RAMSAY, Andrew (d.1688), of Abbotshall, Fife, and Edinburgh.

Andrew Ramsay’s father, the younger son of a gentry family, became a minister in Edinburgh in 1613, professor of divinity in 1620, and rector of the university in the 1640s. A royalist, he had been protected by James Graham, marquess of Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth in 1645, and in 1648 he was deposed as minister for supporting the royalist Engagement.16Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, i. 70. Andrew Ramsay, as a second son, was intended for a business career, but he took little part in Edinburgh affairs for a decade after his admission as burgess in 1642. His only mention in the city minute books of this period – as a ‘captain’, lending 1,000 merks (Scots) to cover the expenses of Charles II while in the capital – suggests that he shared the royalist allegiance of his father.17Recs, Burgh Edinburgh, 1642-55, 248. Ironically, it was only the purge of the city council by the victorious Cromwellians in the winter of 1651-2 that allowed Ramsay to take a part in local government. In the council elections of 23 April 1652 he was chosen as the most junior of the four bailies – a post he retained for the next three years.18Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1642-55, 277, 294, 323. As bailie, Ramsay soon proved himself an able politician, being selected on numerous occasions to negotiate the city’s business with successive commanders-in-chief and the sequestration commissioners at Leith, and he was an important figure in the parliamentary elections of 1654, deciding whether electors were qualified to vote and preparing instructions for the chosen MPs, George Downing* and Samuel Disbrowe*.19Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/18, ff. 105v, 108, 109. In December 1654, Ramsay was sent by the burgh to second the efforts of its MPs in London, ‘to the effect he may do something for the good town the time he is there’.20Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1642-55, 318, 327, 332, 340, 353; Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/18, f. 140v. Ramsay’s embassy to London was the turning point of his career. Not only was he able to demonstrate his usefulness to the Edinburgh burgesses in pursuing their private and public concerns, but he also struck a close alliance with his fellow agent, the town clerk, William Thomsone*. The two men returned to Edinburgh together at the end of August 1655, and, through Thomsone’s influence, Ramsay was elected as lord provost of the city in the following October.21Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1642-55, 357-8, 365-6, 385, 387; Baillie Lttrs. and Jnls. iii. 389.

Ramsay’s success as provost was based in part on his cordial relations with the Cromwellian government. In August 1653 he was paid £18 by Robert Lilburne* for providing 14 turkey chairs, six Russian leather chairs and a large bedstead for the commander’s residence at Dalkeith.22Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIV, p. 13. When departing for London as the Edinburgh agent in December 1654, he carried a letter of recommendation, addressed to the protector, from George Monck*.23Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 8 Dec. 1654. On 12 September 1655 – shortly before his election as provost – Ramsay was one of seven burgesses sent to Dalkeith to meet the newly arrived president of the Scottish council, Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) and ‘salute his lordship there in the town’s name’.24Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/18, f. 205v. He was a member of the congregation of the Resolutioner minister, George Hutcheson, whose church was also attended by the prominent councillor, Samuel Disbrowe*.25Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 175. Ramsay’s familiarity with the various governors had increased his usefulness to the burgh when he was bailie, and as provost he was able to continue to negotiate effectively. In May 1656 he was commissioned to deal with Monck over the city’s rights over the port of Leith and its ability to fund the new citadel there, and he organised the payment of the initial sums from the city in August of that year.26Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 21; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 5 Aug. 1656. In September 1656 Ramsay secured freedom from quartering for some leading Edinburgh burgesses.27Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 5 Sept. 1656.

On 8 August 1656 Ramsay was returned alongside Lord Broghill as Edinburgh’s MP.28C219/45, unfol.; Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 31. Before he left for Westminster, Ramsay received detailed instructions from the city council ‘anent [concerning] the town’s decreet [judgement] against Leith’, and he was promised £700 for his expenses and for ‘necessary disbursements for the public use’.29Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/19, ff. 142, 148, 149, 150v. He corresponded regularly with the council during the Parliament. In November he asked for instructions and money to further the city’s affairs; on 24 December the council sent him another letter ‘in relation to the town’s affairs’; and on 31 December they received a further letter from him concerning ‘the town’s public concernments’ and passing on the respects of their former MP, George Downing. In January 1657 Ramsay was instructed to ‘deal with my Lord Tweeddale [John Hay*]’ over a legacy left to the city by the earl’s mother; and on 30 January the level of consultation was such that a committee was appointed by the council to maintain ‘good correspondence’ with the provost, ‘considering that many businesses of great concernment are now like to be in his hands at London in relation to this burgh’.30Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 42, 44-5, 47; Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/19, ff. 168-9, 170v, 177v, 180, 185v. Ramsay also represented the convention of royal burghs, which issued its own instructions to him and the other burgh MPs on 27 August, asking that they take care for the liberties of the burghs and their trading position, to lobby for a reduction of the assessments and a suspension of the recent orders favouring debtors over their (mainly urban) creditors. Further orders were sent to Ramsay from the convention on 3 October, 5 December and 5 February 1657.31Recs. Convention of Royal Burghs, 429, 431-2, 433, 437.

This deluge of instructions from the city and the convention helps to flesh out the skeletal remains of Ramsay’s parliamentary career as recorded in the Journal. Apart from his inclusion in the committee of Scottish affairs (which handled most of the Scottish business in the House) in September 1656, his appointment to the committee of trade (20 Oct.), the committee to prevent ‘delinquents’ being returned for corporations (28 Nov.) and that to satisfy both the family and the creditors of the former provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Dick (9 Feb. 1657), all appear to be connected with his official instructions.32CJ vii. 427a, 442a, 461a, 488b. Ramsay’s appointment to the Dick committee suggests that he was fulfilling his duty to protect the interests of creditors, which was one of the greatest concerns of the capital and the other burghs in the winter of 1656-7, and perhaps explains remarks made by one observer that Ramsay had ‘spoken something in Parliament’ against the debtors’ claims, although ‘no act passed thereupon’.33Corresp. of earls of Ancram and Lothian (2 vols. Edinburgh 1875), ii. 410. Similarly, Ramsay’s sole mention in Thomas Burton’s* diary, as the champion of a proviso to reduce the customs duties payable on small coal from Scotland on 23 June 1657, demonstrates his activity within the trade committee.34Burton’s Diary, ii. 272. Lord Broghill testified to the provost’s ‘constant endeavours for the good of the city’, and the Edinburgh council itself praised his ‘care in the matter agitated betwixt debtor and creditor … and in pursuing an ease of the city’s assessment’ as well as commending his care in defending its interests over Leith.35Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 75-6, 79-80.

Broghill’s praise of Ramsay’s efforts reflects the close relationship between the two men during the 1656 Parliament. Broghill had welcomed Ramsay’s election, describing him as ‘a very sober man, and one who will do right’, and during the session the president had always been ‘most comfortable to the provost in advices and assistance’ when it came to Edinburgh’s affairs.36TSP v. 295; Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 76. In return, Ramsay became a leading supporter of the constitutional reform programme put forward by Broghill and his allies in the spring of 1657. On 6 March he was named to the committee on the 4th article of the Remonstrance, which concerned the Scottish franchise, on 25 March he joined other Scottish MPs in voting in favour of including the offer of the crown to Cromwell in the first article, and on 7 April he was one of those chosen to attend the protector, asking for his response to Parliament’s decision to ‘adhere’ to the Humble Petition and Advice in its original, monarchical, form.37CJ vii. 499b, 521a; Narrative of the Late Parliament (1657), 23 (E.935.5). At the end of May, Ramsay was also named to the committee to ‘methodise’ the final form of the Humble Petition, ready for its enactment.38CJ vii. 540b. In the following weeks, Ramsay was considered an important figure in defending the fledgling constitution against the army interest, which sought to whittle down its reforms in the Additional Petition and Advice. The key vote came on 25 June 1657, when the Scottish franchise was attacked by John Lambert and others. Sir Archibald Johnston* of Wariston saw Ramsay’s absence from the vote on the franchise as ‘remarkable’, especially as he had been kept away from the chamber by the Resolutioner agent, James Sharp, against his own party’s interests.39Wariston Diary, iii. 87. Sharp, who considered Ramsay as one of the ‘friends’ of the Resolutioners, may indeed have been lobbying the provost about religious affairs at this time; but his own account of the same occasion blamed not his own ill-timed distractions but Broghill’s absence through illness for the lost vote.40Consultations ed. Stephen, ii. 43, 67.

Ramsay returned to Edinburgh in the autumn of 1657, and received the ‘hearty thanks’ of the Edinburgh council for his efforts. There was no time for him to return to London for the short-lived second sitting of Parliament in January and February 1658, but the council still commissioned him to journey south ‘to prosecute these good intentions’, and, in particular, to gain relief for ‘the great debt the city lieth under’.41Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 80-1. Ramsay left Edinburgh on 5 March and returned on 30 September. Although he incurred expenses of over £600, there were growing suspicions that he was more concerned with his own advantage than that of the city.42Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65 86, 155; Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/19, ff. 282v-3. Such allegations were not entirely justified. During this period Ramsay is known to have lobbied the protector on the impost granted to Edinburgh to pay the city’s debts, and he was able to enlist Broghill’s support in this cause, and that of other courtiers, including Philip Jones*.43NLS, Wodrow Folio MSS vol. 26, f. 55; Edinburgh City Archives, SL1/1/19, ff. 293v, 309v. This was not enough to protect his reputation at home, however, as his rivals for office in the council, led by his former ally, William Thomsone, were growing in strength. Ramsay had earlier tried to ‘shuffle’ Thomsone from his office as town clerk, and Thomsone, taking advantage of Ramsay’s absence, now ‘wrought underhand’ to build a party against the provost.44Baillie Lttrs. and Jnls. iii. 389. On Ramsay’s return, therefore, the council turned against him, angry that he had ‘effectuated little’ for the city’s benefit, ‘but that he procured himself the order of knighthood, and spending much money to the town; which, being resented by the town, they turned him out of his office’.45Nicoll, Diary, 211, 218-9. In the council elections of October 1658 Ramsay was not chosen, the post of provost going instead to a Protester, Sir James Stewart.46Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 119. The Resolutioner minister, Robert Baillie, was horrified by the result, castigating Thomsone, ‘that for revenge of his private spleen against Ramsay, he had betrayed the public interest into the hand of a Protester’, and bewailing ‘the great evil of this prank of the clerk’.47Baillie Lttrs. and Jnls. iii. 389-90.

Ramsay’s dismissal meant that he played no part in Edinburgh politics during the last days of the protectorate, the re-establishment of the commonwealth, and the restoration of the Stuarts which followed. The arrest of Sir James Stewart in July 1660, and the immediate change in political climate, gave Ramsay another chance. He was knighted by Charles II on 17 July 1660, and in the next 12 months he was made a commissioner for supply and was allowed to enclose the park at his estate at Abbotshall.48Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 230; Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 578. Such favours may indicate that Ramsay was already a client of John Maitland, 1st duke of Lauderdale, who assumed the effective government of Scotland during this time. There is little doubt that Lauderdale was behind Ramsay’s re-election as provost of Edinburgh in October 1662, despite the duke’s disingenuous letter to James Sharp (now archbishop of St Andrews), asking ‘to know whether I may expect [Ramsay] to be my friend or not’.49Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1655-65, 307, 307n. From 1662 onwards, Ramsay was little more than Lauderdale’s creature. In 1668, for example, he corresponded with the duke on a regular basis, thanking him for his ‘friendship’ to himself as well as the city, and informing him of the ‘great numbers assembled at conventicles’ near the capital.50Add. 23128, f. 295; Add. 23129, ff. 5, 75, 104, 108, 120, 152, 251. With Lauderdale’s backing, Ramsay was re-elected provost for 12 years consecutively. Unsurprisingly, this monopoly of office caused great resentment in Edinburgh, not least because Ramsay was also appointed to government positions deemed incompatible with his responsibilities to the burgh, including lord of the articles (in 1669) and privy councillor and lord of session (in 1671); he was also able to exert a tight grip of the council, removing his old enemy, William Thomsone, as clerk and (eventually) installing his own son, William Ramsay, in his place.51Wood, Provosts, 46; Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1665-80, 46, 130; Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 578. Matters came to a head in October 1672, when an attempt was made to prevent Ramsay’s election as provost for the eleventh time, but after riots in the streets and Lauderdale’s direct intervention, the council backed down and Ramsay was returned.52Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1665-80, 130-4. Protests were stronger during the elections of September 1673, and although he was returned once again, Ramsay stood down as provost on 1 December of that year.53Recs. Burgh Edinburgh, 1665-80, 141, 154, 157, 165. Thereafter, Ramsay lived a retired life, although there were plans to return him to the provostship in 1685, under the pretext that James II approved of his nomination.54Wood, Provosts, 46. Ramsay died in January 1688. His eldest son, Sir Andrew Ramsay of Wauchton, having died in 1679, he was succeeded by his grandson, also named Andrew Ramsay.55Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 581; CB.