FERGUSSON, Robert Poet 1
- Born: 5 September 1750 2
- Baptised: 5 September 1750, Edinburgh parish, Edinburgh, Scotland 1 2
- Died: 16 October 1774 3
- Buried: 1774, Canongate Churchyard, Edinburgh, Scotland 3
User ID: K873.
General Notes:
"FERGUSSON
ROBERT
WILLIAM FERGUSSON/ELIZABETH FORBES FR7222 (FR7222)
M
05/09/1750
685 / 1 270 / 18
EDINBURGH"
from Births and Baptisms
Old Parish Registers
Edinburgh parish Edinburgh
Baptisms
"Wednes the 5th Septemr 1750 To William Fergusson Clerk to Baillie Robert Baillie Merchant in NKp(North Kirk parish) & Elizabeth Forbes his spouse ASN(a son named) Robert said by the amentioned parent to have been born this morning W(witnesses) David Lindsay Indweller in SKp(South Kirk parish) & James Farquharson Clerk to James Fullarton Merchant in Leith"
"The poet was the son of a William Fergusson, bookkeeper in Edinburgh, to which city he had emigrated about the year 1746 from Aberdeen, having removed to Aberdeen from Cromar, which was his native place, in that or the previous year. The poet's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of John Forbes, tacksman of Templeton, Hillockhead, and Wellhead, a cadet of the family of Tolquhon, and as a boy he was frequently told by his parents that his great-grandfather by the father's side had been a clergyman of the Church of Scotland. It is thus not improbable that he was a descendant of the earlier Fergusson, minister of Crathie."
from Records of Fergusson
"Robert Fergusson will ever be remembered as one of the greatest of Scottish Poets, whose highest distinction was that he inspired Robert Burns, Scotland's greatest poet. The latter, in gratitude for his gifts and in regret for Fergusson's early and untimely death, erected at his own expense in the Canongate Churchyard, Edinburgh not far from the grave of Adam Smith, the author of 'The Wealth of Nations ' a handsome tombstone thus inscribed :
Here lies
ROBERT FERGUSSON, Poet,
Born September 5th, 1750.
Died October 16th, 1774.
No Sculptured Marble here nor pompous lay,
No Storied Urn nor animated Bust,
This simple Stone directs Pale Scotia's way
To pour her Sorrows o'er her Poet's Dust.
The reverse is inscribed :
By special grant of the Managers to Robert Burns, who erected this Stone, this Burial place is to remain for Ever sacred to the memory of Robert Fergusson.
[The erroneous date 1751 is given on the stone]'
from Genealogies of an Aberdeen Family 1540-1913< 1 2 3 4
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