Fergus McDuck

Fergus McDuck (1830-1902) is a prominent character in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. He was Scrooge McDuck's father.

He was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1830 to "Dirty" Dingus McDuck and Molly Mallard, both working as coal miners at the time. He spent most of his life as a mill worker.

According to a story by William Van Horn, Fergus at some point had a short marriage with an unidentified woman, with whom he had the son Rumpus McFowl. He later married Downy O'Drake, his wife in Rosa's stories, who became the mother of three of his children: Scrooge McDuck, Matilda McDuck, and Hortense McDuck. An Italian character, Gideon McDuck, might also be a son of Fergus.

The rest of Fergus' biography is shown in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. In 1877 he encouraged his son to work to have his own money. Scrooge's obvious intelligence, skill at hard work and ambition made his father believe that Scrooge would be able to restore The Clan McDuck to its former glory.

In 1885 the Clan's hereditary lands would have been seized due to Fergus' inability to pay his taxes. But Scrooge spent his savings at the time, 10,000 dollars, to pay the taxes and became the new owner of their lands. While Scrooge was away Fergus and his family moved back to Castle McDuck, abandoned for centuries, in Dismal Downs. The family continued to work to pay for the taxes and Scrooge sent them most all of the money he earned while traveling. Fergus became a widower in 1897.

Scrooge became rich in the Klondike and returned to Scotland in 1902 as a billionaire. Scrooge's intention was originally to settle in Dismal Downs but he quickly changed his mind and decided to settle in the United States. He wanted to take his family with him. His sisters accepted but Fergus decided to stay. He died during the night, aged 67, and his spirit was re-united with his wife Downy and the rest of the McDuck-clan as his three children left Scotland.

In the NES game DuckTales 2, Scrooge and his nephews found a piece of a treasure map that apparently belonged to Fergus. It claimed to lead to Fergus' lost treasure. However, due to Fergus' inability to pay taxes, it is presumed that this map is not canonical to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, unless such treasure was obtained later in his life.

In Don Rosa's "A Letter from Home", it's revealed that Fergus tried to find the Knight Templar treasure hidden in the castle McDuck by one of his ancestors, a Knight himself. Even though Fergus decided not to tell Scrooge about the treasure, he learns about it through other ways and, like Matilda McDuck, thinks Fergus kept the secret from him because he disapproved Scrooge. In the middle of their way to the treasure, Scrooge, Matilda and Scrooge's nephews find a letter from Fergus, who believed Scrooge would eventually find it, revealing the reason he hid the secret from Scrooge is that Scrooge would feel better building his own fortune instead of inheriting one.