generally known by the name of the Chevalier Ramsay, a polite Scottish writer, was descended of a respectable family, and was born at Ayr in 1686. He studied at the Edinburgh university, where he was distinguished for his industry and abilities. His talents and learning recommended him as a tutor to the son of the Earl of Wemyss; after which, conceiving a disgust for the religion in which he had been educated, he in the same humour reviewed other Christian churches, and, finding none to his liking, rested for a time in Deism. Whilst he was in this uncertain state of mind he went to Leyden, where, falling into the company of Poiret, a mystical divine, he received the infection of mysticism, which prompted him to consult Fénelon, the celebrated archbishop of Cambrai, who had imbibed principles of the same nature, and who in 1709 gained him over to the Catholic religion. The subsequent course of his life received its direction from his friendship and connection with this illustrious prelate; and being appointed governor to the Duke de Chateauneuf-Thierry and the Prince de Turenne, he was made a knight of the Order of St Lazarus. Ramsay was sent for to Rome by the Chevalier de St George to undertake the education of his children; but on his arrival there in 1724 he found so many intrigues and dissensions astir, that he obtained the chevalier's leave to return to Paris. He died in 1748, in the office of intendant to the Duke of Bossillon, Prince de Turenne.

His works are.—History of the Life and Works of M. Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai, in French and English, 1723; A Philosophical Essay upon Civil Government, London, 1721, afterwards republished under the title of An Essay on Politics; The Psychometre, or Reflections upon the Different Characters of the Mind; The Travels of Cyrus, in French and English, 1727, 2 vols., and 4to, 1730, written with much elegance, but too much overloaded with erudition and reflection; The History of Viscount Turenne, Marshal of France, in French and English; The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion, 2 vols. 1749, printed at Glasgow after the author's death.