The following letter was written by Hugh Ferguson, farmer at Kilmaho, near Campbeltown, on 6 December 1861. The identity of the recipient is unknown, and the text contains no firm clues. The owner of the document, Robert W. Ralston in Denver, suggests that it could have been sent to his great-greatgreat- grandfather Peter Greenlees in Illinois, who was the husband of Hugh's sister Martha, and that seems most likely, despite Hugh's addressing him as 'Dear Brother'. Another possibility was Hugh's brother William (1813-84), who also settled in Illinois, but since he was doubtless the William to whom Hugh refers in his letter, he obviously couldn't have been the recipient.

A later letter - referred to in the editorial notes - was also addressed 'Dear Brother' and mentions Hugh's having received a letter from Peter Greenlees. That letter, which was dated 2 March 1865, probably was sent to Hugh's brother William. It, too, is in the possession of Robert W. Ralston, and is largely concerned with the parlous state of Glenside Distillery's finances, following the death, on 10 January 1865, of founding-partner James Armour, who had neglected the accounts for 'about eight years'.

In the census of 1861 - the same year the first letter was written - Hugh described himself as aged 53 and a farmer of 32 acres. With him at Kilmaho were his wife Martha, aged 43, seven of their children, ranging in age from 16 to three, his 14-year-old nephew, James Ferguson, 'scholar', and a 19-year-old dairymaid, Catherine McSporran.

Hugh's father was James Ferguson, maltster, and his mother Mary was also a Ferguson. These Fergusons were of 17th century Lowland stock and distinct from the Gaelic Fergusons, whose name was anglicised from MacFhearghuis. Hugh was a baker in Campbeltown until taking the tenancy of Kilmaho, and a partner in Glenside Distillery until 1865, when he agreed to withdraw and the company was dissolved. He died in 1876, aged 70, and his wife Martha Huie, a merchant's daughter, whom he married in 1842, died in 1901, aged 84.

Hugh's brother James was a founding partner in Wylie, Mitchell & Co., Rieclachan Distillery, and when he died in 1848, aged 43, his one-fifth share in the business went to his seven siblings, who were: Hugh; Jean, widow of John Harvey, distiller; Archibald; Mary, wife of Robert Maxwell, farmer; Agnes, wife of William Johnston, farmer, all in Kintyre; and, in Willow Creek, Illinois, William and his sister Martha, wife of Peter Greenlees. In 1850 they sold the inherited share to Archibald Mitchell, one of the original partners.

A report on the marriage of William's son, Charles P. Ferguson, in Harlem, Illinois, was published on 9 September 1882 in the Rockford Gazette and reproduced in the Argyllshire Herald of 7 October. His wife, Jennie, was a daughter of James Turner, farmer, formerly of Pennyseorach, Southend, and Ann Greenlees. She was married on the lawn of her parents' residence 'in the presence of fully two hundred and fifty guests'.

As with the letters published in the previous issue, spelling and punctuation have not been edited. Hugh didn't use even one full-stop throughout the entire letter: commas served him as full-stops, and where these were absent, I increased the spacing at the end of sentences. Some of the individuals referred to in the text have not been identified, but those I was able to comment on appear in the numbered editorial notes at the end.
Editor

Editorial Notes

The abbreviation 'KL' signifies 'Kintyre Leases', extracted in 1958 by Duncan Colville from originals loaned to him by the Duke of Argyll.
1. The Armour family was of 17th century Lowland plantation stock, but by the mid-19th century had been long established in the Largieside and was Gaelicspeaking. Descendants still farm in Kintyre.
2. 'Mr Snodgrass' was Alexander, who came from Renfrew to Chiskan, in the Laggan, c 1838, and took the tenancy of Clochkeil in 1857. An innovative and successful farmer, he died in 1862, aged 52. When the lease of Clochkeil expired in 1875, Alexander's widow Janet Robertson and family took the grazing farm of Keppoch, Kilberry. (Argyllshire Herald, 20 March 1875)
3. Daniel Gilchrist's cattle and horses, stacks of hay, barley, oats and beans, ten acres of Swedish turnips, agricultural implements and dairy utensils were sold by public auction at East Ballivain on 16 December 1861. The farm was then let to James Mitchell, son of Samuel in Strath. (Argyllshire Herald, 10 January 1862) Daniel died at Ballivain Cottage on 21 March 1887, aged 65, and his wife, Margaret Semple, who was born in Lesmahagow, on 5 October 1892, aged 71.
4. John Gilchrist (1817-93) was a son of John, farmer, and Margaret McBride, and husband of Jean Stewart, who survived him with four of their ten children (Campbeltown Courier, 21 October 1893) and died in 1901.
5. Joseph Hunter, Mid Craigs, gave his age as 30 when the census was taken earlier that year. Both he and his wife, Elizabeth, were born in Ayrshire, he in Kirkmichael and she in Maybole. They had three young children. He died on 24 October. (Argyllshire Herald, 25 October 1861)
6. The new laird of Drumore and Mid Craigs was John Watson Laidley, Sea Cliff, Haddington, who paid £27,000 for the lands in a private bargain. He died, aged 71, in 1885. (Argyllshire Herald, 15 November 1861 & 21 March 1885)
7. James Wilson took the lease of Auchaleek in 1858, with his son James as cautioner. In the 1861 census - taken earlier in the same year the letter was written - James Sr. was recorded as a 74-year-old widower, born in Collessie, Fife. Son James, aged 35, a 'merchant', was also in the household, along with four grown-up siblings and five servants. After complaining that the rent was too high, Wilson was threatened with eviction, resigned the lease at Martinmas 1862 and was replaced by Robert Miller from Beith, Ayrshire. (KL p 10) James Jr., cattle dealer, died at Kirk Street, Campbeltown, on 5 March 1886.
8. Mary Harvey was Hugh's niece: her mother, Jean Ferguson, married John Harvey, distiller, in 1823. Mary married Robert Bell, Supervisor of Inland Revenue, on Christmas Day 1861. He was from Ballygawley, County Tyrone. (Argyllshire Herald, 3 January 1862)
9. John was Hugh's eldest son, who had gone away to train as an engineer but 'did not like Glasgow'. The meaning of 'keep by the Work' is obscure, but the employment, whatever its nature, was 'much healthier'. John was mentioned in the letter Hugh wrote to America in 1865: 'the engineer business, it was not agreeing with him with the heats and colds and he came home.' Hugh's nephew, James Harvey, managing partner of Rieclachan Distillery, had advised Hugh to send John to Glenside Distillery, presumably to help James Armour with his accounts, but, as noted in the Introduction, the books had been neglected for years and James was already close to death. John died at Allandale, Ontario, on 24 October 1902, aged 57, and was buried in Toronto. An obituary appeared in the Argyllshire Herald on 1 November 1902.
10. Archibald Ferguson, Hugh's brother, was evidently dead by 1851. His 'boy', who lived at Kilmaho, was James, about whom Hugh wrote at length in his letter to America in 1865. James had been employed by an uncle, John Huie, ironmonger in Campbeltown, but disliked the job and left within a year, which Hugh explained thus: 'as the youngest boy has always the heaviest part of the work, they always keep four boys and the youngest is kept working or running messages.' On his own initiative, James joined the crew of a ship and sailed to South America. On his return, he said that he 'liked the sea well and would be going back in ten days'; but when the day for his departure arrived, he disappeared and hid in the smithy at Kilkenzie, near Kilmaho. Later that same day, he found work with David Watson at Drum farm, and after a year there was engaged as a ploughboy at Crossibeg by James Drain's widow, Margaret McGeachy, and was 'pleasing well' there. In Hugh's opinion, James was 'much
better with a stranger, as he did not pay much attention to orders in our house'.
11. Alexander Wylie was a founding partner in Rieclachan Distillery in 1825 and built Toberanrigh Distillery in 1834. His first wife was Isabella Ferguson, whom he married in 1816; when he married Agnes Colville in 1829, he was nearly twice her age. He died in 1862, aged 87. (A. Martin, Campbeltown Whisky: An Encyclopaedia, pp. 266-67) The cash he expected from America - the main reason the letter was written, I suspect - remains a mystery.