David Ramsay (watchmaker)
David Ramsay (* in Scotland; † ca 1653) was official 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 ( bl. 1660) reported that King James I was looking at the beginning of his reign Ramsay, who was at the time in France and made him the servant and guardian of the stately rooms and him in charge of all his watches Majesty wore. The king gave this position in Ramsay, although this was just a simple watchmaker from home, like son on, because its acumen enabled him to understand any work of this nature.
On November 25, 1613 Ramsey was " clockmaker - extraordinary" the king with a pension of £ 50 per year. For March 1616, a warrant for the payment of £ 234 10s. known to him for the purchase and repair of watches for the king. On November 26, In 1618, he was court watchmaker and on July 27, 1619, he received the "letters of denization " that some privileges British citizen due to him as a foreigner, such as the purchase of land. He received further payments for his services, one of which he signed on March 17, 1627 with " David Ramsay, esq., Our clockmaker and page of our bedchamber ." His early works he signed with " David Ramsay, Scotus ."
On August 22, 1631 Ramsay was a founding member of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and became its first "Master". He probably took very little interest in the work of the society. When he took his oath before the Lord Mayor, he is described as "one of the City of London ", but the municipal archives of the City of London in no way indicate that he was indeed a freeman.
Ramsay was also an inventor. Between 1618 and 1638 he received eight patents. Although the full title of these patents are contained in the records of the commissioners of patents, there is no precise information about the type of inventions. They relate to: the plowing of land fertilization of barren soil, lifting water with the help of fire, propelling ships and boats, manufacture of nitric acid, the production of wall hanging without a loom, the refining of copper, the bleaching of wax, the separation of gold and silver from base metals, the dyeing of textiles, boilers, cement kilns for drying and firing of bricks and tiles, and the smelting and refining of iron by coal.
In his later years he fell into poverty. 1641 while he was imprisoned for debt, he urged the House of Lords the payment of arrears of his pension as a valet for six years. Because of these residues, the " Committee for the Advancement of Money for the service of the Parliament" granted him by an order of 13 January 1645 payment of a third of the amount that should be paid out of the property condemned. It seems, therefore, that he had joined a political group. For the February 11, 1651 a note exists in the minutes of the State Council that a petition by David Ramsay was referred to the Committee coin.
The exact date of Ramsay's death is unknown, but his son mentioned in the post script of his ' Astrologia Restaurata ' on 17 January 1653 to carry out these studies in his father's home.
Received Watches
Copies of Ramsay watches 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 reported amusement in his autobiography ' Life and Times ' (1715 ), as in 1634, together with Ramsay and the other is attempting, with a divining rod to find a fabled hidden treasure in Westminster Abbey. After they dig out first have a coffin, the search is interrupted by sudden, violent winds. The present write this to demons that can be expelled immediately by Lilly's instructions, however. Sir Edward Coke wrote to Secretary of State Francis Windebank a difficult credit decision: "If, now, David Ramsay could participate with his Philosopher's Stone, then he would be doing a good service. " There are also entries in the Calendars of State Papers of 28 July 1628 and August 13, 1635 which relate to hidden treasures, the imaginary to find Ramsay.