Sir Samuel Ferguson was an Irish poet, barrister, antiquarian, artist and public servant.
Background
Samuel Ferguson was born on the 10th od Maarch, 1810 in Belfast, United Kingdom. His father was a spendthrift and his mother was a noted conversationalist and lover of literature who read the works of Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Keats, Shelley and other English authors to her six children.
Education
Samuel Ferguson was educated at the Belfast Academy and the Belfast Academical Institution.
Career
Perhaps the most important Irish poet of the 19th century, because of his interest in Irish mythology and early Irish history Samuel Ferguson can be seen as a forerunner of William Butler Yeats and the other poets of the Irish Literary Revival. Ferguson lived at a number of addresses, including Glenwhirry, where he later said he acquired the love of nature that informed his later work. He then moved to Dublin to study law at Trinity College, getting his Bachelor in 1826 and his Master of Arts in 1832.
Because his father had exhausted the family property, Ferguson was forced to support himself through his student years.
To do this, he turned to writing and was a regular contributor to Blackwood"s Magazine by the age of 22. He was called to the bar in 1838, but continued to write and publish, both in Blackwood"s and in the newly established Dublin University Magazine.
Ferguson settled in Dublin, where he practised law. In 1846, he toured European museums, libraries and archaeological sites with strong connections to Irish scholarship. He retired from the bar when he was appointed First Deputy Keeper of Public Records of Ireland.
As well as his poetry, Ferguson contributed a number of articles on topics of Irish interest to antiquarian journals. In 1863, he travelled in Brittany, Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland to study megaliths and other archaeological sites. These studies were important to his major antiquarian work, Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales and Scotland, which was edited after his death by his widow and published in 1887.
His collected poems, Lays of the Western Gael was published in 1865, resulting in the award of a degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Trinity.
Samuel Ferguson wrote many of his poems with both Irish and English translations. In 1867, Ferguson retired from the bar to take up the newly created post of Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland.
As reward for his services, he received a knighthood in 1878. Ferguson"s major work, the long poem Congal was published in 1872 and a third volume, Poems in 1880.
In 1882, Samuel Ferguson was elected President of the Royal Irish Academy, an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science, literature and antiquarian studies.
His house in North Great George's Saint, Dublin, was open to everyone interested in art, literature or music He died in Howth, just outside Dublin city, and was buried in Donegore near Templepatrick, County Antrim.