Andrew Ramsay, Lord Abbotshall

This was a delicate time for the Edinburgh Council who had to submit many of their decisions to Oliver Cromwell in London.

In 1667 Sir Andrew Ramsay received a letter from Charles II stating that in future the Chief Magistrate of Edinburgh should be permanently styled Lord Provost of Edinburgh, with the same rank and precedence as the Lord Mayor of London and Dublin.

However he was not liked by the Duchess and she conspired against him with his enemies in the City of Edinburgh, within and without the council, and Lord Abbotshall was later stripped of his offices on 1 December 1673.

He lived long enough to take some pleasure to see many of his enemies who had conspired against him, Kincardine, Dirleton, Carrington, and Lauderdale, all turned out of their offices more ignominiously than he.

Besides Abbotshall in Fife, which he made the family seat and took his title from, Ramsay acquired extensive estates in his lifetime, and his son and heir, Sir Andrew Ramsay, married the heiress of Waughton in East Lothian, an ancient seat of the Hepburn family.