James FERGUSON ²

  Notes:

James is earliest documented Ferguson of his line. He may have been the James Ferguson who was born in Old Machar in 1688 (to father John Ferguson), but there is no other evidence apart from the baptism record to confirm this. He was a cooper in Aberdeen, and was involved with the salmon trade on the River Don, trading with fishmongers in London. He was a burger of Aberdeen, and a Deacon of St Nicholas Church in the early 1720s.

James first married Elizabeth Cassie, a servant. They had seven children, two of whom were named in his will: Elizabeth who married Robert Chalmers, also a burger and cooper; and their eldest son James. James snr next married Margaret Cocker (qv), a farmer's daughter. They had four children, including twin daughters, but their youngest son John (qv), who was born just over a year before his father's death in 1737, was the only one of the four to be named in James' will.

James married Elizabeth CASSIE on 22 Nov 1709 in Aberdeen.¹

James next married Margaret COCKER, daughter of John COCKER and Unknown, on 8 May 1731 in Aberdeen.¹ (Margaret COCKER died after 1736 ⁴.)