John Charles Ramsden

John Charles Ramsden was a British politician associated with the Whig party. He was born on 30 April 1788 and died on 29 December 1836. Ramsden was linked to Newby Park in Yorkshire and served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for a period spanning from 1812 to 1836.

He was the eldest son of Sir John Ramsden, 4th Baronet, who lived from 1755 to 1839. His father served as MP for Grampound. Ramsden's mother was Hon. Louisa Susan Ingram-Shepheard, approximately born in 1766 and deceased in 1857. She was the daughter of the 9th Viscount of Irvine. Ramsden’s younger brother was Captain Henry James Ramsden, who lived from 1799 to 1871 and was the direct ancestor of the 8th and 9th Ramsden baronets.

In the political sphere, Ramsden was first elected as one of the two MPs for the borough of Malton during the 1812 general election. He was subsequently re-elected in the four following general elections, maintaining his seat until 1831. In the 1831 general election, Ramsden was elected as one of the four MPs representing the county of Yorkshire. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Yorkshire in May 1831.

His parliamentary career was affected by the Reform Act of 1832, which divided the Yorkshire constituency. Following the act, Ramsden contested the new North Riding of Yorkshire seat in December 1832 but was unsuccessful. However, three months later, he was elected unopposed as the MP for Malton in a by-election, succeeding Viscount Milton, who was a Liberal MP that had resigned to contest a vacancy in Northamptonshire’s Northern division. Ramsden was re-elected without opposition in 1835 and remained in office until his death in 1836.

On 4 May 1814, Ramsden married Isabella Dundas, born in 1790 and died in 1887. She was the daughter of Thomas Dundas, 1st Baron Dundas of Aske, and Lady Charlotte FitzWilliam. Isabella’s maternal grandfather was William Fitzwilliam, 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam, and her uncle was William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, a prominent Whig politician and a wealthy individual in Britain.

John Charles Ramsden and Isabella Dundas had children, including Sir John William Ramsden, 5th Baronet, who was born in 1831 and died in 1914. He married Lady Helen Guendolen Seymour in 1865, who was the daughter of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset.

John Charles Ramsden died at the age of 48 in 1836. His son, Sir John William Ramsden, inherited the baronetcy after the death of Sir John Ramsden, 4th Baronet, in 1839, as he had predeceased his father.