Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramkins, Alexander
RAMKINS, ALEXANDER (1672–1719?), adherent of James II, was born in the north of Scotland in 1672, and was sent to the university of Aberdeen. While a student there he heard of the gathering of several clans for James VII, sold his books and furniture, bought arms, and at the end of July 1689 joined a body of three hundred highlanders who had been on the victorious side at Killiecrankie. He marched about with them in the highlands for a time, and then went home to his mother with an old captain of James's army. After two months at home, having obtained 1,200l. as the value of his inheritance, he sailed to Rotterdam and joined the French army at the siege of Mainz. He found it difficult to get employment without regular training, so went to the French military college for cadets at Strasburg, and, afterwards returning to the army, was admitted as a volunteer and served in the Palatinate. He thence obtained leave to go to Paris, and, receiving a commission as captain in James II's forces, sailed from Brest to Cork. He commanded a small detachment of grenadiers from the district of Fingal, co. Dublin, in an orchard at the battle of the Boyne; but the company had only a dozen grenades and no bayonets, some not even firelocks. The orchard was surrounded, thirteen of his men were killed, and Ramkins, with eight men, was captured. While a prisoner on parole in Dublin he met many Scots who were in King William's army, but declined to change sides; and, at length escaping, joined the Irish army, lost two fingers at Aughrim from a sabre-cut, and did good service at the siege of Limerick, returning to France at the capitulation. He afterwards joined his regiment in the army under the Duke of Luxemburg, and was severely wounded by a bullet in the shoulder at the battle of Landen. When recovered from his wound he went to Amsterdam and to Antwerp; and after the peace of Ryswick (1697) paid a visit to London, where he was robbed on Hounslow Heath. He returned to Paris and married; but his wife's extravagance reduced him to poverty, and in 1719 he was thrown into prison at Avignon, and appears to have died soon after. His memoirs were printed in London in 1719, through the influence of a kinsman. He adopts the view that the aim of France was not to help King James or the Roman catholic religion, but only to diminish the power of Great Britain in European affairs by keeping up political strife there.
[Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins, London, 1719, which was reissued in 1720 with the new title of ‘The Life and Adventures of Major Alexander Ramkins.’]