James Fergusson of Kilkerran

Sir James Fergusson, the Keeper of the Records of Scotland, examines some of the unsolved mysteries of the incident at the height of the Irish Home Rule crisis of early 1914 when 58 cavalry officers stationed at the Curragh and in Dublin, chose dismissal from the army rather than the possibility of 'active operations in Ulster'.

"The Declaration of Arbroath" is one of the best known and most treasured document in the national archives of Scotland. It is a letter from the earls and barons of Scotland to the Pope during the War of Independence, expressing the country's independent national identity and asking him to urge the English king to cease his aggression towards Scotland. The accompanying leaflet provides a translation by Sir James Fergusson, a former Keeper of the Records of Scotland. For ease of reading, the translation has been arranged into paragraphs, with shorter sentences and modern punctuation.

Originally published in 1969. Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran, Keeper of the Records of Scotland from 1949 to 1969, puts forward the theory, with a wealth of historical evidence to support it, that Shakespeare's characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had two originals in contemporary life: the notorious Captain James Stewart, briefly Earl of Arran and Chancellor of Scotland, and his flamboyantly wicked wife, two of the best-known and best-hated figures in Scotland during the early years of King James VI and I, that King for whose particular diversion Shakespeare wrote his play. Sir James Fergusson's long familiarity with record sources enabled him to make skilful use of previously unpublished documents and to illuminate the course of history from quite unexpected angles.