David Ramsay | |
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Member of the Continental Congress from South Carolina | |
In office November 23, 1785 – May 12, 1786 | |
President of the South Carolina Senate | |
In office 1792–1797 | |
Personal details | |
Born | David Ramsay April 2, 1749 Dunmore, Pennsylvania, British America |
Died | May 8, 1815 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. | (aged 66)
Manner of death | Assassination |
Spouses | Sabina Ellis
(m. 1775; died 1776)Frances Witherspoon
(m. 1783; died 1784) |
Relatives | Henry Laurens (father-in-law) |
Education | Princeton University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MD) |
David Ramsay (April 2, 1749 – May 8, 1815) was an American physician, public official, and historian from Charleston, South Carolina. He was one of the first major historians of the American Revolutionary War. During the Revolution he served in the South Carolina legislature until he was captured by the British. After his release, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1782–1783 and again in 1785–1786. Afterwards, he served in the state House and Senate until retiring from public service. In 1803, Ramsay was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.[1] He was murdered in 1815 by a mentally ill man whom Ramsay had examined as a physician. He was the first American politician to be assassinated.[citation needed]