Ramsay, David, 1749-1815

David Ramsay was born April 2, 1749 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a friend and student of the physician Benjamin Rush. After practicing medicine in Maryland for one year, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he immersed himself in local politics and society. He served as a member of the Charleston Council of Safety, member of the South Carolina legislature and Privy Council, Continental Congress, and United States Congress. Ramsay was an early member of the newly formed Medical Society of South Carolina and was elected president in 1798. He was an early advocate for the creation of a Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston. He authored numerous works on medicine and history, including A dissertation on the means of preserving health in Charleston and the Lowcountry (1796) and The history of the revolution of South-Carolina, from a British province to an independent state (1785). On May 8, 1815 he was shot dead on Broad Street in Charleston by an unstable patient whose insanity he had certified previously.

American physician, historian and member of the Continental Congress.

Physician and politician of Charleston, South Carolina.

Physician, historian, South Carolina state legislator, and U.S. Continental Congressman.

Charleston, South Carolina physician and historian. David Ramsay was a South Carolina Representative, South Carolina Senator, and a United States Continental Congressman.

Physician Joseph Carson taught medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The College of Philadelphia's Medical School, founded in 1765, became known as the University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Medicine In 1779.