Allan Ramsay
Allan Ramsay was a notable Scottish poet and cultural figure born in Leadhills, Lanarkshire, around 1684 or 1685. After losing his father early in life, he was raised as a shepherd and later moved to Edinburgh, where he trained as a wig maker. By 1710, Ramsay established a successful business and married Christian Ross, with whom he had five children, including the portrait painter Allan Ramsay the Younger. He became influential not only through his poetry, particularly his pastoral play "The Gentle Shepherd," but also as a publisher and bookseller, which helped him distribute his works. Ramsay was a member of the Easy Club, a group that encouraged the use of Scottish vernacular in literature, contributing to a revival of the Scots poetic tradition. In addition to his literary endeavors, he founded the first known circulating library in Great Britain and helped establish an art academy and a local theater company. Ramsay's legacy endures, though he is often regarded as a precursor to the more widely recognized poet Robert Burns. He lived in a distinctive octagonal home in Edinburgh, known as "Goose Pie," which remains a historical site today.
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Allan Ramsay
Poet
- Born: October 15, 1686
- Birthplace: Leadhills, Lanarkshire, Scotland
- Died: January 1, 1758
Biography
Allan Ramsay was born in Leadhills, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in either 1684 or 1685. His father died when the future poet was an infant. Ramsay’s mother remarried, and Ramsay himself was raised as a shepherd boy. After his mother’s death in about 1700, Ramsay was sent to Edinburgh, where he was apprenticed to a wig maker. Completing his apprenticeship in 1710, Ramsay set himself up in business. Two years later he married Christian Ross, with whom he eventually had five children, among them the future portrait painter Allan Ramsay the Younger. Ramsay prospered in business, eventually setting himself up as a publisher and bookseller, an occupation that served him well in distributing his own work.
The earliest audience for Ramsay’s poetry seems to have been fellow members of the Easy Club, an organization of Scots nationalists founded in 1712. The group most probably encouraged Ramsay’s use of the Scottish vernacular, a mode of expression that Ramsay mastered. Ramsay also wrote derivative neoclassical English verse, but his innovative use of Scots, particularly in his masterful pastoral play The Gentle Shepherd, made his reputation. In addition, Ramsay contributed to the arts in his native land by establishing the first known circulating library in Great Britain in about 1725, by founding the Academy of St. Luke, a school of drawing and painting, and by helping to establish a local theater company. In retirement he built a comfortable octagonal house on the side of Edinburgh’s Castlehill, and this “Goose Pie” home still stands. Although later overshadowed by his successor Robert Burns, Ramsay remains an important figure for having almost single-handedly launching a revival of the Scots poetic tradition.