Benjamin Ramshaw, Boatswain

Benjamin Ramshaw. Benjamin Ramshaw is likely the father of a father and son pair who are included in the List of Officers and Men of the Pennsylvania Navy 1775-1781 Series 2 Collection of the Pennsylvania Archives Volume I Pages 259-260; Boatswain Benjamin Ramshaw, Senior or Musician Benjamin Ramshaw, Junior. The senior Ramshaw served as early as 28 September 1775 and was promoted from Seaman to Boatswain on 10 June 1776. He is listed on the 28 September 1776 muster roll of the Pennsylvania galley Camden under the command of Edward York. A fellow crewmate on the Camden was carpenter John Cloud. The junior Ramshaw is noted as Fifer on 6 May 1776 and Drummer on 1 May 1777. The marriage records of Christ Church, Philadelphia indicate that Benjamin Ramshaw and Catherine Hutchinson were married on 2 December 1768, suggesting that the junior Ramshaw was only seven when he served as Fifer. Provincial Tax records of the city of Philadelphia from 1774 include Benjamin Ramshaw. The Effective Supply Tax list for the County of Philadelphia in 1782 notes that Benj’n Ramshaw signed for Edmund Beach’s estate. Edmund Beach, stavemaker or cooper of Southwark, was married to Elizabeth Osborn in 1767 and died 25 February 1787. He was interred in the burial grounds of the Third Presbyterian Church. Elizabeth Osborn remarried to John Springer in 1791.