Robert Ferguson was an English mill-owner from Cumberland

Cumberland

Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....

, antiquarian and Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

  politician, who sat in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1886.

Biography

Ferguson was the son of Joseph Ferguson of Ferguson Brothers cotton manufacturers and his wife Maria Isabella Clarke daughter of John Clarke of Bebside House Northumberland., His father's company owned the Holme Head Works textile mills in Denton Holme

Denton Holme

Denton Holme is an inner city district in Carlisle, Cumbria, England.Denton Holme is usually regarded as a "village within the city" and is situated to the immediate south west of the city centre on the western bank of the River Caldew...

. Ferguson became a partner in the firm of Ferguson Brothers and was at one time a Major in the 1st Battalion Cumberland Rifle Volunteers. He was Mayor of Carlisle in 1855 and 1858. He was also chairman of the Carlisle School Board and president of the Carlisle Mechanics Institute.

Ferguson was elected MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Carlisle

Carlisle (UK Parliament constituency)

Carlisle is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It was a Labour seat from 1964 until 2010, although the Conservatives came close to victory in the elections in...

 in 1874. His father had also held the seat from 1852 to 1857. Ferguson held the seat until 1886.

Ferguson funded the Robert Ferguson Primary school at Denton Holme, which was opened in 1880 and which was enlarged twice in his lifetime. He lived at Morton Manor

Morton Manor

Morton Manor is a manor house originating in the 13th century, in Brading, Isle of Wight, England. It is located southwest of Sandown Road. The 14th century fairly small house was modified in the 19th century. Constructed of varied materials, it was refurbished and extended in the early 20th...

, which was later to become Chance's Park.

Ferguson was also an antiqarian and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Works

Ferguson was the author of several books, including:

• The shadow of the pyramid, a series of sonnets (1847)
• The Northmen in Cumberland & Westmoreland (1856)
• The Teutonic name-system applied to the family names of France, England, & Germany (1864)
• Surnames as a Science (1883)

External links