DAVID RAMSAY.
“NIGEL.”
“In the year 1634, Davy Ramsay, his Majesty’s clockmaker, made an attempt to discover a precious deposit supposed to be concealed in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, but a violent storm of wind put a stop to his operations.”—Lilly’s Life, p. 47. This Ramsay, according to Osborne, in his Traditional Memorials, used to deliver money and watches, to be recompensed, with profit, when King James should sit on the King’s chair at Rome, so near did he apprehend (by astrology, doubtless,) the downfall of the papal power. His son wrote several books on astrological subjects, of which his Astrologia Restaurata is very entertaining. In the preface he says that his father was of an ancient Scottish family, viz. of Eighterhouse, (Auchterhouse,) “which had flourished in great glory for 1500 years, till these latter days,” and derives the clan from Egypt, (it is wonderful that the idea of gipsies did not startle him,) where the word Ramsay signifies joy and delight. But he is extremely indignant that the world should call his father “no better than a watchmaker,” asserting that he was, in fact, page of the bedchamber, groom of the privy chamber, and keeper of all his Majestie’s clocks and watches. “Now, how this,” quoth he to the reader, “should prove him a watchmaker, and no other, more than the late Earles of Pembroke ordinary chamberlains, because they bore this office in the King’s house, do thou judge.”—Mr. Sharp’s Notes to Law’s Memorialls.