Family:James Ramsey and Margaret Unknown (1)

The traditional emigration date of 1740-42, for James and Margaret Ramsey's transatlantic voyage to America, indicates a close correlation between their emigration and the conditions in Ireland, which could only have served to see emigration as a way to improve their opportunity for their future livelihood. These conditions included rising rents for the tenant farmer, the desire to become land owners and the want of economic opportunity, the winter of 1739-40 proving to be especially harsh, with failing crops, the slump of the linen trade and soaring food prices. The winter of 1739-40 was known in Ulster as 'the time of the black frost', due to the unusually dark appearance of the ice and because the sun seldom shone during its continuance. In September of 1740, the "Pennsylvania Gazette" ran an advertisement for the ship master of the Mary Ann from Belfast. The ship had arrived in Philadelphia with a 'parcel of likely Men and Women servants' and a 'great Variety of White and Check linens.' The following spring, more ships from Ireland loaded with servants landed in Philadelphia.

For most emigrants their transport fares would amount to nearly a years' wages in Ireland. How James and Margaret secured their passage was not recorded, but their modest circumstances as a farming family, coupled with the economic conditions in Ireland, suggest they would have indentured themselves in the service for the usual four year term for their passage, after which James Ramsey would qualify as a 'yeoman' (freehold farmer). Most likely, James and Margaret made their way to the pioneer settlement on the North River of the Shenandoah in Augusta County, Virginia under the guidance and indentureship of John Smith, a well known captain of the Augusta County militia and a lessor known promoter of emigrants from the North of Ireland. James Ramsey's farmstead with his improvements was part of John Smith's original tract of 400 acres on Spring Creek of the North River of Shenandoah adjoining Hugh Diver, and which John Smith entered on 30 March 1745 with two (head) rights. John Smith's entry for two rights (50 acres per person) no doubt was the settling of James and Margaret Ramsey on his land. By 29 Nov 1750, John Smith's son, Daniel Smith, had obtained part of his father's land adjoining Charles Diver along with his father's two head rights. Daniel Smith's tract on Elk Draft adjoined Charles Diver, John Smith and Hugh Diver. After James and Margaret Ramsey's son, William, came of age and prior to his marriage to Agnes Boyd, William purchased of Silas and Jane Hart 120 acres lying on North River on the Elk Draft, being adjacent to Silas Hart and Hugh Diver.

It would be some eleven years plus before Daniel Smith conveyed the North River land to James Ramsey by a deed of 'lease and release' which, as on an Ulster estate lease, created a landlord-tenant relationship between Daniel Smith and James Ramsey; but, upon the completion of the terms of the lease and release instrument, the North River property was transferred to James Ramsey the same as a land deed conveyance. The deed of lease-release provided that James Ramsey "during the full term & (the) time of one year from thence next ensuring fully to be completed and ended, yielding & paying therefore the rent of one part of Indian corn on Lady Day." Lady Day (March 25) was the first of the four traditional Irish/English quarter day when rents were due. "At the Court held for Augusta County August 18th 1756 Daniel Smith acknowledged this his lease for land indentured to James Ramsey which is on his motion admitted to record." This eighty acre tract on the North River of the Shenandoah became the Ramsey's American ancestral home.

Daniel Smith, who conveyed the 80 acre tract to James Ramsey, was one of five sons of Capt. John Smith of Augusta County, Virginia. The Smith family also came from Ireland by way of Philadelphia prior to the arrival of James and Margaret Ramsey. After an initial settlement in Pennsylvania, John Smith appeared before the Orange County, Virginia court 26 June 1740, to prove his importation in order to take up public land. With the creation of Augusta County, Virginia in 1745, the John Smith's land became a part of this new, frontier Virginia county, which became a stronghold for 'Scotch-Irish' settlers.

It is not known where the Ramsey and Smith families became acquainted, but the records reflect a standing relationship of support and trust, whereby James and Margaret Ramsey were able to establish their homestead in order to gain title to their land at a latter date The Revolutionary War pension claim for their son, James Ramsey, shows that, upon James Ramsey's second tour in the Augusta County, Virginia militia, he joined the service as a substitute, in the place of Benjamin Smith, son of Abraham Smith. After the death of the father, James Ramsey, Abraham Smith, brother of Daniel Smith, along with John Davis, gave bond with Margaret Ramsey as the administratrix of James Ramsey's estate 19 Nov 1760. James Ramsey died intestate in 1760, leaving a widow and four children.

Upon the death of James Ramsey in 1760, his son, William Ramsey, inherited his father's land under the rule of primogeniture, which provides that the eldest son inherits the father's land as 'heir at law', with the exception of the 'widow's tract' as his mother's dower right. In common law, after the death of the husband, the widow during her natural life had use of one-third of all her husband's real estate, and included the last dwelling place. About 1767, William Ramsey married Agnes/Nancy Maria Boyd in Augusta County, Virginia. With their marriage, the first family alliance was formed, an alliance which would take them to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. There, Nancy, and her brother, John's, father, Robert Boyd, had taken up land on the waters of Long Creek at the Gum Branch in 1759, while still Anson County, North Carolina. Robert Boyd relocated to the North River settlement of Augusta County, Virginia, no doubt due to the escalating Indian-settler conflicts in that region of North Carolina's Western frontier. Historian Robert W. Ramsey described these conditions: "Peace on the frontier did not last long. Late in 1758, urged on by the French, the Cherokees resumed their attacks upon the settlers. John and William Ireland, Andrew Morrison, and John Oliphant were among the inhabitants of the Catawba Valley who were 'forced from their lands.' The following year the Indians killed Robert Gillespie and the fourteen-year-old son of Richard Lewis. They attacked Fort Dobbs, but without success." Robert Boyd had taken up public land in Augusta County, Virginia "on the head of Fisher's Creek, a branch of North River of Shanando" for which he obtained a patent for this tract 20 Sept 1768. Following Robert Boyd's death this land was vested in John Boyd as son and right heir of Robert Boyd.

CHILDREN OF JAMES RAMSEY AND MARGARET unknown

1. William Ramsey, Sr., b. PA, c.1742; d. Rutherford Co., TN, after 3 Oct 1831; m. Augusta Co., VA before 12 Nov 1767, Agnes/Nancy Maria Boyd, b. Ireland, 1744; d. Rutherford Co., TN, c.1830; daughter of Robert Boyd, a weaver from Ireland. Eight children were born to William and Nancy Ramsey.

2. Unknown daughter, b. Spring Creek, North River settlement, Augusta Co., VA; d. Mecklenburg Co., NC, c.1783; m. Mecklenburg Co., NC, c.1780, John Johnston, b. Ireland; d. Mecklenburg Co., NC, 1809; two children born from the issue of their marriage: a daughter, Margaret Johnston, who married 1st. cousin, John Ramsey, son of William and Nancy (Boyd) Ramsey; and a son, William Johnston, who married Elizabeth Hipp. John Johnston m. 2nd. Rachel Thompson Mecklenburg Co. NC, 22 Jan 1787, and had six children.

3. Margaret/Peggy Ramsey, b. Spring Creek, North River settlement, Augusta Co., VA; d. Rutherford Co., TN, after Apr. 1813; m. David Rodgers, Mecklenburg Co., NC; d. Rutherford Co., TN, 1813. Five known children born to David and Margaret/Peggy Rodgers.

4. James Ramsey, b. Spring Creek, North River settlement, Augusta Co., VA, 15 Apr 1753; d. Rutherford Co., TN, c.1840; m. most likely NC c.1785; wife's name is unknown; James served during the American Revolutionary War as a private in the Augusta County militia and as a Dragoon from VA in Armand's Legion of the Continental Army until the close of the war. Three known sons born to James Ramsey and unknown wife.

William and Nancy (Boyd) Ramsey did not dispose of their two tracts of land in old Augusta County, Virginia, which became Rockingham County, Virginia in 1778, until long after their final migration and settlement, which took them from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to Rutherford County, Tennessee by 1803. From the Rutherford County, Tennessee court minutes dated 22 June 1820, William Ramsey and Nancy Ramsey his wife formerly Nancy Boyd are found deeding the two tracts or parcels of land which descended to William Ramsey at the death of his father James Ramsey to Isaac Myers of Rockingham County, Virginia.

NOTE: JAMES RAMSEY, who married RACHEL PRICE, Craven County, South Carolina, was a son of John Ramsey of the Calf Pasture, Augusta Co., VA and Four Mile Creek, Mecklenburg Co., NC; d. Bet. 1835 - 1836, Franklin County, Georgia. Additional research data to follow with a page for this James Ramsey.

From Chalkley's Augusta County Records:

• Page 227.--20th November, 1759. Charles ( ) Diver to John Divir, £47, 119 acres on North River, Sharando; corner James Ramsey; corner John Davis, opposite mouth of Bear Creek.

• Page 426.—19th November, 1760. Margaret Ramsey's bond (with Abram Smith, Jno. Davis) as administratrix of James Ramsey.

Augusta County Tithables, 1760

• On the motion of Margaret Ramsey who made oath according Sam’l Banfield (?) is granted her for obtaining Letters of Administration of James Ramsey deceased she having with SecurityEnbaradents (?) and acknowledged the (?) Bond according

• Ordered that John Malcome, William Cunningham, John Cunningham and Edward Erwin or any three of them being first rounds(?) appraise the Personal Estate and Slaves if any of James Ramsey deceased and return the appraisement to named court.

• 16 September 1766, p. 330

Silas Hart Gent John Hogshead and James Hogshead three of the Persons Appointed to Veiw the Old Road together with the new Road lately Marked that Leads from Jenningses Gap to Edward Erwin Juniors and to make a report which is the Most Convenient made their report that the New Marked way is much the Leavelest Clearest of Stones and the Straightest It is therefore Ordered that the said Road be Established and George Moffett Gent be Surveyor of the said Road from Jenningss Gap to William Flemings and Edward Erwin be Surveyor from the said Flemings to his House and that all the Tithables between the North and Middle River from Jennings Gap as far down as John Young and from the said Youngs to Joseph Reaburns and from thence to Edward Erwins and from thence to Margaret Ramseys work On the said Road and that Silas Hart and James McGill devide the Tithables between the Overseers and that they then keep the said Roads in Repair According to Law.

• Page 42.--12th November, 1767. William Ramsey and Agness, eldest son and heir of James Ramsey, to Margaret Ramsey, £18, two tracts on North River of Shanando--A containing 120 acres, corner Silas Hart and Hugh Diver, side of a small meadow called the Elk Draft, being tract conveyed to said Ramsey by Silas and Jane Hart, 5th June, 1764; B containing 80 acres conveyed by Daniel and Jane Smith to James Ramsey, father of said William, 18th August, 1756, on North River of Shanando; corner Charles Diver's land. Teste: Daniel Henderson, John Douglass, Nathaniel Douglass. Delivered: Thomas Reed, 21st May, 1770.

North River Settlement Old Augusta County, Virginia

1.   Court Records of Augusta County 1745-1800, in Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia
   2:448, 20 Nov 1761.

   Allowance to Widow Ramsey and her four children. The original Parish Book located at the Library of Virginia is not accessible for copying due to its poor condition. The four children of James and Margaret Ramsey were (1) William Ramsey who married Agnes/Nancy Maria Boyd in Augusta Co. VA; (2) Unknown daughter Ramsey who married John Johnston in Mecklenburg Co. NC; (3) Margaret Ramsey who married David Rodgers in Mecklenburg Co. NC; (4) James Ramsey who married unknown wife following his military service in the Revolutionary War.

2.   The earliest known family records were found in 1976, in the possession of Richard E. Davis, a kinsman and founding president of the Gibson County, Tennessee Historical Society. These records came down through the family of John Wesley Ramsey (1840-1901) and his daughter, Lula Virginia (Ramsey) McGee. This early family history states that William Ramsey, Sr. was born in Pennsylvania about 1740-42, several months after his parents reached America from the north of Ireland; that William Ramsey married Agnes Maria Boyd who was born in Ireland in 1744, and being five years old when her parents came to America; that William and Agnes Maria (Boyd) Ramsey settled in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and about 1803 removed to Rutherford County, Tennessee. Included within these early records were the children of William and Agnes Maria (Boyd) Ramsey and their early descendants.