Fergus McDuck

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Fergus McDuck (1835-1902) is a fictional character of the Scrooge McDuck universe. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 1835 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.

He at some point had an affair with Vera O'Drake. This would result in the birth of Rumpus McFowl, an illegitimate son. He later married Downy O'Drake (1840- 1897), either a sister or a cousin of Vera, who became the mother of three of his children. Those are:

Scrooge McDuck born 1867, sometimes he died 1967
Matilda McDuck, born 1871
Hortense McDuck, born 1876.

On 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 spend 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 the clan's castle, 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 on 1897. Gideon McDuck, the Italian character who has been used for decades as Scrooge's brother, was presumably born some time after that as an ilegitimate son of Fergus.

Scrooge became rich in the Klondike and returned to Scotland in 1902 as a bilionaire. 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 three children left Scotland.

Fergus McDuck is probably the first main character to die in a Walt Disney funny animals comic book.

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 Scrooge McDuck universe, 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, our heroes 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.