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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; interment in
Circular Congregational Church Burying Ground, Charleston, Charleston County,
S.C.
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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