Robert, Edinburgh's most gifted but least recognised poet, was educated at the
Edinburgh Royal High Schoolhttp://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-000-498-L&PHPSESSID=cfe928f64,
High School of
Dundee, and at the
University of St Andrews, where he matriculated in
1765. His father, who was originally from Aberdeenshire but had moved to Edinburgh, died while Robert was still at college; but a bursary enabled him to complete his four years of study. He refused to study for the church, and was too nervous to study
medicine as his friends wished. He quarrelled with his uncle, John Forbes of Round Lichnot,
Aberdeenshire, and returned to Edinburgh, where he obtained employment as copying clerk in a lawyer's office. In this occupation he passed the remainder of his life. While at college he had written a clever
elegy on Dr
David Gregory, and in
1771 he began to contribute verses regularly to
Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine.
He was a member of the
Cape Club, celebrated by him in his poem of "Auld Reekie". "The Knights of the Cape" assembled at a tavern in Craig's Close, in the vicinity of the Cross; each member had a name and character assigned to him, which he was required to maintain at all gatherings of the order.
David Herd (1732-1810), the collector of the classic edition of
Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776), was sovereign of the Cape (in which he was known as "Sir Scrape") when Fergusson was dubbed a knight of the order, with the title of "Sir Precentor," in allusion to his fine voice.
Alexander Runciman, the historical painter, his pupil Jacob More, and Sir
Henry Raeburn were all members. The old minute books of the club abound with pencilled sketches by them, one of the most interesting of which, ascribed to Runciman's pencil, is a sketch of Fergusson in his character of "Sir Precentor."
Fergusson's gaiety and wit made him an entertaining companion, and he indulged too freely in the convivial habits of the time. After a meeting with
John Brown of Haddington he became, however, very serious, and would read nothing but his
Bible. A fall by which his head was severely injured aggravated symptoms of mental aberration which had begun to show themselves; and after about two months' confinement in the old Darien House--then the only public
asylum in Edinburgh--the poet died from suicide at the age of 24.
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