Coming originally from Huntingdonshire (England), the name has been associated with Midlothian from the 12th C., where the Ramsays were given lands by the Setons. Sir William Ramsay de Dalwolsey fought with Robert the Bruce (1274 - 1329) at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) and also signed the Declaration of Arbroath (1320) asserting Scottish independence to the Pope. The Ramsays became the Lords of Melrose (1617) and Earls of Dalhousie in 1633.
The name appears in Angus and Perthshire by the mid-13th C. and also in Fife.