Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/263

 2348). On the 27th of the same month he obtained charters of the lands of Tealing and Polgavie, Forfarshire (ib. No. 2349); on 30 May 1498, of a house and garden in the Cowgate, Edinburgh (ib. No. 2412); on 13 Sept. of the lands of Terrenzeane, Ayrshire (ib. No. 2453); and on 6 Nov. 1500 of other lands in Edinburgh (ib. No. 2554). Finally, on 13 May 1510, he had a charter of the lands of Balmain and others in the county of Kincardine erected into a free barony, to be called the barony of Balmain (ib. No. 3460). Such was the trust placed in him by the king that, in connection with the negotiations preceding Flodden, he was sent in January 1512 as ambassador to Henry VIII (Letters and State Papers Henry VIII. ed. Gairdner, vol. i. No. 2069). He also went on similar missions in December 1512 (ib. No. 3569) and in January 1513 (ib. No. 3676). He died in 1513, leaving a son William Ramsay, whose son, Gilbert Ramsay of Balmain and Fasque, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia on 3 Sept. 1625. On the death, without issue, of Alexander, sixth baronet of Nova Scotia, 11 Feb. 1806, his kinsman, Thomas Ramsay, colonel in the East India service, became seventh baronet, but died without issue in 1830, when the Nova Scotia baronetcy became extinct. The estates of Sir Alexander Ramsay were left to his nephew, Alexander Burnett, son of Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, baronet, by Catherine Ramsay, Sir Alexander Ramsay's sister, who assumed the surname and arms of Ramsay, and was father of Edward Bannerman Ramsay [q. v.]

 RAMSAY, JOHN (1496?–1551), divine, born about 1496, was possibly son of John Ramsay (d. 1515), rector of Brabourne, Kent. He joined the college of canons regular at New Inn Hall, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1513–14 and B.D. in 1522. He was afterwards successively prior of St. Mary's College, Oxford (about 1528), and of Merton Abbey, Surrey. To the latter office he was elected on 31 Jan. 1530. In 1537 Thomas Paynell [q. v.] dedicated to him his translation of Erasmus's ‘Of the Comparation of a Virgin and a Martyr,’ which he had undertaken at Ramsay's request. Ramsay adopted reforming principles, and resigned his priory before the dissolution of the monasteries. The abbey was surrendered in 1538 by another prior, John Bowle (, Monasticon, vi. 246).

Before 1545 Ramsay became rector of Woodchurch (Deanery of Lympne, Kent), and died in possession of the rectory in 1551 (, Kent, iii. 111).

Ramsay wrote: 1. ‘A Corosyfe to be layed hard unto the Hartes of all Faythfull Professours of Christes Gospel, gathered out of the Scriptures by John Ramsay,’ 12mo, no place or date. But at the close of the work it prays for Edward VI, and ‘for the laws permitting the liberty of Christ's Gospel.’ It was therefore published some time between 1548 and 1551; it is protestant and evangelical in tone. 2. ‘A Communication or a Dialogue between a Poor Man and his Wife, wherein thou shalt find Godly Lessons for thy Instruction,’ 8vo, without date or place (see, Bibl. Brit.)

 RAMSAY, JOHN,  and  (1580?–1626), a favourite of James VI, was the second son of James Ramsay of Dalhousie and Elizabeth Hepburn, and was born about 1580. While in attendance on the king at Falkland in 1600 he, in presence of the king, gave the lie to Patrick Myrtoune, the king's master-carver, whereupon Myrtoune slapped him on the cheek. The king separated the disputants; but on the following day Ramsay ‘invadit the close’ of the palace, and meeting Myrtoune, struck him on the arm and head, and drew his sword ‘to have slain him’ had he not been prevented. On this account he was found guilty of treason, but, having submitted to the king's will, was pardoned, and again received into favour (, Criminal Trials, ii. 92). A few months afterwards, Ramsay, while in attendance on the king at Perth, played a prominent part in connection with the so-called Gowrie conspiracy of 5 Aug. According to the authorised version of the incident, Ramsay had taken charge of a hawk which had that day been brought in from the country, and on going to present it to the king found him engaged in a desperate struggle with Alexander Ruthven, brother of the Earl of Gowrie. Ramsay thereupon, according to the ‘History