Cambridge, where one Thomas Rosse, son of James Rosse, of Richmond, Surrey, who was educated at the Charterhouse, graduated B.A. in 1642–3. He adhered to Charles II in his exile, was employed in political intrigues of that period, and about 1658 became tutor to James Scott (afterwards Duke of Monmouth) [q. v.], the king's natural son. James II in his ‘Memoirs’ charges Ross with first inspiring his pupil with hope of the throne. The youth had been originally instructed in the catholic religion by the Oratorians, and the change of tutor involved a change of religion by Charles's order. Ross applied to Dr. Cosin, and told him he might do a great service to the church of England in keeping out popery if he would sign a certificate of the marriage of Charles II with his pupil's mother, Lucy Walter, who was one of the doctor's penitents. Ross promised to conceal this certificate during the doctor's lifetime. Cosin indignantly rejected the proposal, and afterwards acquainted the king with the transaction. His majesty thought fit to keep the matter secret, but shortly after the Restoration removed Ross from his situation on another pretext, and divulged the affair some years later, when the story of the ‘Black Box’ was obtaining credence.
Ross was then appointed to the office of constable of Launceston Castle, which he resigned in July 1661, and on 22 Aug. in that year he was constituted keeper of the king's library, with a salary of 200l. a year. He was created M.A. at Oxford on 28 Sept. 1663. In the following year he acted as secretary to Henry Coventry (1619–1686) [q. v.], when the latter was sent on an embassy to the court of Sweden. In May 1665 he conferred upon Richard Pearson, then his deputy, the reversion of the office of keeper of the royal library, and he stated that he ‘is now at service in the fleet, and uncertain of subsistence for his family if he should die.’ He died ten years later, on 27 Oct. 1675.
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Second Punick War between Hannibal and the Romanes … Englished from the Latine of Silius Italicus; with a Continuation from the Triumph of Scipio to the Death of Hannibal’ [in verse], London, 1661, fol. The dedication to the king is dated Bruges, 18 Nov. 1657. There is a beautifully written copy of this book in the Harleian MS. 4233. 2. ‘Advice of Mr. Thomas Ross to James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleugh, natural Son to King Charles II, by Mrs. Barnham, in imitation of Tully, concerning Offices or humane Duties, unto his Son Mark’ (Lambeth MS. 931, art. 65).
Among the Ashmolean manuscripts at Oxford is a poem entitled ‘The Ghost of honest Tom Ross to his Pupill, D[uke] of M[onmouth],’ and beginning ‘Shame of my life, disturber of my tombe.’ It was written after Ross's death.
[Black's Cat. of Ashmolean MSS. p. 35; Evelyn's Diary, 1852, ii. 229 n.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. early ser. iii. 1281; Roberts's Life of the Duke of Monmouth, i. 7, 8; Cal. of State Papers; Todd's Cat. of Lambeth MSS. pp. 175, 207; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii. 274.]
ROSS, WILLIAM, twelfth Lord Ross of Hawkhead (1656?–1738), only son of George, eleventh lord Ross of Hawkhead, by Lady Grisel Cochrane, only daughter of William, first earl of Dundonald, was born about 1656. The Rosses of Hawkhead claim descent from a Norman family which at an early period possessed the lordship of Ros in Yorkshire [see Ros, Robert de, d. 1227]. The first of this family who came to Scotland was Godfrey de Ros, who received from Richard de Morville the lands of Stewarton, Ayrshire. Sir John Ross, first lord Ross of Hawkhead, mentioned as one of the barons of parliament on 3 Feb. 1489–90, was the son of the Sir John Ross of Hawkhead who was chosen one of the three Scottish champions to fight in 1449 with the three Burgundian knights in the presence of James II. Among the more notable members of the family were John, second lord Ross, who fell at Flodden in 1513; James, fourth lord, one of the jury for the trial of Bothwell in April 1567, and subsequently a strong supporter of Queen Mary Stuart; and William, tenth lord, who was fined 3,000l. by Cromwell's act of grace in 1654.
While still master of Ross, William (afterwards twelfth lord) had a charter under the great seal, 10 Aug. 1669, of the baronies of Melville and Hawkhead. He took a prominent part in the crusade against the covenanters; and on 10 June 1679 encountered, near Selkirk, a party of 150 of them from Fife, about to join the main body; he defeated this detachment at Beauly Bog, killing about sixty and taking ten prisoners, whom he sent to Edinburgh (Napier, Memoirs of Graham of Claverhouse, i. 280).
William succeeded his father as Lord Ross in 1682. In April 1683 he was recommended by the Duke of Queensberry to be lieutenant-colonel to Graham of Claverhouse, but, there being no such officer in the cavalry regiments, he was appointed major instead (ib. ii. 344). He was one of the witnesses to Claverhouse's marriage in 1684, and accompanied him on his wedding day in the vain pursuit of the armed conventiclers
