Thomas Ferguson 1724-1786

There were three branches of this family, "one settling at Philadelphia, one in the West Indies (from which branch the family in South Carolina came) and the third in Holland"
[ Thomas Barker Ferguson (1841-1922) as per Leiding, p. 56]

The above tradition is one of three that establishes links to families in Pennsylvania and County Antrim Ireland.

Descendants

James Ferguson d.~1741; m. aft. 1725 Ann Barker widow of Wm Skipper
- Thomas Ferguson b. 1726; will dated 24 Jun 1785; d. 1786; married [1,2]
  1st Katherine Elliot 30 Oct 1757 St Andrews Parish, Charleston [?? - Katharine Booth m. Humphrey Elliot 13 Nov 1744]
  2nd widow North of the Perry family
  - James Ferguson d. 1779 [4]
  - Anne Ferguson m.1st Charles Elliott; m 2d Richard Berresford
  3rd Martha O Reilly [6]
  - Charles Ferguson m. Mary; d.~1789, SC
  - Benjamin Ferguson,
  - John Horry Ferguson,
  - William Cattel Ferguson b.~1773; m. Eliza Milner d. 15 Feb 1801, age 28; buried St. Michael's church [7]
  4th Elizabeth the widow of Andrew Rutledge and daughter of General Gadsden August 5, 1774. [14]
  5th Ann Wragg
  - Thomas Ladson Ferguson b. 08 Sep 1779 Charleston, SC
  - Col James Ferguson b. 2 Mar 1784, SC; d. 4 Mar 1874; bur: Saint Philips Episcopal Church Cemetery Charleston, SC; m. Abby Ann Barker; census: 1850, 1860 Charleston, SC [7,9]
    - Brigadier General Samuel Wragg Ferguson b. 3 Nov 1834 Charleston, SC; d. 3 Feb 1917, MS; burial Greenwood Cemetery, Hinds Counry, MS; m. Catherine Lee 25 Aug 1862, Ditchely Plantation, MS [7,8]
    - Major James DuGue Ferguson b. 30 May 1837, Charleston, SC; d. 26 Nov 1917, Baltimore, MD; burial Magnolia Cemetery Charleston, SC [7,9]
    - Thomas Barker Ferguson b. 8 Aug 1841, Berkeley Co., SC; d. 1922; m. 1867, Jane Byrd; issue: 3 sons, 1 daughter [11]; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden, 1894-1989 [12]
    - Joseph Sanford Ferguson b.~1844, SC; d. 15 Jul 1863, Marion Art'y [5]
    - Francis R Ferguson b.~1847, SC
    - Anna B Ferguson b.~1848, SC
    - Abby Anne Ferguson b.1850, SC
  - Richard Beresford Ferguson b: 1785 Charleston, SC
  - Samuel Wragg Ferguson b: 12 Jan 1787 Charleston, SC; d.~1822, SC

James Ferguson

1726 - That a public ferry be, and is hereby, established, from the landing of Mr. John Godfrey, on Ponpon river, across said river; which shall be, and is hereby, vested in Mr. James Ferguson, Captain John Hunt, and Mr. Joshua Saunders, commissioners, for the space of ten years ....[The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, 1841]
1735 - To Be Sold a tract of land on the West side of Pon Pon River, containing 2200 acres most of it very good rice land..being well stored with cypress for sawing, white oaks for staves...Whoever has a mind to purchase on the said plantation the same may treat with Mr. James Ferguson on the said plantation or Mr. Joh Champneys in Charlestown. [Building materials and craftsmen of Charleston, South Carolina, 1977]

Sarah Barker's will establishes that her daughter Ann married both William Skipper and James Ferguson. Given that her grandson Benning Skipper is under 21 years of age so too must be Thomas Ferguson since he was the result of daughter Ann's second marriage.

SARAH BARKER, Berkeley County, widow. Sons: John, planter, land in said county; Charles. Grandsons: Benning, under 21 years, son of William Skipper and Anne his wife, my dau.; Thomas, son of James FERGUSON and Anne his wife, my dau.; Thomas, son of Charles Barker; Thomas, son of Joseph Barton and Mary his wife, my dau. Granddaus: Eldest Susannah, second Dorothy, third Mary, fourth Anne, youngest Jane, daus. of son John Barker; Sarah, dau. of William Skipper and Anne his wife, my dau. Mentions: late husband Thomas Barker who died intestate; Hanford's lands; poor of St. James' Parish, Goose Creek, L100. Exor: son John. Wit: Benjamin Wood, Wm. Sanders, Richard Butler, Jno. Bayley. D: 30 Mar 1728. P: 16 Oct 1729. R: 23 Oct 1729. p.155 [FERGUSON/2000-07]

James Ferguson married the widow Ann Skipper after 1725: The will of William Skipper State: SC County: Berkeley County Township: Will Year:1725 Record Type: Probate Records Page: 00237 Database: SC Colonial Probate Index
The will of Benning Skipper was proved 17 Mar 1743, he names is mother Ann Ferguson as executrix and Thomas Ferguson is a witness.
James Ferguson died prior to 11 Jan 1742 when his estate was inventoried. Among his belongings is a slave named Andrew later referred to as former property of "James Ferguson of Ponpon" in South-Carolina Gazette June 22, 1745
Ann died prior to 1758 when James Bulloch married the widow Ann Graham nee Cuthbert.

Thomas Barker Ferguson (1841-1922)

FERGUSON Thomas Barker - diplomat and inventor was born at The Barrows, Berkeley co, SC Aug 8 1841 son of Col James and Abby Ann Barker Ferguson. His great grandfather James Ferguson emigrated from Scotland to SC near the end of the 17th century and was married to a widow named Skipwith nee Barker becoming the father of Thomas Ferguson who was married to Ann Wragg. [11]
During the Revolutionary war Thomas Ferguson, David Ramsay and William Johnson are in a list of prisoners transported to St. Augustine. [16]
- William Johnson in his will, written in 1808, he listed among his properties White House Plantation on the Cooper River in St. James Goose Creek Parish. The Johnsons and Fergusons were certainly acquaintances if not friends. William's son Joseph Johnson would later write a book on the American Revolution that discusses Thomas Ferguson [1]:
  Mr. Thomas Ferguson was a gentleman, elevated by his own merits, from a lowly situation in life. He was born on a piece of land seven or eight miles north of Charleston, between the Dorchester and Goose Creek roads; and when an infant, was removed by his parents on a pillow, to Parker's ferry, of which they had become the managers. His father kept the ferry many years,....
- The editor of The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1921 (Volumes 21-22 - Page 132]) took exception to the description by Dr. Johnson when he wrote:
  Thomas Ferguson of the Revolution (p. 54), was the son of James Ferguson of Goose Creek by his wife Ann Barker, daughter of Thomas Barker and half-sister of John Parker. He was thus of one of the best families which then existed in the low country and went to Parkers Ferry with his uncle John Parker. His subsequent life shows that he was a man of education and by no means the poor unlettered boy to be inferred from Dr. Johnson's account.
- Samuel Wragg Ferguson wrote in his memoirs that James Ferguson "died when my grandfather Thomas Ferguson was very young and the latter had a hard time in his early youth and but little education, but he mad up for all this and became one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the state"

Brigadier General Samuel Wragg Ferguson Memoirs covering 1820-1902

Part 1, "Family History and Boyhood," relating the migration of his ancestors from Scotland, tracing his ancestry from James Ferguson who was associated with James Oglethorpe in the settlement of Georgia, noting the rebellious activities of his grandfather, Thomas Ferguson, during the American Revolution, describing the city of Charleston, S.C., and relating incidents from his boyhood spent in Charleston and at his father's rice plantation on the coast, and noting a plotted slave uprising at Charleston (1822) and the punishment of the slaves implicated in the plot.

Samuel Wragg Ferguson Memoirs [1820-1902] Mss. 1416, 1576 LSU Libraries Special Collections
Samuel Wragg Ferguson, 1834-1917: Brigadier General, Confederate States Army : Memoirs and 1865 Journal published by E.D. Sloan, Jr., 1998
- University of South Carolina University Libraries Columbia, SC 29208 United States
- United States Military Academy USMA Library West Point, NY 10996 United States
- Greenville Historical Society
Samuel Wragg Ferguson, Brig. General, CSA, and wife Catherine Lee : featuring selections from their writings by James Marvin Lowrey, 1994

James Edward Oglethorpe

1728 - Sarah Barker's will shows that James Ferguson was in South Carolina prior to the arrival of Oglethorpe and the first of his colonists on the ship Ann in late 1732.
1734 - Oglethorpe, accompanied by Captain Ferguson, and sixteen attendants, including two Indians, set out in a row-boat, followed by a yawl laden with provisons and ammunition, upon an exploratory expedition to the southern frontiers of Georgia." [A memoir of General James Oglethorpe, Robin Wright, 1867]
1734 - Captain Ferguson built a fort on Skidaway Island circa 1734. [Oglethorpe by David Lee Russell, 2006]
1734 - There are several undocumented references to Captain Ferguson as "Captain William Ferguson" ; e.g. South Carolina Historical Magazine, 1972, Volume 73, p. 129 or St. Augustine Pirates and Privateers By Theodore Corbett, 2012, p. 117
1737 - South Carolina, Marc 2, Samuel Eveleigh to James Oglethorpe, " Capt. Ferguson came to town two days since who advises me that they are very busy in finishing the fort and that half the negroes in that neighbourhood are now at work thereon." [Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 43, 1737. British History Online]
1743 - Oglethorpe returned to England
1775 - mortgage by John Bowman, younger of Skiddoway in province of Georgia, presently residing in Glasgow, to Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch, of 500 acres of the island of Skiddoway in parish of Christ Church, Georgia [NAS GD77/168]

1735 - James Bulloch was educated in Glasgow and went to South Carolina, where in 1735 he became Justice of the Peace for Colleton county, South Carolina, and entertained General Oglethorpe at his plantation of Pon Pon, near Walterboro, SC [Historical Collections of the Joseph Habersham Chapter, ..., 1902]
1740 - James Bulloch's brother in law Capt. William Stobo served under Oglethorpe in the St. Augustine Expedition [Memoirs of the Bulloch Family (1892)]

References