Biographical Summary

"Son of James Ferguson of Pitfour, advocate, came to the bar 17th February 1722. He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, in the room of Robert Dundas of Arniston, 24th June 1760, and held that honourable office till his promotion to the bench, on the death of Robert Pringle of Edgefield, in 1764, when he took his seat on the 14th June that year, by the title of Lord Pitfour. On the 9th July following, he also succeeded William Grant of Prestongrange as a Lord of Justiciary, which he resigned in April 1776, and died at Gilmerton on the 25th June 1777, in the seventy-seventh year of his age."

SOURCE: An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice: From Its Institution in MDXXXII; by George Brunton, David Haig; 1832; Page 527