Life

His date of birth is debated, and he is reputed to have been a native of Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

. Robert Wodrow

Robert Wodrow

Robert Wodrow , Scottish historian, was born at Glasgow, being a son of James Wodrow, professor of divinity.-Biography:Ordered as in the text above:...

 states that he was by trade a glover, but gave up business and went to school, in order to fit himself for the duties of a preacher or expounder among the reformers. The Scottish doctor of the Sorbonne James Laing sneered at him as an ignorant cobbler (sutor) and glover. He was well acquainted both with Latin and Greek, and was among the earliest of the preachers of the reformed doctrines.

When the first appointment was made of ministers or superintendents for places in Scotland, he was selected to go to Dunfermline

Dunfermline

Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to a 2008 estimate, Dunfermline has a population of 46,430, making it the second-biggest settlement in Fife. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word...

; in 1567 Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

 was placed under his care, but in 1574 it was excluded, while Cumnock

Cumnock

Cumnock is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water...

 and Beith

Beith

Beith is a small town situated in the Garnock Valley in North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately 20-miles south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill and was known originally as the "Hill o' Beith" after its Court Hill.-History:-Name:Beith's name is thought to emanate from...

 were added. Ferguson was chosen moderator of the general assembly which met at Edinburgh on 6 March 1573, and also of that which met on 24 Oct. 1578. He usually had a place on important commissions, and for many years was chosen one of the assessors to the moderator to prepare matters for the assembly.

He was one of the ministers who waited on James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton

James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton

James Douglas, jure uxoris 4th Earl of Morton was the last of the four regents of Scotland during the minority of King James VI. He was in some ways the most successful of the four, since he did manage to win the civil war which had been dragging on with the supporters of the exiled Mary, Queen of...

 before his execution, 2 June 1581. In 1582 he was appointed by the assembly a commissioner for the West of Fife, to superintend the establishment of kirks and placing of ministers. Ferguson formed one of a deputation to wait on James VI in 1583 to discharge the duty of admonishing him ‘to beware of innovations in court’, to check reports before credit was given to them, and remind him of the affair of the escaped Jesuit, William Holt

William Holt (jesuit)

-Life:Holt was born at Ashworth in Lancashire. He was educated at home, and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1563, took the degree B.A. in 1566, was elected fellow of Oriel College on 29 February 1568, and preceded to the degree of M.A. in 1572. In 1573, he was incorporated M.A. at...

. He jocularly told the king that Fergus

Fergus Mór

Fergus Mór mac Eirc was a legendary king of Dál Riata. He was the son of Erc.While his historicity may be debatable, his posthumous importance as the founder of Scotland in the national myth of Medieval and Renaissance Scotland is not in doubt...

 was the first king of Scotland, and that he was Fergus-son; but recognising that King James had the possession and was an honest man he would give him his right. In the discussion warmth was displayed by some of the deputies, but Ferguson succeeded in giving a new turn to the topics at critical points, the result being that as they took their leave ‘the king laid his hands upon every one of them.’ In August of the same year Ferguson and six other ministers were cited by the king to attend a convention at St Andrews to answer for certain proceedings of the assembly.

On 12 May 1596, on the renewal of the covenant by the synod of Fife at Dunfermline, Ferguson gave an address, with reminiscences of his experiences of the early reform period. At a meeting of the synod of Fife, held at Cupar

Cupar

Cupar is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town is situated between Dundee and the New Town of Glenrothes.According to a recent population estimate , Cupar had a population around 8,980 making the town the ninth largest settlement in Fife.-History:The town is believed to have...

 in February 1598, in regard to a proposal to give ministers a vote in parliament, Ferguson, the eldest minister at that time in Scotland, after relating pat difficulties of the church in contending against efforts to introduce episcopacy, opposed the proposal, which he compared to the ‘busking up of the brave horse’ for the overthrow of Troy. He died 13 August 1598.

Works

In 1563 Ferguson published a reply to René Benoît, confessor to Mary Queen of Scots. It was printed in Tracts by David Ferguson, edited by David Laing for the Bannatyne Club

Bannatyne Club

The Bannatyne Club was founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, whether in history, poetry, or general literature. It printed 116 volumes in all. It was dissolved in 1861....

 in 1860. On 13 January 1572 he preached a sermon before the Regent Mar at the meeting of the assembly in Leith

Leith

-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....

, when a modified episcopacy was established. It protested against the alienation of the spoils of the church to the private uses of the nobility or to purposes of government, instead of their being applied to the establishment of churches and schools, and to meet the necessities of the poor; and was in vernacular Scottish. At the assembly held at Perth in August 1572 it was submitted to the revision of five ministers, all of whom gave it their approbation, after which it was printed at St. Andrews by Robert Lekprevick, the dedication to the Regent Mar bearing the date of 20 August. John Knox

John Knox

John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...

 gave it his recommendation: ‘John Knox with my dead hand but glad heart, praising God that of his mercy he leaves such light to his kirk in this desolation.’ It is in the volume edited by Laing.

The epithet ‘Tulchan

Tulchan

A Tulchan was in Scotland a man appointed as bishop after the Reformation, who was a bishop in name only and whose revenue was drawn by his patron. The term originally referred to a calfskin stuffed with straw, and presented to a cow, as if living to induce her to give milk.Mr...

’ applied to the bishops is usually ascribed to him. He was famed for his skill in the vernacular language, which is celebrated by John Davidson

John Davidson

John Davidson may refer to:* John Andrew Davidson , Canadian politician* John Davidson , American actor* John Davidson , Australian admiral...

, then one of the regents at St. Andrews. He made a collection of Scottish proverbs,published in 1641 under the title, ‘Scottish Proverbs gathered together by David Fergusone, sometime minister at Dunfermline, and put ordine alphabetico when he departed this life anno 1598.’ Other editions appeared in 1659, 1675, 1699, and 1706, the latter bearing the title, ‘Nine Hundred and Forty Scottish Proverbs, the greater part of which were first gathered together by David Ferguson, the rest since added.’

He was also the author of ‘Epithalamium Mysticum Solomonis Regis, sive analysis critico-poetica Cantici Canticorum,’ Edinburgh, 1677. He left a diary containing a record of the principal ecclesiastical events of his time, which has been lost, but which probably his son-in-law, John Row

John Row

John Row was a Scottish ecclesiastical historian and one of the Scottish Reformers. As minister of Carnockin Fife, he was a leading opponent of Episcopacy....

(1568–1646), incorporated in his ‘History.’

Family

By his wife, Isabel Durham, he had five sons and four daughters, one of whom, Grizzel, married Row.