DAVID RAMSAY.
1749=1815.
David Ramsay was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was educated at Princeton, studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and removed to Charleston, S. C., for the practice of his profession. He soon acquired celebrity both as a physician and as a patriot in the Revolutionary struggles. He was a member of the Council of Safety and a surgeon in the army. He was one of the forty prominent citizens who were sent as hostages to St. Augustine at the capture of Charleston in 1780 and kept for eleven months in close confinement. His death was caused by wounds received from a maniac, who shot him in the street for testifying as to his mental unsoundness.
His second wife was Martha Laurens, daughter of Henry Laurens, who had spent ten years in Europe and who was always active in intellectual and benevolent pursuits. She assisted her husband in his writing and prepared her sons for college. Two of their daughters long had an excellent and celebrated school for girls in Charleston.
WORKS.
Orations; Medical Essays.
History of South Carolina.
Life of Washington.
Memoir of Martha L. Ramsay.
Universal History Americanized (12 volumes.)
Jasper Replacing the Flag.