David Ramsay (watchmaker)

David Ramsay (* in Scotland ; † approx. 1653 ) was the court watchmaker of the English kings James I and Charles I. He came from Scotland and belonged to the clan of the Ramsays of Dalhousie .

Life

His son William ( f. 1660) reports that at the beginning of his reign, King James I had Ramsay, who was staying in France at the time, searched and made him valet and keeper of the manorial rooms and made him responsible for all his watches Majesty transferred. The king passed this position on to Ramsay, although Ramsay was just a simple watchmaker by nature, the son said, because his acumen enabled him to understand any work of this nature.

On November 25, 1613, Ramsey became the king's "clockmaker-extraordinary" with a pension of £ 50 a year. For March 1616 there is a warrant over the payment of £ 234 10s. known to him for buying and repairing clocks for the king. On November 26, 1618 he became a court watchmaker and on July 27, 1619 he received the "letters of denization" which, as a foreigner, granted him some privileges of British citizens, such as the acquisition of land. He received additional payments for his services, one of which he signed on March 17, 1627, “David Ramsay, esq. , our clockmaker and page of our bedchamber ". He signed his early works with "David Ramsay, Scotus".

On August 22, 1631, Ramsay was a founding member of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and became their first "master". But he probably took very little interest in the work of society. When he took his oath before the Lord Mayor , he is described as "one of the City of London", but the City of London archives provide no evidence that he was indeed a freeman .

Ramsay was an inventor too. Between 1618 and 1638 he received eight patents. Although the full titles of these patents are in the registers of the commissioners of patents , there is no precise information about the nature of the inventions. They relate to: plowing land, fertilizing barren soils, lifting water with the help of fire, propelling ships and boats, making saltpetre, making wall hangings without a loom, refining copper, the bleaching of wax, the separation of gold and silver from base metals, the coloring of textiles, boilers, cement ovens for drying and burning bricks and tiles and the smelting and refining of iron with coal.

In his later years he fell into poverty. In 1641, while imprisoned on debt, he asked the House of Lords to pay back his pension as a valet for six years. Because of these arrears, the "Committee for the Advance of Money for the Service of the Parliament" granted him by an order of January 13, 1645 the payment of a third of the amount that should be paid from the property of the convicted. It therefore appears that he joined a political group. For February 11, 1651 there is a note in the minutes of the Council of State that a petition by David Ramsay was referred to the Coin Committee.

The exact date of Ramsay's death is unknown, but his son mentions in the postscript of his 'Astrologia Restaurata' on January 17, 1653 that these studies were to be carried out in his father's house.

Preserved watches

Examples of Ramsay's clocks are in the British Museum , the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art .

Others

Ramsay was also interested in the occult . William Lilly reports with amusement in his autobiography 'Life and Times' (1715) how he, together with Ramsay and others, tried in 1634 to find a fabulous hidden treasure in Westminster Abbey with a divining rod . After digging up a coffin, the search is interrupted by sudden, violent winds. Those present attribute this to demons , who, however, can be cast out immediately by Lilly's instructions. Sir Edward Coke wrote to Secretary of State Francis Windebank about a difficult credit decision: "If, now, David Ramsay could cooperate with his Philosopher's Stone, he would be doing a good service." There are also entries in the Calendars of State Papers dated Jan. July 1628 and August 13, 1635 referring to hidden treasures Ramsay intended to find.

Web links

Richard Bissell Prosser: David Ramsay in Dictionary of National Biography , 1885–1900, Volume 47, (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "he sent into France for my father, who was then there, and made him page of the bedchamber and groom of the privy chamber, and keeper of all his majesties' clocks and watches. This I mention that by some he hath am termed no better than a watch maker. ... It's confest his ingenuity led him to understand any piece of work in that nature ... and therefore the king conferred that place upon him “, from WM. Ramesay: Astrologia Restaurata , 1653, foreword to the reader, p. 28
2. ↑ Cal State Papers, 16191622-3-5
3. ↑ Historical MSS. Commission, 4th Report
4. ↑ Cal. of Committee for Advance of Money, i. 40
5. ↑ Cal State Papers, 1651-2, p 140
6. ↑ "from my study in my father's house in Holborn, within two doors of the Wounded Hart, near the King's Gate."
7. ↑ Watch | Ramsey, David | V&A Search the Collections. In: collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved August 4, 2012 . 
8. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Watch. In: metmuseum.org. Retrieved August 4, 2012 . 
9. ^ William Lilly's History of His Life and Times. In: gutenberg.org. Retrieved August 4, 2012 . 
10. ↑ "If, now, David Ramsay can co-operate with his philosopher's stone, he would do a good service."