Ferguson, JAMES, a self-taught Scottish astronomer, was born near Rothiemay, in Banffshire, 25th April 1710. His father being a poor day-labourer, he enjoyed only three months of instruction at school, and his subsequent acquirements were the result of his own insatiable thirst for knowledge. His natural bent was chiefly towards practical mechanics and astronomy; and while keeping sheep, to which he was sent at ten, he was constantly busy in making models of spinning-wheels and mills, and at night in mapping the stars with a stretched thread and beads strung upon it. After working some years at cleaning clocks, making sun-dials, and the like, he took to drawing patterns for embroidery and copying pictures and prints with pen and ink. He then supported himself and his parents by drawing portraits, first in Edinburgh, and after their death in London; his leisure time being all the while given to making orreries, and to other astronomical pursuits. In 1748 he began lecturing on astronomy and mechanics with great acceptance. In 1761 he received from George III. a pension of £50, and he was elected F.R.S. two years later. He now gave up portraits, and devoted himself to lecturing throughout the country, and to writing on his favourite subjects with an assiduity unbroken by unhappy domestic circumstances. He died in London, 16th November 1776. Ferguson's principal works are Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles (1756; 13th ed. revised by Sir David Brewster, 2 vols. 1811), and Lectures on Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Optics (1760; also edited by Brewster, 1805). See the
Life by Dr Ebenezer Henderson, with an Autobiography (1867; 2d ed. 1870).