The Fergussons of Craggan Farm and New Inn Fergussons

jurisdiction act took place, the men of landed property could not make their tenants fight their battles, they became less careful of having clever fellowes about them, and so began to consider how they might make the most of that class of men in another way. Then the rents began to be raised, the farms to . be enlarged, much land to be taken into the landlord’s domain and the shepherd and his dog to be the inhabitants of farms formerly maintained by families; though this last particular is not yet the case here, as in many other places (Highland Clearances).

In consequences of these changes, some of the tenants have become cottagers; some have removed to towns, to gain a livelihood by labour; and a few have emigrated to America though that spirit is not very common here yet.”

The natives of Blair Atholl spoke Gaelic.

Froni an original tinlype ca. 1870 Centre front D. Ferguson and his wife Jane Scott. Probably a Craggan Ferguson family group.

Coming to Marshfield

History has recorded that sometime prior to 1798, Dougald McCormack stopped at the Fergusson home in Scotland on his way to board a ship for North America. Then Fergussons gave McCormack 10 shillings for postage, asking him to write of his experiences. (McCormack settled on the second farm west of Goff’s Creek; refer to McCormack Family History.) As a result of this correspondence, John Fergusson and his family left Scotland for PEI aboard The Romulus in 1807. One can only imagine the feelings of desperation, despair, fear, hope and excitement that they and other immigrants felt on leaving their beloved homeland.

Small Pox Story Proves Timely

The following story was told to Neil Matheson, Provincial Farm Editor (Guardian- Patriot, 1960) by Mrs. Heber Crosby, 297 Kent Street, Charlottetown, whose father was Senator Donald Ferguson.

“The Romulus was somewhere in the Atlantic in the summer of 1807, when it was hailed and

Courtesy of Emma (MacNevin) MacMillan

stopped by an English warship, which put an officer and several men aboard looking for men for the Navy. Recruits for the Navy were taken by force in those days, anywhere they could be found. But the Captain guessed the intent of the warship when he saw it at a distance, ordered all the passengers below decks and into their bunks. When the officer asked, where are the male passengers? only a few crewmen were visible — the Captain replied innocently ‘they are in their bunks below.’ When the Officer asked ‘why’, the Captain replied solemnly ‘we have smallpox on our ship,’ and the Navy lads couldn’t get off fast enough.”

The Romulus reached Pictou on May 1, 1807 an old diary reveals, and the Fergussons and others slept that night in a factory that made cart boxes, with the children tucked into the boxes for their slumber after eating a meal of fish and potatoes at the cost of a shilling. The menfolk chartered a boat which took them all to Prince Edward Island.

Settling on Craggan Farm All histories have mentioned that John Fergusson, Elder, arrived in Prince Edward Island accompanied by his second wife, Janet Robertson, their children and two sons from his first marriage, James and Alexander, along with Alexander’s wife and children.