Francisque-Marie-Joseph Ramey was born in the Château de la Bastie d'Urfé at Saint-Étienne-le-Molard, in the Loire department. He came from a political family. His grandfather, Marie-Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Ramey de Sugny, had been briefly imprisoned during the Terror, but had survived long enough to be released following the fall of Robespierre.
Francisque-Marie-Joseph Ramey de Sugny was elected to the National Assembly on 8 February 1871, representing his natal department in the legislature. Reflecting the rural traditionalism of his region, he belonged to the catholic monarchist faction in the chamber, backing the restoration of a monarchy and the dismissal of the republican President Thiers, and opposing the Constitutional Laws which established the Third Republic and the Wallon amendment.[1]
He was also Conseiller général of the Canton of Saint-Just-en-Chevalet between 1852 and 1880, and then again between 1887 and 1904.[2] Between 1880 and 1887 the position was held by a republican. His term in the National Assembly ended in 1876 and in the election of 30 January 1876 he was a candidate for the department, but he lost out narrowly to another (moderate) republican, Lucien Arbel. The constitutional crisis of May 1877 triggered another general election. Ramey de Sugny was a candidate again, but again without success. The margin of his defeat at his third attempt to gain election to the Senate, in 1879, was greater still.[1]
