Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/271

 cophagus, supported by a cannon and some shot, and surmounted by a helmet, sword, and accoutrements.

He married, on 14 June 1808, Mary Emilia, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-general Norman McLeod, twentieth chief of McLeod; she died on 10 Aug. 1809. Of his two brothers, one (Lieutenant Alexander Ramsay, R.A.) was killed in the attack on New Orleans on 1 Jan. 1815; and the youngest (Lieutenant David Ramsay, R.N.) died at Jamaica on 31 July of the same year.

[Records of the Royal Horse Artillery; Duncan's History of the Royal Artillery; Letters of Colonel Sir A. S. Frazer during the Peninsula and Waterloo Campaigns; Tomkinson's Diary of a Cavalry Officer; Napier's War in the Peninsula; Wellington Despatches; Dalton's Waterloo Roll-Call; Browne's England's Artillerymen; Edinburgh Evening Courant, 10 Aug. and 28 Sept. 1815; information furnished by the minister of Inveresk.]  RAMSBOTHAM, FRANCIS HENRY, M.D. (1801–1868), medical writer, was born in 1801. His father, who was physician to the Royal Maternity Charity, enjoyed a large obstetric practice in East London. Francis received his medical education at the London Hospital, and at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. in 1822. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1822, and fellow in 1844. Eventually he succeeded to his father's business, and for many years was largely employed in consulting practice. He was appointed obstetric physician and lecturer on obstetric and forensic medicine at the London Hospital, and physician to the Royal Maternity Charity; he was also president of the Harveian and Hunterian societies, and vice-president of the Pathological Society. Ultimately he removed from New Broad Street to Portman Square, but his professional prospects were not improved. Ill-health obliged him to relinquish practice and retire to the country. He died at Woodend, Perth, the residence of his son, on 7 July 1868.

As a practitioner Ramsbotham's chief rival was David Daniel Davis, M.D. [q. v.], with whom he long sustained the chief honour of representing English midwifery abroad. As a lecturer he was dogmatic, but his teaching was sound and effective, while his splendid presence and enthusiasm made him a favourite with students. As an author Ramsbotham's reputation rests on ‘The Principles and Practice of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery,’ 8vo; 2nd edit. 1844; 4th edit. 1856; 5th edit. 1867; 5th American edit., Philadelphia, 1849. This was one of the first medical books brought out with expensive illustrations, and was very successful. He published also: 1. ‘Obstetric Tables,’ 1844. 2. ‘Suggestions in reference to the Means of advancing Medical Science,’ 8vo, London, 1857. To the ‘Medical Gazette’ for 1834 and 1835 he contributed lectures on midwifery; he wrote also papers in the ‘Medical Times and Gazette’ for 1852 and 1853, and in other medical journals.

[Lancet, 18 July 1868, p. 100; British Medical Journal, 18 July, 1868, p. 62; Medical Times and Gazette, 4 Jan. 1868, p. 22; Medical Register, 1859, p. 246; London and Provincial Medical Directory, 1865, p. 480; Athenæum, 1857, p. 910; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit. ii. 1735.]  RAMSDEN, JESSE (1735–1800), optician and mechanician, was born at Salterhebble, a suburb of Halifax in Yorkshire, where his father, Thomas Ramsden, kept an inn. He was baptised, according to the parish register, on 3 Nov. 1735, and seems to have been born on 6 Oct. previously. Having attended the free school at Halifax for three years, he was sent at the age of twelve to his uncle at Craven in the North Riding, and there studied mathematics under the Rev. Mr. Hall. Four years later his father bound him apprentice to a clothworker in Halifax, and, having served his full time, he repaired in 1755 to London, and became clerk in a cloth warehouse. In 1758 he entered as apprentice the workshop in Denmark Street, Strand, of a mathematical instrument maker named Burton, and gained such skill in engraving that the best artists employed him in that capacity on his setting up independently about 1762. His reputation and experience rapidly increased. He married, in 1765 or 1766, Sarah, youngest daughter of John Dollond, F.R.S. [q. v.], receiving as her portion a share in her father's patent for making achromatic lenses, and opened a shop in the Haymarket, transferred about 1775 to Piccadilly.

His inventive genius quickly displayed itself. He took out a patent for, and in May 1774 published a description of, a ‘New Universal Equatoreal,’ reprinted with additions in 1791, the original stock having been accidentally destroyed by fire. Instruments of the kind had already been furnished by him in 1770–3 to Lord Bute, Sir J. Banks, and Mr. McKenzie. George III had one at Richmond; and the largest equatoreal then extant was completed by him for Sir George Shuckburgh in 1793 (Phil. Trans. lxxxiii. 75, plate ix; also described by Pearson in Cyclopædia, and by Vince in his Treatise on Practical Astronomy). The clockwork 