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John Ross the Immigrant (c1727-)

Scottish emigrant to North Carolina, 1774
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For other people named John Ross, see John Ross (disambiguation).

John Ross

Bornc. 1727
ResidenceKabel, Farr Parish, Sutherland
Emigration15 April 1774
Port of Lerwick, Shetland
Immigration
Wilmington, Hew Hanover County, North Carolina
FamilyRosses of Farr Parish

John Ross was a farmer from the parish of Farr in Sutherland, Scotland, who emigrated to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1774 with six children, having been widowed several years earlier. He is traditionally identified as the patriarch of a line of Beaufort County, North Carolina, Ross families whose sons served, and in several cases were tried, during the American Revolutionary War. No documentary proof directly names his children, and the identity of his six emigrating children is a matter of ongoing research.

DNA evidence

Y-DNA

As of this writing, no documented direct male-line (father-to-father) descendant of John Ross the Immigrant has taken a Y-DNA test. Consequently, there is currently no genetic evidence either confirming or refuting the traditional identification of his six sons, or connecting this family to any other documented Ross line. A Y-DNA test is underway for a documented descendant of Benjamin Ross, whose relationship to John Ross the Immigrant is itself disputed; results from that test may eventually provide the first genetic data point for this family, but they cannot by themselves confirm descent from John Ross the Immigrant without a comparison test from a documented descendant of one of his six traditionally accepted sons.

Autosomal DNA

Several suspected descendants have done autosomal tests at FamilyTreeDNA and AncestryDNA. No defining triangulations have been identified. John Ross lived recently enough that autosomal testing could be used to confirm descendant lines. Unfortunately, due to the fact that DNA is diluted with each generations, it is difficult to locate multiple descendants who have inherited the same segment of DNA.

Biography

Early life

John Ross was born about 1727, most likely in Scotland.[1] His mother and father are not documented.

Emigration to North Carolina

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In 1774, still a widower, John Ross boarded the ship Batchelor (also recorded as the "Bachelor of Leith") at Lerwick, bound for Wilmington, North Carolina. British customs officials, required at the time to record passengers leaving Scotland and England for the American colonies, entered him as follows:

“John Boss (Ross), Aged 47, a Widower hath six Children, from 20 to 5 years Old, who emigrate with him, by Trade a Farmer, last at Kabel in the Parish of Farr and County of Sutherland, upon the Estate of Sutherland. Goes to Carolina, because the rent of his Possession was greatly Advanced the price, of Cattle which must pay that Rent reduced more than one half, and bread which they must always buy excessively dear. The evil is the greater that the Estate being parcelled out to different Factors and Tacksmen, these must oppress the subtenants, in order to raise a profit to themselves, particularly on the Article of Cattle, which they never fail to take at their own prices, lately at 20/ or 20 Merks, and seldom or never higher than 30/ tho' the same Cattle have been sold in the Country from 50 to 55 sh. By these means reduced in his circumstances, and encouraged by his Friends already in America, he hopes to live more comfortably in that Country.”[1]

This entry appears to be the only documentary confirmation of John Ross's emigration and is the source of his identification as "the Immigrant." The children's names were not recorded by the customs officials; only their number (six) and the family's origin and destination are given.

No record has been found of John Ross the Immigrant after his ship's arrival at Wilmington. He does not appear to have applied for a Revolutionary War pension or bounty land in his own name, and his ultimate place and date of death are not documented.

Marriage and children

Ancestors & Descendants


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John is found in many trees as the husband of an Isobell or Katherine McKenzie. The date of the marriage is often listed as 18 November 1757, sometimes in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, sometimes in Girvan Parish, Ayrshire. If we look at marriages recorded in the Old Parish Registers in 1757 we find:

  • John Ross married Katharine McKinzie in Glasgow Parish, Lanarkshire, on 30 October 1757[2]
  • John Ross in Achenlay matrimonially contracted in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, to Isobell Mckenzie in Ardallie on 18 November 1757[3]

Marriages were not recorded in Girvan Parish, Ayrshire, until 1783.[4]

At the time of his immigration in 1774, John was living in the Parish of Farr and County of Sutherland. Farr was a very large parish in the Highlands. It is on the opposite end of Scotland from both Glasgow Parish and Girvan Parish. We do actually find a marriage on the date of 18 November 1757, between John Ross and Isobell Mckenzie. It took place in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland. This is much closer to Farr Parish, but we have no evidence that this John Ross was the same man as the John Ross who immigrated in 1774.

Farr Parish did not record births until 1790 and marriages until 1801, so it's entirely possible that John was married and all his children born in Farr Parish and we have no record of it.[5]

Family tradition, independently recorded in the research of two different descendant lines (Iva Ross Lange and Samuel Arthur Tuten Jr.) before either was aware of this customs record, held that a widower named John Ross had left Scotland for the Carolinas with several sons.[6][7] Iva Ross Lange was descended from Elijah Ross and Samuel Arthur Tuten Jr. was descended from Corp. Benjamin Ross. Benjamin and Elijah first appear in records in North Carolina records as chain carriers for a Beaufort County survey dated August 19, 1779. The deed being for a Francis Ross. This document, along with the shared family legend, is where we get the suggestion that Benjamin, Elijah, and Francis were all sons of immigrant John Ross.

Samuel Tuten Jr. stated in his research that there were 7 known children.[8] He included Benjamin, Elijah, and Francis.

Samuel does not tell us why he thought these children were "known". There were no sources cited other than the Beaufort County taxpayers lists of 1779 and 1786. They included John Ross, Benjamin Ross, Francis Ross and Mary Ross. Were these names also handed down through the family along with the story of the original immigrant?

Cathy (Ross) Brewer, descendant of Elijah on her father's side and Benjamin on her mother's side, has continued the research of Iva Ross Lange and Samuel Arthur Tuten Jr. The list of children she published includes 6 sons:[9]

  • Elijah Ross Sr. (c1754-1817) m. Winnifred Daniel
  • John Ross, Revolutionary War soldier who died in Adair County, Kentucky, February 11, 1835
  • William Ross Sr., baptized in Scotland in March of 1757 and m. Elizabeth Buxton in Craven County on December 9, 1783
  • Mathew Ross, born about 1757 in Farr, Sutherland, Scotland (marked 'caution' in her publication)
  • Martin Ross (1762-1815), per Tuten research
  • Francis "Frank" Ross, m. Mary "Ann" Jones, d. circa 1830

It is not clear how we went from John Ross, no birth or death dates, to John Ross, Revolutionary War soldier of Adair County. Or from William Ross, no birth or death dates, to William Ross Sr., baptized in Scotland in March of 1757, and married to Elizabeth Buxton.

A Matthew Ross does appear in a list of the several divisions of Affective Men in the Beaufort County militia regiment dated April 20, 1781. [10][11] No other mention of him is found, so it's not clear why it is thought that his birthdate was sometime around 1757.

Cathy argues for the removal of Benjamin from the list based on his birth date. His great-grandson stated he was born in 1736, but his gravestone, not placed at the time of his death, says 1746.[12][13] If the true date is actually 1736, then John would have only been about 9 years old at the time, so not his father. If Benjamin was, in fact, born in 1746, John would have been closer to 19, but Benjamin would have been too old to be included in the list of children aged 5 to 20 years old.

The family lore handed down in both Benjamin's lines and Elijah's lines is one of the only things connecting these two men to a widower John Ross who immigrated from Scotland. Is it possible that there was another widowed John Ross who came to Carolina from Scotland? Ancestry.com's U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index does list just a few other potential candidates, but the books that list the details of these men are not available online. More research is needed.

Pages have been created for each of these men with more information about available sources.

It's important to mention that there was also a Patrick Ross aboard the Bachelor with John Ross.[14] Before leaving Scotland, he had been a schoolmaster in Farr Parish. In his customs entry, he also states that he, “goes to America on the Assurance of some of his Friends already in that Country of procuring a more profitable School.” Are these the same friends who encouraged John? At the time of the voyage, John reported his age as 47 and Patrick as 35, so this was not father and son. It is possible, though, that they were related and settled together in America.

It's not clear what became of Ronda Ross or how we know that her name should be included in the list of children. We don't know how many of the 6 children were daughters and how many were sons. If the ship landed in Wilmington, is it possible that some of the children stayed in New Hanover County? For instance, who was the Jane Ross who married Andres Wight on July 12, 1779 in New Hanover County, North Carolina?

It seems that there just is just not enough to sort this out using paper-evidence alone. Y-DNA testing is our best option. Y-DNA results from each of these lines would allow us to determine if any of these men were truly brothers. We might eventually find that they are, indeed, a match to Ross lines still in Scotland who can trace their ancestors to Farr Parish. Unfortunately, the only line that we currently have test results from is Benjamin's. One descendant of Benjamin has tested and he is not a match to any other Rosses in the project. More testing is needed.

Occupation

Farmer, per his own customs declaration in 1774.[1]

Military

Death & burial

No date, place, or record of burial has been found for John Ross the Immigrant. He is last documented leaving Port Lerwick on 15 April 1774.[1]

Timeline

  • circa 1727 - birth of John Ross[1]
  • 15 April 1774 - John Boss left the Port of Lerwick, Shetland, aboard the Ship Bachelor of Leith, aged 47, a Widower hath six Children, from 20 to 5 years Old, who emigrate with him, by Trade a Farmer, last at Kabel in the Parish of Farr and County of Sutherland, upon the Estate of Sutherland. Goes to Carolina, because the rent of his Possession was greatly Advanced the price, of Cattle which must pay that Rent reduced more than one half, and bread which they must always buy excessively dear. The evil is the greater that the Estate being parcelled out to different Factors and Tacksmen, these must oppress the subtenants, in order to raise a profit to themselves, particularly on the Article of Cattle, which they never fail to take at their own prices, lately at 20/ or 20 Merks, and seldom or never higher than 30/ tho' the same Cattle have been sold in the Country from 50 to 55 sh. By these means reduced in his circumstances, and encouraged by his Friends already in America, he hopes to live more comfortably in that Country.[1]

Research notes

Immigration sources

John Ross is listed several times in Ancestry.com's U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. This database is a compilation of names & dates listed in other sources. The specific source can be found in the 'Annotation' tab. Most of these sources are simply books, or directories, that contain a one-line description of a person that includes a time & place that they were mentioned in the Americas. They are not necessarily 'Passenger and Immigration Lists'. It's important to note that the column labels 'Arrival year' and 'Arrival place' are, therefore, not accurate. The values in these columns are taken from any number of different types of documents that indicate someone's presence somewhere.

The annotations in the database lead to these resources that mention John Ross. They, themselves are only secondary sources. Any information found in primary sources is discussed above.

Sutherland Estate

John's customs entry says that he lived “last at Kabel in the Parish of Farr and County of Sutherland, upon the Estate of Sutherland.” Farr does not keep parish registers until 1790, but there might be records of the Estate of Sutherland available from the National Records of Scotland.

Corp. Benjamin Ross

It is "widely accepted by reputable Ross researchers" that John Ross the Immigrant's six sons were Benjamin, Elijah, Francis, William, John, and Martin.[16] Cathy Brewer, compiler of Granddaddy was a Patriot, disputes the inclusion of Benjamin Ross in this group and proposes Mathew Ross in his place, for two reasons documented in that work and corroborated by a primary source located since its publication:

  1. Age. The 1774 customs record gives the ages of John Ross's six emigrating sons as 5 to 20. Benjamin Ross's gravestone gives a birth year of 1746, which would have made him 28 in 1774 — too old to fit the customs record.[17]
  2. Birthplace. Benjamin Ross's own great-grandson, Lemuel Hiram Ross, swore in his 1912 Sons of the American Revolution application that Benjamin Ross "was born in Beaufort County, N.C." — that is, in America, not Scotland.[18] If accurate, this alone would rule out Benjamin as one of the six sons who sailed from Scotland with John Ross in 1774.

Weighing against a clean substitution of Mathew for Benjamin is the strong circumstantial documentary record tying Benjamin to Elijah and Francis Ross as neighbors, land-deed witnesses, and co-defendants in Beaufort County between 1779 and 1785 (see Benjamin Ross), which is at least consistent with a close family relationship of some kind, whether as brothers or otherwise. Mathew Ross, by contrast, is only sparsely documented and does not appear in the land-deed and court records that place Benjamin, Elijah, and Francis together repeatedly in Beaufort County. No documentary proof currently exists for the parentage of either man. Resolving this question is a primary goal of the Y-DNA testing discussed above.

Disputed origins

Transcription of family bible by Asa Ross, 1845.

John's father's name is sometimes listed as Angus. This appears to have come from an assumption that the John Ross listed in Asa Ross's 1845 transcription of the family's bible is the same man as this John Ross the Immigrant.

The bible says,

“The father of Asa Ross was Angus Ross, whose father was John Ross, whose father was Angus Ross who were Scotchmen.”[19]

It is this John Ross, son of Angus Ross, and father of Angus Ross, that was, at some point, equated with John Ross who arrived in North Carolina in 1774 aboard the Bachelor of Leith. There is no detail in this bible that would indicate that this is the case. There are also no records found in Scotland to indicate that this is the case.

If Angus's father John was the same man as John the Immigrant, then Angus would have been about 6½ years old when they boarded the Bachelor of Leith. And Angus should be included in the list of sons. Several descendants of Angus have done Y-DNA testing and are participants in the Ross Surname Project. They fall into a very small groups of matches that also match participants in the Clan Macleod project. Currently, among all of the suggested sons of John the Immigrant, we have test results from only one descendant of Corp. Benjamin Ross for comparison. He is not a match to the Angus Ross descendants, but additional testing from other Benjamin Ross descendants are needed to confirm Benjamin's genetic signature. Y-DNA results from descendants of any of the list of potential sons of John the Immigrant would be helpful.

Common discrepancies

Birth year

John Ross the Immigrant's own birth year is sometimes conflated in secondary compilations with the birth year of his son John Ross, who gave his age as 71 in an 1829 Revolutionary War pension statement (indicating a birth year of 1757–58). John Ross the Immigrant's age of 47 in the 1774 customs record indicates a birth year of about 1727, a full generation earlier.

Spouse and children

As was covered in the Marriage and children section, John's wife is often listed as Isobell or Cathering McKenzie, with a marriage date of 18 November 1757. The suggested location of the marriage varies. We do have a record of a marriage contract between a John Ross and Isobel McKenzie in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, dated 18 November 1757. We know that, in 1774, John was a farmer on the Sutherland Estate in Farr Parish. Dornoch Parish and Farr Parish are both in the Highlands, but there is some distance between them. We have no evidence that John of Farr Parish was the same man that was in Dornoch Parish twenty years earlier.

Farr Parish was not keeping records during the time period that John was marrying and having children.[5]

John's emigration record states that he had with him six children between the ages of 5 and 20. If we look at baptism records in Dornoch Parish during this time period, we find 4 sons born to a John Ross.

  • 27 November 1750 - Baptised in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, Robert lawful son to John Ross in Skibo[20]
  • 19 May 1755 - Baptised in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, Alexander lawful son to John Ross in Achormachy[21]
  • 28 March 1757 - Baptised in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, William son to John Ross in Pronsie[22]
  • 18 November 1759 - Baptised in Dornoch Parish, Sutherland, John son to John Ross in Achormachy[23]

There were also five marriages recorded for men named John Ross during this 20 year period.

  • 24 November 1750 to Isobell Ross[24]
  • 1 June 1751 to Anna Sutherland[25]
  • 8 June 1753 to Helen Munro[26]
  • 19 June 1754 to Christian Mckay[27]
  • 18 November 1757 to Isobell Mckenzie[3]

No records are found during the 1760s, but there were clearly several different John Rosses living in different parts of Dornoch Parish during the 1750s. There is zero evidence that any of these men was the same man as John Ross the Immigrant who lived in Farr Parish before boarding the ship in 1774.

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Newsome 1934, p. 136.
  2. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 196.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 309.
  4. ↑ Great Britain 1872, p. 86.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Great Britain 1872, p. 6.
  6. ↑ Brewer 2022, p. 9.
  7. ↑ Tuten 1997.
  8. ↑ Tuten 1997, p. A.
  9. ↑ Brewer 2022, pp. 7–8.
  10. ↑ "A list of the several divisions of Affective Men in the Beaufort County militia regiment". North Carolina Digital Collections. The State Archives and Library of North Carolina.
  11. ↑ "Translated Affective Men in the Beaufort County Militia Regiment". NCGenWeb Project. NC Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC. Photocopy contributed by Lida A. Overton; transcribed by Elizabeth Ross.
  12. ↑ Tuten 1997, p. 29.
  13. ↑ "Display Patriot - P-281893 - Benjamin ROSS". National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Grave Detail. Retrieved 30 Aug 2026.
  14. ↑ Newsome 1934, p. 135.
  15. ↑ Whyte 1972 p. 381.
  16. ↑ Brewer 2022, p. [9].
  17. ↑ Brewer 2022, p. [12].
  18. ↑ North Carolina Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Application for Membership No. 22848, Lemuel Hiram Ross, descendant of Corporal Benjamin Ross, approved 15 March 1912, reproduced in Brewer, Granddaddy was a Patriot, 13–17.
  19. ↑ Corbari 1984.
  20. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 70.
  21. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 75.
  22. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 80.
  23. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 83.
  24. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 300.
  25. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 301.
  26. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 304.
  27. ↑ Dornoch Parish Registrar General 1783, p. 305.

Bibliography

Tuten, Samuel Arthur (1997). The Ancestors and The Descendants of George Martin Walker & Elizabeth D. Ross, Beaufort County, North Carolina. Kernersville, N.C.

Disclaimer

It is admittedly impossible that we have been able to evaluate every piece of evidence available for every person included on this site. What you often find on the internet, though, are trees with no sources attached at all. Many of these trees were created pre-internet & have been passed down, uploaded & copied to multiple sites without details of the original sources they were based on. Now, with the advent of DNA testing, we're finding that they don't always match up with what the DNA is telling us. In order to reevaluate these trees in conjunction with the DNA evidence, we need to have available the sources that they might've originally been based on. This site, then, is intended as a repository for these sources and an opportunity to share what the DNA is telling us so that we can work collectively to correct these trees. Over time, more of the old records will be able to be combed through, and the sources cited here will grow.

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