Rev. James Ramsay (25 July 1733 – July 1789) was a Scottish ship's surgeon, Anglican priest, and leading abolitionist in Great Britain.
Early life and naval service
Ramsay was born at Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of William Ramsay, ship's carpenter, and Margaret Ogilvie of Angus. Apprenticed to a local surgeon, and later educated at King's College, Aberdeen, from 1750 to 1755, he obtained his MA degree in 1753 and went on to continue his surgical training in London under Dr George Macaulay.
Having entered the Navy in 1757, Ramsay served as surgeon aboard in the West Indies, under the command of Sir Charles Middleton. In November 1759, the Arundel intercepted a British slave ship, the Swift and, on boarding the vessel, Ramsay found over 100 enslaved people living in the most inhumane conditions. Such was the scene of filth and degradation he witnessed, that this incident was to have a lasting effect on Ramsay. While serving at sea he fell and fractured his thigh bone, and was disqualified from future service, remaining lame for the remainder of his life.
Ordination and work in the West Indies
In July 1761 Ramsay left the navy to take holy orders. He was ordained into the Anglican church in November 1761 by the Bishop of London. Choosing to work among enslaved people on the Caribbean, he travelled to the island of Saint Christopher (now Saint Kitts), where he was appointed to St. John's, Capisterre in 1762, and to Christ Church Nichola Town, the following year.
James Ramsay married Rebecca Akers, the daughter of Edmund Akers, a plantation owner on St Kitts, in 1763. They had one son and three daughters. Their son died young of small-pox, having caught the disease from his father, who had been volunteering on a ship that had that disease on board "and had carried home the infection in his clothes". One of their daughters, Margaret, (1766 – Newtown, Ireland, April 1839) married Robert Smith (1754 – Chatham, Kent, 2 July 1813), a Major in the Royal Marines. Robert and Margaret Smith's daughter, Catherine Rebecca Smith (1796 – 10 October 1856), married Sir Thomas Osborne, 9th Baronet, on 6 April 1816 at St. Margaret's Church, Rochester, Kent. James and Rebecca Ramsay's youngest daughter, Jane, married her cousin Aretas Akers. One of their descendants was Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston.
Ramsay set out by welcoming both black and white parishioners into his church, with the aim of converting enslaved people to Christianity. As well as pastoring the members of his church he practised medicine and surgery, providing a free service to the poor of the community. Having been appointed surgeon to several plantations on the island, he was able to see firsthand the conditions under which the enslaved people laboured and the brutality of many of the planters.
He strongly criticised the cruel treatment and punishment meted out to enslaved people, and became more convinced of the need to improve their conditions. This led him into involvement in local government, but he was the target of much antagonism and personal attack from the planters, who resented his interference, because of his measures to ameliorate the conditions of enslaved people. His letters to the bishop of London illustrate the attitudes of the American colonists in the late 18th century.
Ramsay left St Kitts in 1777, exhausted by the continuing conflict with influential planters and businessmen. He returned to Britain and briefly lived with Sir Charles Middleton at Teston, Kent where Lady Middleton joined the cause of the campaign against the slave trade.
He briefly rejoined the navy in April 1778, accepting a chaplaincy in the West Indies with Admiral Barrington, where he was engaged in intelligence gathering against the French. He returned to Britain in 1780 at the suggestion of Middleton, by then Comptroller of the Navy, with the intention of helping his radical reform of the Navy Board and as his personal secretary. He was installed as Vicar of Teston and Vicar and Rector of Nettlestead, Kent, these valuable positions being in the gift of Middleton.