Robert Ramsay (Queensland politician)
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The Honourable Robert Ramsay |
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| 8th Treasurer of Queensland | |
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In office 3 May 1870 – 28 March 1871 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Blacket Stephens |
| Succeeded by | Joshua Peter Bell |
| Constituency | Western Downs |
| Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Western Downs |
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In office 18 June 1867 – 6 November 1873 Serving with James Taylor, Edward Wienholt |
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| Preceded by | John Watts |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
| Member of the Queensland Legislative Council | |
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In office 2 January 1874 – 14 June 1877 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Robert Burnett Ramsay 19 March 1818 Kolkata, West Bengal |
| Died | 5 July 1910 (aged 92) Bekesbourne, Kent England |
| Nationality | Scottish Australian |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Lindsay Carnegie (m.1855) |
| Occupation | Grazier |
| Religion | Church of England |
Robert Ramsay (19 March 1818 - 5 July 1910) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council, the Queensland Legislative Assembly, and the eighth Treasurer of Queensland.
Ramsay was born in Kolkata, West Bengal on 15 March 1818 to Robert Ramsay, a captain in His Majesty's 14th. Regt. of Foot, and his wife Margaret (née Cruickshank). He was the eldest child in a Scottish family of three sons and two daughters, the youngest of whom was the writer Elizabeth Ramsay-Laye, 1832-1932, who when she wasn't writing under her own name used the nom-de-plume Isabel Massary. Robert Ramsay was educated in Edinburgh and at Harrow. In 1836, with a military career in mind, he also attended L'École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, founded by Napoleon in 1803.
In about 1837, after having had second thoughts about army life, Ramsay started to see business and farming opportunities in Australia. His father was by then a partner in Cruickshank Melville & Co., a mercantile firm in London that, in addition to its main business in the West Indies, was already doing some business with Australia.
On 24 February 1838 he arrived in Port Jackson in New South Wales aboard the 'Upton Castle'. Also aboard the ship were fellow Scotsman Joshua Richmond Young, one of his future business partners, and the incoming New South Wales governor Sir George Gipps. In Sydney on 5 March 1838, with Joshua Young and his brother Alexander, both of whom he had known in Scotland, he established Ramsay, Young & Co., a mercantile firm and shipping agent. The inclusion of the name 'Ramsay & Young' in a letter dated 22 August 1838 to Sir Gordon Bremer regarding a new settlement at Port Essington revealed that even then Robert and his partners had an eye on trading up north. From sometime in 1839 until 27 January 1843, Ramsay and the Young brothers were also in business with a John Holdsworth in Holdsworth & Co., a trading company in Sydney that specialised in ironmongery. Anecdotal evidence together with numerous local newspaper advertisements and articles at the time relating to shipping in and out of Sydney suggests that both firms did well. By 1843 though, Ramsay was hearing about the massive potential of what was later to become Queensland and getting itchy feet. On 27 January 1843, the Holdsworth & Co. partnership was dissolved; on 1 October 1844, Ramsay, Young & Co. was dissolved. In September 1844, freed briefly from his business commitments, Ramsay became a magistrate although his time on the Sydney bench was short-lived. By 1846, he had left Sydney to run stock on Rosalie Plains, an area of 64,000 acres on the Darling Downs that was then still "beyond location".
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