerned Dr. Ferguson he says the family had an ancestor killed at the Battle of Killecrankie. That points to the Fergusson of Craigdarroch as the Laird John Fergusson was killed in that battle in 1689.
He then states that his family's crest, motto and coat of arms are identical to that of Sir William (sic, Sir Andrew) the Irish Baronet and from that concluded "our family is undoubtedly one of the many alluded to in the Records of the Clan as having settled along the Six Mile Water in Ireland." This is problematic, because James Brownrigg Ferguson Sr. would not have been entitled to use the same coat of arms as Sir Andrew Ferguson or any other individual. As explained by Dick Eastman, "the only time that the same coat of arms can be used by more than one person is when the eldest is dead. At that point, the direct heir (typically his oldest son) can petition for the right to bear the same arms that were used by the deceased." .
Given that James Brownrigg Ferguson lived in a place where Heraldry is regulated, at best one can conclude that writer thought he was related to Sir Andrew Ferguson of Burt. It appears he was mistaken because the DNA test of a descendant of the Ferguson of Burt, is in a different haplogroup than the family of Dr. Ferguson.
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