1733 - painted an Indian ink miniature of William Baird. 1743 - went to London intending to become a mathematics teacher. 1744 - demonstrated his 'trajectorium lunare' to the Royal Society. 1746 - The Use of a New Orrery, Made and Described by James Ferguson published. 1761 - George III granted him an annual pension of £50. 1763 - elected a fellow of the Royal Society. 1764 - observed the solar eclipse and described ‘little tremulous bright specks’, anticipating the identification of Baily's beads in 1836. 1771 - several of his scientific works were used as sources for the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.