into the church after 1638, and he disliked some of the changes both in government and worship which accompanied the adoption of the Westminster standards. In 1646 he was again appointed rector of Edinburgh University, and held the office for two years.
In 1648 the church came into collision with the state, and Ramsay, with many others, was deposed by the assembly of 1649, in which the rigid party was then dominant, for refusing to preach against ‘the engagement.’ Other charges brought against him were that he had spoken to the prejudice of presbyterian church government, and that he held ‘that the supreme magistrate, when the safety of the Commonwealth does require, may dispense with the execution of justice against shedders of blood,’ which probably meant that he disapproved of the wholesale slaughter of prisoners and political opponents as then practised. Ramsay's deposition excited great indignation in Edinburgh.
In 1649 or 1650 he wrote an apology, of which Wodrow gives an account in an unpublished biography. In this he states his opinions on church government, and ‘from the whole concludes that presbyterian government in Scotland since the late troubles hath much human in it.’ He also condemns the novelties in worship which had been introduced since 1638, and specifies the following: the laying aside of the Lord's Prayer, of the reading of forms of prayer, of keeping the churches open for the private devotions of the people, of godfathers in baptism, of the repetition of the creed, and of ministers kneeling for private prayer when they entered the pulpit.
In November 1655 Ramsay applied to the synod of Lothian (as the general assembly was not allowed to meet) to be restored to the exercise of the ministry. He stated that since his deposition he had waited patiently and had done nothing prejudicial to the authority of the church; he also rebutted the charges which had been brought against him. He considered that presbyterian church government might be abused, but he acknowledged the government itself to be grounded on the Word of God, and he was clearly opposed to all prelatical dominion.
By this time the ultra rigid men had separated from the church, and the synod, considering Ramsay's ‘case as extraordinary in regard of his age and great esteem for piety and learning,’ unanimously granted his request, ‘to the great contentment of much people.’ He was then over eighty years of age. He died on 30 Dec. 1659, at Abbotshall in Fife, the property of his son, and was buried there. He is described by a contemporary as one ‘who for his eminence in learning, diligence in his calling, and strictness in his conversation, was an ornament to the church of Scotland.’ He founded four divinity bursaries in the university of Edinburgh.
By his wife, Marie Fraser, he had four sons: (1) Sir Andrew [q. v.], lord provost of Edinburgh; (2) Eleazar; (3) David; (4) William.
His publications were: 1. ‘Oratio,’ 1600, published in France. 2. ‘Parænesis et Orationes de Laudibus Academiæ Salmuriensis’ (i.e. Saumur). 3. ‘Poemata Sacra,’ Edinburgh, 1633. 4. ‘Miscellanea et Epigrammata Sacra,’ Edinburgh, 1633. 5. ‘A Warning to come out of Babylon,’ in a sermon, Rev. xviii. 4, Edinburgh, 1638.
[Guthry's Memoirs; Baillie's Letters; Calderwood's Hist.; Lamont's Diary; Nicoll's Diary; Bower's Hist. of Univ. of Edin.; Grant's Hist. of Univ. of Edin.; Scott's Fasti; Records of Comm. of Gen. Assembly; Records of Synod of Lothian; Wodrow's manuscript Biogr., Glasgow Univ. Libr.; Stevenson's Hist. of the Church of Scotland.]
RAMSAY, Sir ANDREW (1620?–1688), baronet and lord provost of Edinburgh, of Abbotshall and Waughton, was eldest son of Andrew Ramsay [q. v.] Bred a merchant, he was during Cromwell's government lord provost of Edinburgh from 1654 to 1657; was knighted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655, and by Charles II on 17 July 1660 (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 114). At the Restoration he gained the favour of the Duke of Lauderdale by prevailing on the city to give 5,000l. to the government for the superiority of Leith, and other 5,000l. for the new imposition granted to the town by the king on wine and ale (Mackenzie, Memoirs, p. 246). Under the auspices of Lauderdale he was elected lord provost of Edinburgh in 1662, and he retained that office until 1673. He was also chosen to represent Edinburgh in parliament in 1665 and 1667, and from 1669 to 1674. In 1669 he was created a baronet. In 1671 he was named a privy councillor, and on 21 Nov. admitted an ordinary lord of session by the title of Lord Abbotshall—a promotion which, with that of three others who like him ‘had not been bred lawyers,’ rendered ‘the session,’ according to Sir George Mackenzie, ‘the object of all men's contempt’ (Memoirs, p. 240). In recognition of Ramsay's services to the government, Lauderdale prevailed on the king to settle on the provost of Edinburgh 200l. a year. During his term of office Ramsay came into conflict with the
