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RAMSAY, David, (brother of Nathaniel Ramsey),
a Delegate from South Carolina; born in Dunmore, Lancaster County, Pa., April 2,
1749; attended the common schools, and was graduated from the College of New Jersey (now
Princeton University) in 1765; was graduated from the medical department of the University of
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1773 and began practice in Cecil County, Md.; settled in Charleston,
S.C., in 1773; member of the state house of representatives 1776-1783; served in the Revolutionary
Army as surgeon of the Charleston Battalion of Artillery, state militia; captured at the fall of Charleston
in May 1780 and imprisoned at St. Augustine, Fla., for eleven months; Member of the Continental
Congress 1782-1783 and 1785-1786 and served as President pro tempore during the last term;
unsuccessfully contested the election of William L. Smith to the First Congress (the first
contested-election case); state historian and author of several historical works; member of the state
senate of South Carolina and served as president of that body for seven years; shot by a maniac on
May 6, 1815, in Charleston, S.C., and died in that city May 8, 1815.
BibliographyShaffer, Arthur H. To Be an American: David
Ramsay and the Making of the American Consciousness. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1991.
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