James Ramsay (1733 - 1789)

Born 25 Jul 1733 in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Husband of Rebecca (Akers) Ramsay — married 23 Jun 1763 in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Descendants

Died 29 Jul 1789 at age 56 in Nettlestead, Kent, England

Biography

James was born in 1733. He was the son of William Ramsay, ship's carpenter, and Margaret Ogilvie of Angus.

He was an early campaigner against the British slave trade. He was an apprentice to a local surgeon before studying at King's College, Aberdeen, until 1755. He joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon in 1757, and in 1759 his ship, HMS Arundel, apprehended a British slave vessel in the West Indies. The discovery of over 100 slaves, kept in appalling conditions on board, had a lasting effect on him. He was later forced to leave the Navy after falling and fracturing his thighbone, and in 1762 he was ordained into the Anglican Church.

Rev James Ramsay had direct, personal experience of plantation slavery. For close to two decades, from 1762 onwards, he worked as a surgeon in St Kitts and married into a very prominent local planter family.His brother-in-law was a ‘Guinea factor’ which gave him first-hand access to the workings of slave sales and plantation slavery. In his approach to slavery Ramsay was ahead of some of his fellow abolitionists; as early as 1778 he had submitted to senior English clergy an outline for ‘a plan for the education and gradual emancipation of slaves in the West Indies.’ Unsurprisingly, his views had made Ramsay intensely unpopular in St Kitts, and in 1781 hostility from planters forced his retreat to England. ^[1]

Ramsay did not let the matter rest there, and in his new post as vicar of Teston in Kent followed up his earlier ideas by publishing an Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies. (1784) which helped bring the debate about the slave trade to public notice.

He then joined a group of like minded politicians, philanthropists and churchmen, and had meetings with Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. He also helped establish the campaign against slavery, and encouraged Thomas Clarkson to gather evidence about the slave trade, leading to the formation of the Committee for Abolition of the African Slave Trade. He died before the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, but his arguments are seen as having made a major contribution to the cause.

James married Rebecca Akers on 23 June 1763 - not long after arriving in the West Indies. Rebecca was the the daughter of Edmund Akers and his wife Sarah Seaton. Sarah was the daughter of Aretas Seaton and Rebecca Fleming.

Children ^[2]

1. Sarah b. 1 Sep 1764 married Rev Richard Ward
2. Margaret b. 8 Feb 1766 married Robert Smith
3. Charles b. 9 Nov 1767, buried 19 Oct 1768
4. Charles Middleton b. 12 Jun 1769, buried 25 Feb 1770
5. Aretas Baptised & buried 8 Jun 1771
6. Jane b. 21 June 1772 married her cousin Aretas Akers
7. Rebecca b. 4 Aug 1774, buried 17 May 1776
8. Rebecca Akers b. 3 Sept 1776, buried 21 Jan 1777

He died in 1789

He is buried in St Peter and St Paul Churchyard, Teston, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England. ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ https://seis.bristol.ac.uk/~emceee/mountravers~part2chapter5.pdf - Reference to Rev James Ramsay on Pg 616
2. ↑ Digital Library of the Caribbean
3. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34552809/james-ramsay

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ramsay_(abolitionist)

• Aretas Akers - Plantation Owner

• The Mountravers Plantation Community, 1734 to 1834 by Christine Eickelmann

• Digital Library of the Caribbean