David Ramsay (trader)

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David Ramsay (c. 1740 – c. 1810) was born in Leven, Scotland, and spent part of his early life as a cabin boy in the British Royal Navy. He took part in the siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and later worked as a courier, translator, and trader in fur and alcohol in the area around the lower Great Lakes—today southern Ontario and western New York.

Accounts of Ramsay’s behavior among Indigenous people are mixed and controversial. One set of stories, passed down by Loyalists living near Long Point, Ontario, and told in the early 19th century by the wife of a local settler, describe Ramsay as a heroic pioneer who defended his life and property against attacks by local Ojibwa people.

A very different picture comes from Indigenous accounts collected in the early 19th century by missionary Peter Jones, and from Ramsay’s own legal declaration. In a May 15, 1772 declaration at Fort Niagara, Ramsay admitted that in March 1772, on Kettle Creek north of today’s Port Stanley, Ontario, he killed an Ojibwa man named Wandagan and two women “in defense of his life.” He also said he scalped all three adults and kidnapped two local children, taking them toward Long Point. He later claimed that near Long Point the children were “English” and that he was captured, tied to a fire, and later freed; he then killed four more adults and a child before escaping. Ramsay insisted he acted to defend his life and property and had refused to share his liquor cache with the Ojibwa.

Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, reviewed Ramsay’s account and agreed that the killings did not represent self-defense. He called the acts “homicide” and noted the scalping as an act of war by natives, which contributed to a serious crisis between British authorities and local Indigenous groups. Johnson blamed Ramsay’s private actions rather than official policy, and he ordered measures such as recalling regional traders, moving troops, and sending Ramsay to Montreal for trial. He believed Ramsay deserved capital punishment, but he doubted a fair trial could be held; in the end Ramsay faced no punishment, partly because the prosecution could not produce native witnesses.

There is some evidence that Ramsay later changed his stance toward Indigenous people and may have helped in disputes between them and the colonial government. Details about his life after these events are scarce; he owned substantial land in Upper Canada and a trading ship in New York, and he disappears from records around 1810.

Legends about Ramsay grew after the 19th century. One tale says he buried a gold cache along the north shore of Lake Erie and planned to return for it when natives were no longer a threat. Deacon John Troyer reportedly learned the treasure’s location and, with a boy named Simpson McCall, attempted to claim it. Versions vary, but the story often ends with a dramatic moment—an eerie encounter with a black dog—before they give up. A Niagara Falls newspaper in 1922 published one version of this legend.