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- In 1861 Katherine is shown as an inkeeper's widow and residing with her sister Mary. Her death is registered by her nephew William MacGregor of Edinburgh, son of Janet.
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Muckle Kate Ferguson (nee Stewart), 1798-1872
"The Fattest Woman in Britain" meets Queen Victoria
Photo and article excerpted from Perthshire in History and Legend by Archie McKerracher, (c) 1988 the Estate of Archie McKerracher, published by John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh, pp. 111-114.
Muckle Kate Ferguson [was known as] the fattest woman in Britain. [Note: "Muckle" is Scots for "big".] She was born Catherine Stewart at Landrick on Loch Venacher and grew up a slim, active girl. She married Donald Ferguson [sic, John Ferguson] and settled down as the hostess of a local hostelry politely called 'Ferguson's Inn' at Brig o' Turk. It was better known by its Gaelic name of Tigh Mhaide, "The House of Sticks", perhaps from the custom of keeping a reckoning by making notches on a stick by those who could not write.
Kate Ferguson began to put on weight as she grew older and steadily increased in bulk until she weighed in at over 25 stone (350 pounds). Her broad beaming face and hearty good humour made her inn a popular one, both with the locals and the many tourists who came by coach to visit the Trossachs.
She entertained customers with lively conversation in a mixture of Gaelic and English, seated in a large chair in the small, smoke filled room where drinks were served. While the serving girls brought in the drams Kate took the cash and dropped it into a large leather purse attached to her skirt which acted as her till. Sometimes a generous gentleman might pay her more than was due and so it came about that Kate got out of the habit of giving change at all. This eccentricity made her all the more renowned.
In 1869 Queen Victoria made a private visit to nearby Invertrossachs House. Although supposedly travelling informally, the Queen was accompanied by her daughters, the Princess Louise and Beatrice, Lady Churchill, and Colonel Ponsonby, and seventeen maids, footmen, cooks, coachmen, and the renowned John Brown, the Queen's personal servant.
Queen Victoria had... learned of Muckle Kate Ferguson and decided the whole party should visit her. Kate had been given warning of the visit and was standing outside her inn dressed in her finery when the royal party arrived. She received the queen with Highland courtesy and native dignity, and the two enjoyed a friendly conversation.
Queen Victoria recorded the event in her diary: "We stopped at what is called 'Ferguson's Inn', but is in fact the very poorest sort of Highland cottage. her lives Mrs. Ferguson, an immensely fat woman, and a well known character, who is quite nice and well dressed, but will not leave the place where she has lived all her life selling whisky. She was brought out to see me, shaking hands with me and patting me. She walks with a crutch and had to sit down."
The Queen presented Kate with two sovereigns which she kept to her dying day and bequeathed to her posterity. This incident made Kate famous throughout the land, and for years afterwards her portrait appeared in postcards in sop windows all over Britain.
Less well known is the unfortunate misunderstanding which occurred due to Gaelic speaking Kate's difficulty with English. It appears the Queen's party were greatly embarrassed when Kate offered them tea and "a gill a-piece". All of them refused the apparent offer of the demon drink and departed quickly, leaving poor Kate wondering what she had done to offend. All she had offered them was a "jeely piece" or jam sandwich!
Muckle Kate Ferguson died in 1872 and her body was carried in a specially built coffin drawn by a team of horses. Hundreds followed her funeral procession to St. Kessog's kirkyard at Callander. Kate's old inn of Tigh Mhaide at Brig o' Turk has fallen into ruin but the old house beside it built for her retirement still stands and has been converted into a private house of the same name. the front window still bears the marks where it was widened to allow Kate's coffin to pass through, it being too large to leave by the door.
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1798 - 1872 (73 years)
