David Ramsay (congressman)
| David Ramsay | |
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| Member of the United States Continental Congress from South Carolina | |
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In office November 23, 1785 – May 12, 1786 |
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| President of the South Carolina Senate | |
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In office 1792–1797 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 2, 1749 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania |
| Died | May 8, 1815 (aged 66) Charleston, South Carolina |
| Alma mater |
Princeton University University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Physician Historian |
David Ramsay (April 2, 1749 – May 8, 1815) was an American physician, public official, and historian from Charleston, South Carolina. He was one of the first major historians of the American Revolution. During the Revolution he served in the South Carolina legislature until he was captured by the British. After his release he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782–1783 and again in 1785–1786. Afterwards he served in the state House and Senate until retiring from public service. He was murdered in 1815 by a mentally ill man whom Ramsay had examined as a physician.
The son of an Irish emigrant, he was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He graduated at Princeton University in 1765, received his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1773, and settled as a physician at Charleston, where he had a large practice. His brother was Congressman Nathaniel Ramsey, a brother-in-law of Charles Willson Peale.
Ramsay married Sabina Ellis (b.1753) in 1775; she died the following year. In 1783 he married Frances Witherspoon (b.1759), daughter of John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of the College of New Jersey. Frances died a year after their marriage. In 1787 Ramsay married Martha Laurens (1759-1811), daughter of Charleston-born Huguenot merchant, planter, and Revolutionary War statesman, Henry Laurens. Ramsay was also related (by marriage) to South Carolina Governor Charles Pinckney, Ralph Izard, John Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, Daniel Huger and Lewis Morris.
During the American Revolutionary War he was, from 1776 to 1783, a member of the South Carolina legislature. When Charleston was threatened by the British in 1780, he served with the South Carolina militia, as a field surgeon. After the city was captured in 1780, Ramsay was imprisoned for nearly a year at St. Augustine, Florida, until he was exchanged. From 1782 to 1786, he served in the Continental Congress. In the absence of John Hancock, Ramsay served as chairman of Congress, from November 23, 1785 to May 12, 1786. In the 1790s, he served three terms in the South Carolina State Senate and was its president.
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