Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ram, Thomas
RAM, THOMAS (1564–1634), bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, was born at Windsor, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. and became a fellow. In 1599 he accompanied Essex to Ireland as chaplain, and in the following year was made dean of Cork. Mountjoy, Essex's successor as lord deputy, retained him as chaplain, and he was also precentor, vicar-choral, and prebendary of St. John's in Christchurch, Dublin. In 1604 Ram was presented by the crown to the vicarage of Balrothery, near Dublin, but resigned the deanery of Cork on being appointed to that of Ferns in the following year. On 2 May 1605 he was consecrated in Christchurch, Dublin, bishop of the lately united sees of Ferns and Leighlin, and was allowed to hold his other preferments in commendam, on account of the extreme poverty of the diocese, the result of fraudulent or improvident alienations made by former bishops, and of lay encroachments (cf. Strafford Letters, i. 344).
Ram found the diocese of Ferns reduced from about 500l. a year to one-seventh of that value; but he recovered 40l. a year in land after a long lawsuit. Leighlin was worth only 24l., all the lands having been alienated, and there being no prospect of recovering them by law. Ram was a careful bishop, constantly resident, holding an annual visitation, and taking care to leave no parish unprovided. He did what he could to maintain schools, but the recusant clergy excommunicated all who used them. Ram was one of twelve bishops who, on 26 Nov. 1626, signed a protest against tolerating popery (Mant, p. 423). He built a see-house at Old Leighlin, and bequeathed a library for the use of the clergy, but this was destroyed in the rebellion of 1641. He died in Dublin on 24 Nov. 1634, and was buried in his own private chapel at Gorey, co. Wexford.
His son Thomas inherited an estate at Gorey called Ramsfort, which the bishop had acquired, and which was possessed by the family until lately. Colonel Abel Ram, the ‘ram of Gorey,’ who fell foul of Swift in 1728, was the bishop's descendant.
Another son, Robert Ram (fl. 1655), graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and took orders. While still an undergraduate he was presented to the prebend of Crosspatrick by his father, but he held it only three or four years. He was minister of Spalding in Lincolnshire at or soon after the outbreak of the civil war, his politics and religious views being such as suited the parliamentary leaders. On 31 Jan. 1642–3 Ram wrote to the people of Croyland condemning their folly in resisting the parliament. The Croylanders replied by attacking Spalding and carrying off Ram and others on 25 March. On 13 April Croyland repulsed an attack, and Ram was near being shot by his own friends. On the 25th Cromwell appeared, and the Croylanders placed their prisoners bound on the top of the breastwork; but the place quickly surrendered, and they were delivered.
In 1644 Ram published the ‘Soldiers' Catechism, composed for the Parliament's army,’ which had a great circulation, and passed through many editions. A parody appeared in 1645, containing Ram's questions with such answers as ‘I fight to rescue the king out of the hands of his and the kingdom's friends, and to destroy the laws and liberties of my country,’ and ‘The ill-will I bear to my country moves me to take up arms.’ Ram's catechism was republished in 1684 by John Turner, with a preface in refutation, and a fulsome dedication to Jeffries. Turner says Ram's catechism was virtually official, and had done much harm in its day. In 1645 Ram published, in quarto, ‘Pædobaptism, or a Defence of Infant Baptism,’ dedicated to Colonel Edward Rossiter, whose chaplain he was. It is a learned treatise against the anabaptists, urging the unbroken usage of thirteen hundred years, and the practical agreement of fathers, old divines, and modern protestant authorities. On 27 March 1646, a day of humiliation for the army before Newark, he preached a sermon at Balderton, which was published in quarto. The text was ‘Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages.’ The political argument is the same as that in the ‘Soldiers' Catechism.’ The king is the highest person, but the parliament the highest power, and every soul is bound to be subject to the higher powers. The sermon was preached in presence and by command of the committee of both houses accompanying the army. In 1655 Ram was still minister of Spalding, being nearly sixty years of age, and published the ‘Country-man's Catechism,’ with a dedication to his parishioners, which seems to be his last appearance as an author.
[Ware's Irish Bishops, ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hiberniæ, vol. ii.; Morrin's Cal. of Irish Patent Rolls, Charles I; Mant's Hist. of Irish Church; Cooper's Memorials of Cambridge—King's College; Bishop Ram's account of his diocese in 1612, printed in App. to 2nd Rep. of Commissioners on Public Records of Ireland; Divers Remarkable Passages, &c., by Robert Ram, London, 3 June 1643.]