RAMSAY, James, was born on the 25th of July 1733, at Fraserburgh, a small town in the county of Aberdeen. His parents were of most respectable character, but in circumstances by no means affluent. From his earliest years he discovered a serious disposition, and a strong thirst for knowledge; and after passing through the usual course of a Scotch grammar-school education, he inclined to pursue the studies necessary to qualify him for the profession of clergyman. Several circumstances, however, conspired to divert him for a time from his favourite pursuit.
He was educated in the episcopal persuasion; and having been unhappy enough to lose his father whilst yet very young, he found, upon his advancing towards the state of manhood, that the joint fortunes of himself and his mother could not bear the expense of a regular education in either
Ramsay. of the universities of Oxford or of Cambridge. Yielding, therefore, to necessity, he resolved to study surgery and pharmacy; and was with this view bound apprentice to Dr Findlay, a physician in Frasersburgh. But though obliged to relinquish for a time his favourite studies, he did not think ignorance excusable in a surgeon any more than in a clergyman; nor did he conceive that he would ever become eminent in the profession in which circumstances had placed him, merely by skill in setting a bone or compounding a medicine. He determined, therefore, to make himself acquainted with at least the outlines of the liberal arts and sciences; and with this view he repaired in 1750 to King's College, Aberdeen, where he obtained one of the bursaries or exhibitions which are there annually bestowed upon such candidates as display the most accurate knowledge of the Latin language. The small sum of five pounds, however, which none of these bursaries exceeds, was still inadequate to the expense of residence in college; but our young student was soon destined to obtain a more valuable exhibition, also by his own merit.
During the long vacation he returned to his master Dr Findlay, and was by him intrusted with a very desperate case in surgery, of which his management may be said to have laid the foundation of his future fortunes. His skill and excellent character recommended him so effectually to Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain, that he presented him with a bursary of fifteen pounds a year, which commenced at the next session or term in the same college.
Sir Alexander, whom he visited during some of the vacations, was so well pleased with his conversation, that he promised him another bursary, in his gift, of £25 a year, to commence immediately on the expiration of that which he enjoyed. This promise he performed in the beginning of the year 1755; and, at the solicitation of Dr Findlay, even paid the money in advance, to enable the exhibitor to travel for the purpose of improving himself in his profession.
Thus provided, Mr Ramsay went to London, and studied surgery and pharmacy under the auspices of Dr Macaulay, in whose family he lived for two years, esteemed alike by him and by his lady. Afterwards, having passed the usual examination at Surgeons' Hall, he served in his medical capacity for several years in the royal navy.
Having met with an accident, by which his thigh-bone was fractured, he once more turned his thoughts towards the church; and on coming home with Sir Charles Middleton he was admitted into orders; after which he immediately returned to St Christopher's, where he was presented by the governor to two rectories, valued at £700 a year.
As soon as he took possession of his livings, in 1763, he married Miss Rebecca Akers, the daughter of a planter of the best family connections in the island, and began to regulate his household on the pious plan inculcated in his Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of the African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. He summoned all his own slaves daily to the prayers of the family, when he took an opportunity of pointing out to them their duty in the plainest terms, reproving those who had done amiss, and commending such as had shown anything like virtue. Although his serious studies were now theological, he considered himself as answerable to God, his country, and his own family, for a proper use of every branch of knowledge which he possessed. He therefore took the charge of several plantations around him in the capacity of a medical practitioner, and attended them with unremitting diligence and with great success. Thus he lived till the year 1777, when, relinquishing the practice of physic entirely, he paid a visit to the place of his nativity, which he had not seen since 1755. His mother, whose latter days he had made comfortable by a handsome annuity, had been dead for some years; but he rewarded all who had been attentive to her,
or in early life serviceable to himself; and he continued the Ramsbury pension to his sister, who had a numerous family, for which her husband was unable to provide.
After remaining three weeks in Scotland, and nearly a year in England, during which time he was admitted into the confidence of Lord George Germaine, then secretary of state for the American department, Mr Ramsay was appointed chaplain to Admiral Barrington, at that time going out to take a command in the West Indies. Under this gallant officer, and afterwards under Lord Rodney, he was present at several engagements, where he displayed a fortitude and zeal for the honour of his country which would not have disgraced the oldest admiral. To the navy, indeed, he seems to have been strongly attached; and, at an early period of his life, he wrote an Essay on the Duty and Qualifications of a Sea-officer, with such a knowledge of the service as would have done honour to the pen of the most experienced commander. Although caressed by the admirals under whom he served, Mr Ramsay once more quitted the naval service, and retired to his pastoral charge in the island of St Christopher's. There, however, though the former animosities against him had entirely subsided, and though his friendship was now solicited by every person of consequence in the island, he remained but a little time. Sick of the life of a planter and of the prospect of slavery around him, he resigned his livings, and bidding adieu to the island, returned to England with his wife and family in the end of the year 1781. Immediately on his arrival, he was, through the interest of his steady friend Sir Charles Middleton, presented to the livings of Teston and Nettlestead, in the county of Kent. Here he was soon determined, by the advice of those whom he most respected, to publish an Essay, which had been written many years before, on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. This publication involved him in controversies which embittered his life. The agitation given to his mind, and the fatigues he underwent in his endeavours to rescue from misery the most helpless portion of the human race, contributed to shorten a life which had been in no common degree useful. He had for some time been afflicted with a pain in his stomach, for which he was prevailed upon, though with great reluctance, to try the effects of air and exercise, by attempting a journey of a hundred miles. But in London, being seized with a violent vomiting of blood, he was unable to proceed and unfit to be removed hence; and, in the house of Sir Charles Middleton, he ended his days, on the 20th of July 1789. His works, besides those to which we have already alluded, consist of a volume of Sea-Sermons, and a Treatise on Signals.