Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/268

 beth Ramsay who married David Carnegie, who through her gained possession of the lands of Leuchars-Ramsay and Colluthie. Carnegie by a second marriage had two sons, John and David, who were raised to the peerage by the titles respectively of Earl of Northesk and Earl of Southesk.

[Wyntoun's Chron.; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. iv.; Complete Peerage by G. E. C.; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 516.] 

RAMSAY or RAMESEY, WILLIAM, M.D. (fl. 1660), physician and astrologer, son of David Ramsay [q. v.], the clock-maker, was born at Westminster on 13 March 1626–1627. He spelt his name Ramesey (which, he said, meant ‘joy and delight’), because he thought his ancestors came from Egypt. His mother was of English birth. After passing through several schools in and about London, he was to have gone to Oxford, but was prevented by the civil war. Accordingly he went to St. Andrews, where his studies were broken by the war; he then betook himself to Edinburgh, was driven out by the plague, and returned to London in April 1645 (Astrologia Restaurata, 1653, pref. pp. 28 sq.)

By the end of 1652 he had graduated M.D. at Montpellier, and was living with his father in Holborn. On 31 July he was admitted an extra licentiate of the London College of Physicians. He was physician in ordinary to Charles II, and was living at Plymouth, when he was admitted M.D. at Cambridge by royal mandate in June 1668 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667–8, p. 407). His last publication is dated 1676, after which he disappears.

He published: 1. ‘Lux Veritatis; or, Christian Judicial Astrology vindicated,’ &c., 1651, 8vo (in reply to Nathaniel Holmes or Homes, D.D. [q. v.]; answered by W. Rowland, M.D.). 2. ‘A Short Discourse of the Eclipse of the Sunne,’ &c., 1651, 8vo. 3. ‘Vox Stellarum,’ &c., 1652, 8vo. 4. ‘Astrologia Restaurata … an Introduction to the Knowledge of the Stars,’ &c. 1653, fol. (portrait by Thoms Cross). 5. ‘Ὁ ἄνθρωπος κατ' ἐξοχὴλ [sic], or, Man's Dignity and Perfection,’ &c. 1661, 8vo (holds a traducian doctrine of the origin of the soul). 6. ‘De Venenis; or, a Discourse of Poisons,’ &c. 1663, 12mo (written in 1656; dedication to Charles II, dated 26 Oct. 1660); another edition, with title ‘Life's Security,’ &c. 1665, 8vo. 7. ‘Helminthologia; or Some Physical Considerations of Wormes,’ &c. 1668, 8vo. 8. ‘The Gentleman's Companion. … By a Person of Quality,’ &c. 1676, 8vo; also 12mo (anon.; dedication to Earl of Dalhousie, dated 15 June 1669).

In a paper of unknown authorship in the revived ‘Spectator,’ No. 582 (18 Aug. 1714), a ‘whimsical’ passage, ascribing the production of darkness to ‘tenebrificous and dark stars,’ is cited from ‘William Ramsay's Vindication of Astrology.’ This is the running title of the first book of No. 4 above; but no such passage is to be found in any of Ramesey's works above enumerated, nor does it tally with his ideas. A portrait of Ramsay, in a hat, is prefixed to his Helminthologia (cf., iii. 131). Three other engravings are mentioned by Bromley.

[Ramesey's Works; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1861, i. 285 sq.] 

RAMSAY, WILLIAM, second and first  (d. 1674), was the eldest son of George, lord Ramsay of Dalhousie, by Margaret, daughter and heiress of George Douglas of Helenhill, brother of William, earl of Morton, and Robert, earl of Buchan. He was chosen to represent the burgh of Montrose in the Scottish parliament in 1617 and 1621. On 21 July 1618 he obtained from the king a charter of the barony of Dalhousie and of the lands of Kerington, Midlothian (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1609–20, No. 704). He succeeded his father in 1629, and on the occasion of the coronation of Charles I in Scotland was admitted to the dignity of Earl of Dalhousie and Lord Ramsay of Kerington by patent dated 29 June 1633 to him and his heirs male.

Dalhousie is placed by James Gordon (Scots Affairs, i. 109) among those of the commissioners appointed for the subscription of the king's covenant who were covenanters, and he subscribed the libel against the bishops presented the same year to the presbytery of Edinburgh (ib. p. 127). He also signed the letter of the covenanting lords of 19 April 1639 to the Earl of Essex (, Annals, ii. 348), and served as colonel in the covenanting army which took up a position on Dunse Law to bar the progress of Charles I northwards (, Letters and Journals, i. 211). He also served as colonel in the covenanting army which on 2 Aug. 1640 crossed the Tweed and invaded England (, ii. 383). At the parliament held at Edinburgh in November 1641 his name was inserted in a new list of privy councillors, to displace certain others chosen by the king (ib. iii. 149). Dalhousie was engaged in the campaign in England in 1644, in command of a horse regiment (, i. 226;, Memorials, ii. 414), but in the autumn he was called out of England with his regiment to proceed to the north of Scotland to aid Argyll