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Mr. J. Lynch, when that gentleman was compiling his great work on 

 ' Feudal Dignities;' at the instance of Mr. Lynch, Ferguson accompa- 

 nied him to Ireland, where he was soon appointed, through his influ- 

 ence, to the office of Deputy Keeper of the Soils, in the Chief Eemem- 

 brancer's department. 



" In order to give him a legal status, he was admitted an attor- 

 ney, without service, apprenticeship or fee ; but he never practised as 

 such, nor did he derive any emolument from the profession. He held 

 this office in the Eecords for several years ; during the early period of 

 which he was much employed in making searches, and furnishing ma- 

 terials and documents in cases of title, Quare impedit, &c. ; and his 

 situation became, consequently, in some degree, remunerative. But 

 when the new Landed Estates Court and its concomitant legislation 

 came into operation, an end was at once put to the principal sources 

 of his emolument, and during his later years his fees of office dwindled 

 down to something miserably small. 



" He compiled Calendars to the Eolls in his custody ; and a sum 

 of one or two hundred pounds was paid over to him, on the condition 

 of his depositing those documents as official papers belonging to the 

 office. His latter years were passed in much pecuniary distress ; and 

 the heads of his department became desirous of removing him from his 

 office, and from his beloved records. And here a very curious con- 

 test ensued ; and, notwithstanding that his chief was extremely de- 

 sirous of having him removed, he for upwards of three years continued 

 to hold adverse possession ; and, though its emoluments were gone, he 

 stubbornly refused to vacate the office. At length they succeeded in 

 getting him out ; and penury, and ill health, and ill-remunerated lite- 

 rary efforts soon terminated in death, and thus deprived Ireland of 

 one whose talents, if rightly directly and appreciated, might have been 

 of inestimable value in illustrating the history of the land of his 

 adoption. 



" He was a most accurate and accomplished scholar in his parti- 

 cular line ; and he furnished to the Ulster and Kilkenny Archaeological 

 volumes many valuable and interesting papers illustrative of the his- 

 tory of Ireland. He also published in the ' Topographer' a paper 

 on ' The Inventory of Hugh Eoe O'Neill's Effects;' which, by the ge- 

 nerosity of the Eev. W. Eeeves, D. D., is now inserted in these vo- 

 lumes in the handwriting of Ferguson himself. This document is most 

 curious, interesting, and valuable, and may be taken as a sample of his 

 proficiency in record lore. 



" He wrote a beautiful hand, was thoroughly the gentleman, 

 uniformly kind and courteous to the visitants of his office, modest and 

 unpresuming to a fault, and always willing to communicate information 

 from the rich store of his well-cultivated mind. He was unquestion- 

 ably the best record scholar of his day in Ireland ; but, when separated 

 from his much-loved parchments, he very soon pined away, and died in 

 the forty-ninth year of his age, on the 26th of November, 1855, and 



E. I. A. PROC. VOL. IX. 2 If 



