Difference between revisions of "Andrew Michael Ramsay"
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| + | * [[Karl Gotthelf von Hund]] | ||
* [[Freemasonry and the Royal Society]] | * [[Freemasonry and the Royal Society]] | ||
* [[The Templar theory of Masonic origins]] | * [[The Templar theory of Masonic origins]] | ||
Revision as of 16:13, 29 September 2026
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.[1][2]
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.[1]
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.[3]
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.[2]
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 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.[2]
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
- The Strict Observance
- Karl Gotthelf von Hund
- Freemasonry and the Royal Society
- The Templar theory of Masonic origins
- History of the Scottish Rite
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Royal Society, Ramsay, Andrew Michael, biographical register, record NA460, reproduced by Epsilon.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Los discursos de Andrew M. Ramsay (1736–1737), Museo Virtual de Historia de la Masonería: texts and commentary. Accessed 29 September 2026.
- ↑ Morgan Library & Museum, Pier Leone Ghezzi: M. de Ramsay, accession 1980.11.
Chronology: Timeline of early Freemasonry
Documents: The Old Charges · The Regius manuscript · The Cooke manuscript · The Schaw Statutes · The St Clair Charters · The 1723 Constitutions
Scottish lodges and ideas: William Schaw · Early Scottish lodges · Lodge Mother Kilwinning · Mary's Chapel · Canongate Kilwinning · Haughfoot Lodge · Operative and speculative Freemasonry · The art of memory and Freemasonry · Freemasonry and the Royal Society · The Templar theory of Masonic origins
People: Robert Moray · John Theophilus Desaguliers · James Anderson · William Preston · Andrew Michael Ramsay
Chivalric systems: The Strict Observance · Karl Gotthelf von Hund · Lyon (1778) · Wilhelmsbad (1782) · Jean-Baptiste Willermoz · Rectified Scottish Rite
English Grand Lodges: Formation of the first Grand Lodge · Antients and Moderns · Laurence Dermott · Ahiman Rezon · The Union of 1813
Ireland, Scotland and overseas: Early Irish Freemasonry · Grand Lodge of Scotland · Military and travelling lodges
France and the Jacobites: Early French Freemasonry · Freemasonry and the Jacobites
Atlantic connections: Benjamin Franklin · The Lodge of the Nine Sisters · George Washington · Paul Revere · African Lodge No. 459 · Prince Hall
Research: Sources for studying early Freemasonry · Masonic museums and libraries
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