Skip to main content
Personal data
Name
Joseph Ferguson
Born 1718
Died January 18, 1791
Biography

Resident tutor to James Boswell (and his brothers) from 1752 to sometime in the mid-1750s. Licensed in 1759, he was ordained vicar of Tundergarth Parish, Annandale, Dumfriesshire on September 17, 1761. Among his parishioners were John Johnston, whom he visited several times during the disease which eventually led to his (Johnston's) death.

Life with Boswell

In a letter to John Johnston dated July 21, 1763 Boswell described Ferguson as follows "I would remind you of Mr. Joseph Fergusson, of his velvet bretches, his grizly Wig and his Speech concerning Kate Straton: Of his systematical morality which he learnt from Professor Hutchison, his excellent Equivocations, and his bawdy narrations." They corresponded on and off until Ferguson's death.