David Ramsay (April 2, 1749 – May 8, 1815) was an American physician, public official, and historian from Charleston, South Carolina.

[citation needed] David Ramsay was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of a Scottish emigrant.

His second wife was the daughter of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and president of Princeton (then the College of New Jersey).

Through this marriage, Ramsay also became related to Ralph Izard, John Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, Daniel Huger, Lewis Morris, and South Carolina governor Charles Pinckney.

In the absence of its chairman, John Hancock, Ramsay served as president pro tempore of the Congress of the Confederation from November 23, 1785 to May 12, 1786.

[12] Her memoirs remain historically valuable as a chronicle of the life of a well-educated Southern woman during the American Revolutionary War and the early years of the nation, including while she took her mother's place as hostess for her father's political gatherings in the 1780s.

O'Brien wrote that Ramsay's history challenges American exceptionalist literary frameworks by presenting itself within the European Enlightenment historical tradition, reflecting Ramsay's belief that the United States would have no historical destiny beyond typical patterns of European political and cultural development.

Ramsay's increasing involvement in South Carolina's economic and political institutions and the need for stability that defined early 19th century nationalism influenced this transition.

According to a contemporary source:[16] Having been carried home, and being surrounded by a crowd of anxious citizens, after first calling their attention to what he was about to utter, he said "I know not if these wounds be mortal; I am not afraid to die; but should that be my fate, I call on all here present to bear witness, that I consider the unfortunate perpetrator of this deed a lunatic, and free from guilt.