Ferguson, Colin, Dd

Ferguson, Colin, D.D.

a Protestant Episcopal minister, was born in Kent County, Maryland, December 8, 1751. A Scotch schoolmaster became interested in him as a pupil and took him to Edinburgh, paying the expenses of his education at the university. In 1782 he was an instructor in the Kent County School at Chestertown, Md. When Washilngton College, the oldest in the state, was organized in 1783, he was chosen professor of languages, mathematics, and natural philosophy, and held the position till 1793, when he.was appointed president. After studying theology, he was admitted to deacon's orders, August 3, 1785, to priest's, August 7 of the same year, and became rector in St. Paul's Parish, Kent County, Maryland, where he served until 1799. In 1804 he retired to his farm, near Georgetown Cross Roads, where he spent the rest of his life. He died March 10, 1806. Of the General Convention of 1789, which framed the constitution of the Church, he was an active member. He was more distinguished as a scholar than as a preacher. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5:342.