On my first post I made mention of how this all started when I began looking into my mother's side of the family. As you can probably guess it's Ramsey, which is the Irish version of Ramsay its Scottish counterpart, making my mother's paternal ancestry Scot-Irish. So with this post I'll be giving you an overview of some of the notable Ramsay/Ramsey clan members.
The earliest known Ramsay is one Simundus de Ramesia or Simon Ramsay. By most accounts Simon is considered to be one of the Norman invaders that accompanied David the 1st of Scotland upon his landing. Eventually Simon was given lands at Dalhousie in Lothian, and so the Dalhousie line of clan Ramsay is established.
Two more notable Ramsay's show up in 1296 where William Ramsay of Dalhousie is listed on the Ragman Rolls as swearing fealty to Edward the 1st.
William appears again in 1320 as a signatory on the Declaration of Abroath. In continuation, William’s son Alexander Ramsay is considered to be a hero of the Scottish Wars of Independence. Alexander was a Knight who amassed other knights and troops to take back the lost territories and castles from the British. In fact, for his contributions to freeing Scotland from the British, David the 2nd of Scotland awarded Alexander with the title of Constable of Roxburgh and Sheriff of Teviotdale. This success and appointment aroused such a great jealousy in William Douglas that William had Alexander captured and thrown into his dungeon to starve to death. Creating a long lasting rivalry between Ramsay's and Douglas's.
The Ramsay's were also present in the 16th centuries Anglo-Scottish Wars.
With another Alexander Ramsay who is said to have raised his standard for Mary, Queen of Scots after she escaped from prison. His death would come in 1513 at the battle of Flodden.
Another Ramsay of note is John Ramsay of the 1600 Gowrie Conspiracy. John is credited with killing Lord John Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, and his brother. Effectively saving King James from his kidnappers. After this daring rescue James made John the Earl of Holderness.
Raising John’s status, as well as making himself a favorite of the King.
In more recent times we continue to have notable members of the Ramsay clan. One of which is Alexander Ramsay (Our clan likes the name Alexander apparently) the son of Arthur George Maule Ramsay, 14th Earl of Dalhousie, who married one of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters, Princess Patricia of Connaught. Alexander served under her father, the Duke of Connaught, in World War I as his aide-de-camp.
These are just a few of the notables that have come from Clan Ramsay. While there are many more Ramsay’s that deserve their share of the spotlight these ancestors are some of my favorite to talk about. I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post, and that I’ve possibly encouraged you to look into your own family history.
As a final note I’d like to dedicate this post to Deborah Ramsey-Proctor, Lloyd Ramsey, and Lanis Ramsey.