Author: Ramsay, Allan
Biography:
RAMSAY, Allan (1684-1758: ODNB)
A prior author, he is included in the database because his songs continued to be collected and published with those of other, later, authors. His Gentle Shepherd (1725) was translated from Scots into English by Cornelius Vanderstop (1777), W. Ward (1785?) and Margaret Turner (1790); these translations are in the database. Ramsay was born to Alice (Bower) and John Ramsay, factor to the Hope estate, at Leadenhills. Lanarkshire. His father died in 1785 and he was raised by his mother and her second husband. Educated at the local parish school, he was apprenticed to a wigmaker in Edinburgh in 1701 and opened his own business there in 1707 or 1709. In 1712 he married Christian Ross; they had at least nine children but just four survived into adulthood. Ramsay was opposed to the Act of Union and became increasingly involved with like-minded literary societies where he was recognised as a poet whose works were sometimes thin disguises for his political views. His popularity spread from Scotland to England and in the 1720s he gave up his wig business for bookselling, opening what is called the first circulating library in Britain in 1725 in Edinburgh’s Luckenbooths. His Tea-Table Miscellany: A Collection of Scots Songs (3 volumes: 1723, 1726, 1727) was an important collection of both contemporary and traditional songs and cemented his reputation. Against opposition, he was instrumental in opening a theatre in Edinburgh. His wife died in 1743 and in 1745 his home was a focus of Jacobite interest because of his anti-Union views. Over the final years of his life, he gradually relinquished his business to his son, Allan, and in the 1750s his health declined (he suffered from scurvy in his gums). He died at home in Edinburgh and was buried in Greyfriars cemetery. (ODNB 15 Sept. 2020)
Other Names:
- Ramsay