Ferguson, ROBERT

Ferguson, ROBERT, the 'Plotter,' was born about 1637, near Alford, in Aberdeenshire, and in 1662 was ousted as a Presbyterian from the Kentish vicarage of Godmersham. As Shaftesbury's right hand, as Monmouth's 'evil genius,' he played for ten years a leading part in every treasonable scheme against the last two Stuart kings, and twice had to flee the kingdom. But after the Revolution, of which in 1706 he published a History, he changed sides, and conspired as busily for the losing Jacobite cause. He died, wretchedly poor, in 1714. His younger brother, James, commanded a brigade at Blenheim, and died very suddenly at Bois-le-Duc in 1705. See Ferguson the Plotter (1887), by James Ferguson, and his Two Scottish Soldiers (1888).