John Fergusson

"An enterprising Indian Merchant" F.J. Fergusson has his portrait.

"Doonholm was purchased in 1783 by John Fergusson, merchant in Calcutta, a nephew of Mr Fergusson of Doonholm. Mr Fergusson went to the East Indies when a young man, and rose to great eminence as one of the most enlightened and enterprising of British merchants. He made a handsome fortune, and, in the words of the New Statistical Account of Ayrshire established in Calcutta 'a mercantile house, which long continued to perpetuate his name, and to be distinguished over the whole of India'. He gave £1000 for behoof of the public tachers of Ayr, which was applied in 1798, together with other sums in building the Academy. He also contributed liberally towards the funds of the poor. At his death he left his estate to trustees with directions to offer the lands of Doonholm to the daughters of his uncle Mr William Fergusson according to seniority at a certain price, at which price Mrs Fleming of Barochan, the eldest daughter bought the lands. She afterwards sold them in 1796 to John Hunter, W.S. the husband of her sister Mrs Hunter of Bonnytoun" - History of the County of Ayr, i. p.202, quoted in Records of the Clan & Name of Fergusson Ferguson and Fergus (Supplement) 1899 pp76-79.

Associated with William Fairlie of Calcutta from perhaps as early as 1784 was opium trader and agency house figure, John Fergusson. Fergusson was from Ayrshire and dealt in cotton and opium. This firm was known successively as Fairlie, Fergusson and Co.; Fairlie, Reid and Co.; Fairlie, Gilmore and Co.; finally Fergusson, Clarke and Co.

(W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 10. Parker's essay on Scots in India, pp. 199ff in R. A. Cage, Scots Abroad.) S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, p. 9, p. 138.)

From 1784 the Bengal government contracted with John Fergusson and a Capt. Dixon for delivery of $40,000 and $10,000 to Penang in exchange for Patna opium of equal value.

"After the American War, free merchants and mariners started flocking to Bengal and agency houses became 'characteristic units of private British trade with the East'. By 1790, fifteen agency houses had developed and the names of William Fairlie, John Fergusson, John Palmer became famous. Initially these houses carried out purchases and sales for others on a commission basis. But utilising the favourable Act of 1793, the expanding indigo business and the growing foreign trade, they embarked upon independent enterprises acting as bankers, bill-brokers, insurance agents, purveyors, freighters and shipowners. Bank of Hindostan, perhaps the first European bank in India, was started by Alexander & Co. in the 1770s." http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/C_0010.HTM

"John Fergusson of Doonhohn, one of the most enterprising British merchants of his day in Calcutta, where he established an extensive mercantile house, which long continued to perpetuate his name, left the following bequests, namely one thousand pounds, the interest of which to be divided yearly between the two ministers of Ayr, and the same sum for behoof of the public teachers of that town, which formed the germ of the fund for the formation of the Ayr Academy established in 1798; also one thousand pounds for the behoof of the poor of Ayr."

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