Chas. Nelson, attached to the force on the west coast of Scotland. He was subsequently employed as Midshipman on the Home, South American, and African stations in the Impregnable 104, Sappho 18, Brazen 26, Capt. Wm. Shepheard, Brittania 120, Brazen again, Capt. Geo. Wickens Willes, Prince Regent 120, Capt. Constantine Rich. Moorsom, and Alert 18, Capt. Sam. Burgess. In June, 1827, six months after he had passed his examination, he became Mate of the Tweed 28, Capt. Lord Henry John Spencer Churchill; and, on 23 Jan. 1829, being then at the Cape of Good Hope, he was made Lieutenant into the Sparrowhawk 18, Capt. Thos. Sanders. In the following April he returned to England and was paid off. His appointments have since been – 18 March, 1833, to the Coast Guard – 27 June, 1837, to the command of the Nimble Revenue-vessel – and, 15 July, 1840, again to the Coast Guard, in which he continues.
Lieut. Ramsay married, 18 Dec. 1839, his cousin Jessie, only daughter of the late J. S. Newall, Esq., and was left a widower with one son, 2 Nov. 1844. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
RAMSAY. (Retired Commander, 1848. f-p., 14; h-p., 34.)
Joseph Ramsay entered the Navy, 23 July, 1799, as Midshipman, on board the Monmouth 64, Capt. Geo. Hart, in which ship he accompanied the expedition to Holland, and continued employed in the North Sea and Mediterranean until transferred, in May, 1804, to the Atlas 74, Capts. Wm. Johnstone Hope and Sam. Pym. Under the latter officer he fought in the action off St. Domingo 6 Feb. 1806. In Jan. 1807, being then at Cadiz, he removed to the Queen 98, Capt. Fras. Pender, flag-ship subsequently of Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin in the Mediterranean. He was next, in Oct. and Nov. 1808, received on board the Namur 74, Capt. Rich. Jones, and Eloise sloop, Capt. John Haswell, both at the Nore; and on 21 Dec. in the same year he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His after appointments were – 23 Dec. 1808, to the Brilliant frigate, Capt. Thos. Smyth, with whom he made a voyage to South America – 27 Oct. 1809, to the Castilian brig, Capt. David Braimer, lying in the Downs, where he remained until July, 1811 – and, 20 May, 1812, to the Hannibal 74, Capt. Sir Michael Seymour, in which ship he served in Basque Roads, assisted at the capture of the French 40-gun frigate La Sultane, and again visited the West Indies. He went on half-pay in Sept. 1814; and accepted his present rank 12 Feb. 1848.
RAMSAY, C.B. (Captain, 1815. f-p., 17; h-p., 37.)
Robert Ramsay was born 20 Sept. 1773.
This officer (he had been for seven years employed in the merchant-service, and had become second in command of a large trader) entered the Navy, in Aug, 1793, as A.B., on board the Bellerophon 74, Capt., afterwards Rear-Admiral, Thos. Pasley, under whom he fought as Midshipman in Lord Howe’s actions 28 and 29 May and 1 June, 1794. In the following Dec. and Feb. 1796 he became in succession Master’s Mate of the Ambuscade 32 and Glenmore 36, both commanded by Capt. Geo. Duff in the North Sea. Towards the close of the latter year he sailed in the Janus 32, Capt. Jas. Bisset, for the West Indies, where, in Feb. 1797, he joined the Queen 98, flag-ship of Sir Hyde Parker. In the course of the ensuing March, during a cruize off the island of St. Domingo, he landed on the bank of a river near Monte Christo in the ship’s pinnace under the orders of a Lieutenant, with whom and with four men he was taken captive by the negroes, while the Master, Carpenter, and four others were killed. On being exchanged Mr. Ramsay, who had been wounded, was nominated, 21 of the same month, Acting-Lieutenant of the Rénommée 44, Capt. Robt. Rolles. He was confirmed 8 Jan. 1799, and subsequently appointed – 24 March, 1799, to the Albacore sloop, Capt. Thos. White, on the Jamaica station – 23 June following, to the Dromedary store-ship, Capts. T. White and Bridges Watkinson Taylor, under the latter of whom he was wrecked, on his return from a voyage to England, in the Bocca, off Trinidad, 10 Aug. 1800 – 6 Feb. 1801, to the Powerful 74, Capt. Thos. White, employed, until July, 1802, in the Baltic, off Cadiz, and in the West Indies – 24 March, 1804, to the command of a Signal station on Foulness Island – 11 June, 1805, to the Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Jas. Lillicrap, lying in the Downs – 27 Sept. ensuing, to the command of the Carrier cutter, in the North Sea – l3 May, 1 808, as Acting-Captain, after a few months of half-pay, to the Eurydice 24 – and, 12 Nov. 1808, to the command of the Mistletoe schooner of 8 guns. While attached to the Renommée and Albacore Mr. Ramsay was frequently, and with Success, employed against the enemy’s small craft on the coast of Cuba. When Senior, in May, 1799, of the Albacore, the three small boats of that sloop having been beaten off by a privateer whom they had chased into a small bay and driven on shore, he obtained permission from his Captain, on their return, to take them under his personal direction and renew the attack. He accordingly landed, pursued the enemy from the beach, and, with the loss of only two men, the Serjeant-of- Marines and a seaman, succeeded in bringing away the prize. In 1801 Lieut. Ramsay was often, in the boats of the Powerful, engaged in operations against the enemy’s gun and other vessels in the neighbourhood of Cadiz. He was on board the same ship when attacked, during a calm, by a flotilla from that port. While in command of the Carrier, with two other cutters under his orders, he succeeded, during the months of Jan. and Feb. 1807, in taking three privateers (one of them Le Ragotin of 8 guns and 29 men) and in recapturing and destroying several vessels near the Texel. In Sept. 1807 he assisted at, and was sent home with the despatches relating to, the capture of Heligoland; and on the fall of Copenhagen he navigated to England, without the assistance of any officers, the Danish line-of-battle ship Justitia manned with a volunteer crew, and having a regiment of soldiers on board. In the Eurydice, of which he was nominated Acting-Captain by Admiralty order, he conducted to the north coast of Spain the first two vessels sent out with supplies of arms for the patriots, and escorted a convoy to Lisbon. In the Mistletoe, which he had fitted out at Bermuda, Lieut. Ramsay was employed in protecting the British interests in the Rio de la Plata. On the deposition of the Brazilian Viceroy, consequent on the revolution of 25 May, 1810, he took charge of his Excellency’s family, and, as he did of that of another ex-Viceroy, conveyed them, with several persons of distinction, at his own expense, to Monte Video. On his departure for England for the purpose of being paid off in the early part of 1811, he had the gratification of receiving the thorough approval of the Commander-in-Chief. Vice-Admiral Hon. Michael De Courcy, as well as the public thanks of all the British subjects in Buenos Ayres, and a strong expression of gratitude on the part of the natives. Equally satisfied with his conduct, Mr. Yorke, the First Lord of the Admiralty, presented him with a Commander’s commission bearing date 1 Feb. 1812. He had then, as we have shown, been 15 years a Lieutenant, nearly 12 of them in active service, and more than 5 in command of different vessels. Being next, 29 Oct. 1813, appointed to the Regulus 44, armée en flûte, Capt. Ramsay, after serving in the North Sea, sailed in April, 1814, for Bermuda, with part of a marine battalion on board. He subsequently proceeded to the Chesapeake, and while there was employed in a variety of successful boat expeditions under the immediate command of Rear-Admiral Cockburn. On 22 Aug. he commanded a division of armed boats at the destruction of Commodore Barney’s flotilla up the Patuxent;[1] on the following day he explored a branch of that river as far as Upper Marlborough; and, with the
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1941.
