While still a youth, James Ramsay was painting professionally in the family business, and exhibited at age 17.

[2] Ramsay died, after a protracted illness, at 40 Blackett Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 23 June 1854, aged 68.

There are at least three by him of Thomas Bewick; the earliest, exhibited in 1816, and engraved by John Burnet, went to the Hancock Museum of the Newcastle Natural History Society; another, which appeared at the Royal Academy in 1823, to the National Portrait Gallery; and a third, a small full-length engraved by Frederick Bacon, belonged to Robert Stirling Newall of Gateshead.

[3] Ramsay also exhibited scriptural, historical, and fancy subjects at the British Institution, including Isaac blessing Jacob, in 1813, The Trial of King Charles the First, in 1829, and The Entry of the Black Prince into London, in 1841; and also a few portraits at the Society of British Artists.

He was successful, and painted portraits of members of Lord Clifford's family, James Northcote, Dionysius Lardner, and many others.