FERGUSON, Sir Ronald Craufurd (1773-1841), of Muirtown, Fife and 5 Bolton Row, London, Mdx.

A distinguished army officer noted for his consistent liberalism, Sir Ronald Ferguson, who as a commanding officer had received the thanks of both Houses for his services at Vimeiro in 1808 and a military knighthood in 1815, represented the Dysart Burghs on the combined interest of his family and the 2nd earl of Roslyn from 1806, before being elected as MP for Nottingham in 1830, a seat he held until his death. During the pre-Reform era, Ferguson was an assiduous attender, speaking mainly on trade and commercial matters, in addition to becoming a respected spokesman on military affairs.1HP Commons, 1820-32. He was a consistent supporter of civil and religious liberty, Catholic emancipation, the ballot, and triennial parliaments, and distinguished himself with his criticism of the duke of York during the debates on the Clarke scandal.2H.M. Stephens, ‘Ferguson, Sir Ronald Crauford (1773-1841)’, rev. S. Kinross, Oxf. DNB, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com. Left without a seat at the 1830 general election because of Rosslyn’s late withdrawal from their coalition and the decision to return Lord Loughborough for Dysart Burghs, Ferguson, on the advice of Lord Holland, successfully contested Nottingham, stressing his good attendance record, opposition to slavery and support for reform.3HP Commons, 1820-32. Unopposed at the 1831 general election, he continued to champion reform, voting for the reintroduction of the reform bill in July 1831, and attending the Nottingham reform festival in August 1832.4Morning Chronicle, 16 Aug. 1832. Standing as a Liberal at the December general election, he declared himself a friend of religious liberty, and called for amendment of the corn laws, amelioration of the criminal code and the civil law, and the abolition of all taxes on knowledge. Topping the ensuing poll, he also stated that whenever he disagreed with a majority of his constituents, he would resign his trust.5Morning Chronicle, 10 Dec. 1832.

Although not attending as regularly as he did in the pre-Reform era, Ferguson continued to be a respected speaker on military matters, declaring himself, in a debate on the mutiny bill, an enemy of corporal punishment in the army, but recognising that it needed to be inflicted in certain cases.6Hansard, 2 Apr. 1833, vol. 17, c. 67. During Earl Grey’s administration, Ferguson’s efforts were mainly directed towards to his chairmanship of a select committee on the Warwick election petition of 1833, which determined gross bribery had taken place,7PP 1833 (295), xi. 198. and his subsequent chairing of a select committee on the election proceedings,8PP 1833 (556), xi. 322. the findings of which made him ‘disposed to move that the borough be totally disenfranchised or unite with another town’.9Hansard, 5 Mar. vol. 21, c. 1182. The determination of the committee became the subject of heated debate, with one MP suggesting that interested parties had interfered with the drawing up of the report, which led Ferguson to state that the former was ‘ignorant on that point, as he was on all other matters connected to the question’.10Hansard, 26 Mar. 1834, vol. 22, cc. 79-80. In the final weeks of Earl Grey’s tenure, Ferguson was appointed to three more select committees dealing with the less contentious issues of supply of water to the metropolis, militia estimates, and the navigation of the river Shannon.11PP 1834 (571), xv. 2; PP 1834 (425), xviii. 34; PP 1834 (532), xvii. 142. Ferguson also presented a number of petitions from Nottingham, including one for repeal of the corn laws, mitigation against the Dorchester labourers, and against the poor law amendment bill.12Hansard, 5 Mar. 1834, vol. 21, c. 1144; 24 Apr. 1834, vol. 22, c. 1288; 15 May 1834, vol. 23, c. 1029.

Promising his constituents ‘the best energies of an old man in their service’, and attacking Peel’s ‘wretched administration’, Ferguson was returned unopposed at the 1835 general election.13Morning Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1835. Serving on the select committee on the Carlow election petitions,14PP 1836 (89), xi. 2. inquiring into an alleged payment made to Daniel O’Connell by Raphael Alexander in order to secure the seat, Ferguson became embroiled in controversy after he was accused of having clouded judgement following his suggestion in committee that the matter had only come to light due to the ‘foul conspiracy of a dying faction’.15The accusation was made by the Conservative MP Lord Francis Egerton, who had also served on the committee. Hansard, 21 Apr. 1836, vol. 33, c. 60. Explaining that his comments did not apply to the Conservative party, Ferguson was unrepentant, stating that his words were ‘strictly justifiable’ as a ‘lower class of men’ had conspired to make the matter public.16Hansard, 21 Apr. 1836, vol. 33, cc. 62-4. Ferguson spoke only intermittently during Melbourne’s second administration, contributing to debates on military flogging, where he again stressed his opposition to corporal punishment in the army but admitted it could not be fully abolished,17Hansard, 13 Apr. 1836, vol. 32, c. 1008-9; 14 Apr. 1836, vol. 32, c. 1050. and, in his last known speech, advocating the total repeal of the corn laws.18Hansard, 15 Mar. 1838, vol. 41, c. 944. He also made very brief contributions regarding the sale of beer and the civil list bill. Ibid., 5 Apr. vol. 37, c. 773; 19 Dec. vol. 37, c. 1317.

Ferguson was in the minorities on the municipal offices declaration bill, the repeal of the corn laws, and the ballot,19House of Commons Division Lists, 1837 session, 4 Dec.; 1838 session, 15 Mar.; 1839 session, 18 June. and declining health severely limited his attendances after 1839, when he was absent from the critical votes concerning Buller’s motion of no confidence and the government’s China policy.20House of Commons Division Lists, 1840 session, 31 Jan., 9 Apr. Ferguson died at his home at Bolton Row, Piccadilly, London on 10 April 1841, remembered as a brave soldier and politician, ‘a name dear to the army and to the friends of civil and religious liberty’, whose parliamentary service had ‘uniformly displayed the most uncompromising political consistency’.21Morning Chronicle, 13 Apr. 1841. Dying four months after his brother but before he had been confirmed as his heir, he was succeeded in his Scottish estates by his only son, Colonel Robert Ferguson, who sat as a Liberal for the Kirkcaldy district from 1841 to 1862, and took the additional name of Munro on succeeding to some of the estates of his maternal grandfather, Sir Hector Munro, of Novar, Ross, and Cromarty.22Stephens, ‘Ferguson, Sir Ronald Crauford’.