Sir Adam Fergusson, 3rd Baronet of Kilkerran, FRSE LLD (7 May 1733 – 25 September 1813) was a Scottish advocate, politician and slave-owner.
He was joint owner, with his brothers and members of the Hunter-Blair family, of plantations in Tobago and Jamaica and of several hundred enslaved African people.
[1] Dr Samuel Johnson described him as "a vile Whig" however his friend James Boswell was less condemning, saying "few people were but mixed character, like a candle: half wax, half tallow- but Sir Adam Fergusson was all wax, with a pure taper, whom you may light and set upon any lady’s table".
He then spent a year in Brussels doing further legal studies before undertaking a Grand Tour of Europe as was the fashion of the day, 1757-58.
In 1774 he re-entered politics with a somewhat ironic slogan of being "a champion of the county against aristocratic influence" (referring to more senior members of the aristocracy rather than himself).
[3] His first recorded speech in Parliament was on 26 October 1775 when he spoke out advocating strong measures be taken against the United States of America.
On 24 November 1775, he seemed to sway in the other direction, insisting that the government consult parliament before sending Hanoverian troops to either Gibraltar or Menorca.
In this second session he was more trusted and selected for a secret committee to investigate the cause of the wars in the Carnatic region of southern India.
[5] At the next election in August 1784, by agreement with Dundas and others, he stood down in Ayrshire to allow Hugh Montgomerie success, and instead was offered James Hunter Blair’s seat in Edinburgh.