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[[File:Ramsay caricature by Ghezzi.jpg|thumb|right|230px|alt=Pen-and-ink caricature of a man in a long coat and wig.|M. de Ramsay, by Pier Leone Ghezzi. The Morgan Library identifies the sitter as probably Andrew Michael Ramsay, drawn during his visit to Rome in 1724.]]
'''Andrew Michael Ramsay''' (1686–1743), usually called the '''Chevalier Ramsay''', was a Scottish writer and tutor who spent much of his career in France. His Masonic discourses of 1736 and 1737 presented Freemasonry as an international fraternity devoted to moral conduct and learning, and gave it a legendary connection with the Crusades.<ref name="rs">Royal Society, [https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/epsilon-testbed/royal-society/nameregs/NA460 Ramsay, Andrew Michael], biographical register, record NA460, reproduced by Epsilon.</ref><ref name="uned">Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, [https://www.uned.es/universidad/inicio/unidad/museo-virtual-historia-masoneria/sala-iii-documentos/los-discursos-de-andrew-m.-ramsay-(1736-1737).html Los discursos de Andrew M. Ramsay (1736–1737)], Museo Virtual de Historia de la Masonería: texts and commentary. Accessed 29 September 2026.</ref>

== Life and intellectual connections ==
Born at Ayr, Ramsay became associated with François Fénelon in France and converted to Catholicism in 1710. He later wrote Fénelon's biography. His work as a tutor brought him into aristocratic and Jacobite circles, including service to the sons of James Francis Edward Stuart in Rome. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 11 December 1729 and received an Oxford doctorate in 1730.<ref name="rs" />

The caricature shown here is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. Its catalogue gives the sitter's identification as probable, and associates the drawing with Ramsay's Roman visit in 1724.<ref>Morgan Library & Museum, [https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/141799 Pier Leone Ghezzi: M. de Ramsay], accession 1980.11.</ref>

== The discourses ==
The two versions differ in emphasis. Both connect fellowship with conduct and cultivated learning. The later text develops the idea of a universal reference work embracing useful sciences and the liberal arts. Their international outlook envisages cooperation across national divisions.<ref name="uned" />

Ramsay's account places the fraternity's ancestry among crusaders and links it with the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers. He does '''not explicitly name the Knights Templar'''. The distinction matters when tracing [[The Templar theory of Masonic origins|later theories of Templar descent]]. The speeches document an eighteenth-century interpretation of the Craft's past; they do not provide medieval evidence for that ancestry.<ref name="uned" />

== Historical setting ==
Ramsay can be studied alongside [[James Anderson]] as a writer who explained Freemasonry through an account of its origins. His discourses also belong to the intellectual setting of French Freemasonry discussed in the [[History of the Scottish Rite]]. Their historical narrative and educational proposals should be examined separately from later claims made in his name.

== See also ==
* [[Freemasonry and the Royal Society]]
* [[The Templar theory of Masonic origins]]
* [[History of the Scottish Rite]]

== References ==
<references />

{{Early Masonic history}}
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[[Category:Early Masonic history]]

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 == See also ==
 * [[The Strict Observance]]
 * [[Karl Gotthelf von Hund]]

Andrew Michael Ramsay - Revision history

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