Arthur B. Ross of Claiborne Parish (1789-bef1850)
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Arthur B. Ross | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 19, 1789 |
| Died | bef. April 1849 |
| Residence | Bienville Parish, Louisiana |
| Spouse(s) | Sophia Unknown (1800-c1863) |
| Family | Rosses of Frederick County |
| Progenitor of | Rosses of Claiborne Parish |
| Mother | Barbara Brandon (-1808) |
| Father | Arthur Erwin Ross (-1833) |
| Public trees (may need correction) | |
| FamilySearch | KLQ4-MP8 |
Arthur B. Ross (bef. October 1789 – bef. August 19, 1839) was an early settler and landowner of Clark County, Arkansas, and later of Claiborne (later Bienville) Parish, Louisiana. He is the progenitor of the Rosses of Claiborne Parish. Y-DNA testing of his descendants has linked the family to the Kilravock branch of the Ross line through James Ross of Frederick County, Virginia, rather than to Isaac Ross of Woodbridge, as earlier researchers had assumed.
DNA evidence
Y-DNA
Arthur is often found in trees as the grandson of Isaac Ross of Woodbridge through his son Arthur Brown Ross. It's easy to see why people would think that one Arthur B. Ross would be the son of another Arthur B. Ross.
Three descendants of Arthur B. Ross of Bienville Parish have tested and are participants in the Ross Surname Project. They fall into R Haplogroup - Family 01. They are not a match to the descendant of Isaac Ross who falls into R Haplogroup - Family 02. Isaac Ross of Woodbridge is not the grandfather of Arthur B. Ross of Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
The Arthur Ross descendants who have tested are descended through these three grandsons of Arthur.
1-Arthur B. Ross b. 19 Sep 1789, Randolph County, North Carolina, m. Abt 1817, Arkansas, d. bef Apr 1849, Bienville Parish, Louisiana
+ Sophia Unknown b. 1800, Edgefield, South Carolina, d. Between May 1856 and Jun 1870, Louisiana
...2-Elias Abraham Ross b. Abt 1823, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, d. 16 Dec 1863, Harris, Texas
+ Delilah Bassett b. Abt 1826, Louisiana, m. Between 1840 and 1850, d. After 1880, Texas
......3-James Washington "Jim" Ross b. 13 Jan 1855, Hopkins, Texas, d. 15 May 1930, Bessmay, Jasper, Texas
+ Sarah Jane Jordan b. 20 Jun 1855, m. 3 Feb 1875, Newton, Texas, d. 28 Jun 1928
...2-Andrew Jackson Ross b. Jan 1831, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, d. 1905, Negreet, Sabine, Louisiana
+ Sarah Ann Black b. Abt 1843, Attala County, Mississippi, m. 18 Mar 1865, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, d. Abt 1884, Orange, Texas
......3-William M. Ross b. 1 Dec 1876, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, d. 1906, Louisiana
+ Mary Elizabeth Rogers b. 14 Jan 1881, Louisiana, m. 24 Dec 1900, Sabine Parish, Louisiana, d. 1 Nov 1959, Louisiana
...2-William Monroe Ross b. 16 Nov 1835, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, d. 20 May 1912, Sabine County, Texas
+ Matilda Margaret Ferguson b. Jul 1848, Texas, m. 19 May 1876, Jasper, Texas, d. 30 Aug 1929, Angelina, Texas
......3-James Hardy Ross b. 12 May 1887, Townbluff, Tyler County, Texas, d. 18 Apr 1937, Hemphill, Sabine, Texas
+ Benina Cathleen Frisby b. 8 Apr 1890, Jasper, Texas, m. 23 Dec 1906, Sabine County, Texas, d. 24 Jan 1929, Sabine County, Texas
The closest matches to these participants descend from James Ross of Hampshire County, West Virginia, who married Catherine McCullough. It is thought that this James was the son of Francis Ross, but additional Y-DNA results from one of James's brother's lines are needed to confirm.
Arthur and James's branch is haplogroup R-FGC35131. Their common ancestor would have lived sometime between 1630 and 1860, probably close to 1760. Research done by project participants has determined that Arthur's father was most likely Arthur Erwin Ross, grandson of James Ross.
Using this same Y-DNA match, Arthur's line can now be connected specifically to Hugh Rose, 9th of Kilravock – not merely to the broader Kilravock family in some general sense. The Ross Surname Project's only Big Y-tested descendant of Hugh 9th (via Albert John Ross) shares a common ancestor Arthur's own tested descendants. At this point, it is not known exactly how or where Arthur's own line connects to Hugh, 9th of Kilravock, but the ancestor they share lived between 1600 and 1800 CE. A separate, independently documented Kilravock line – through Hugh 8th's brother John Rose, 1st of Ballivat, down to the American immigrant Rev. Robert Rose – sits on an entirely different branch of the Y-DNA tree and is not a match to Arthur's family at all. It is assumed, based on the published Kilravock pedigree, that Hugh 9th inherited his Y-chromosome from Hugh Rose, 1st of Kilravock (d. c. 1306), but this remains an assumption rather than something Y-DNA testing has directly confirmed.
This Kilravock group is descended from R1b-L21, known as the Atlantic Celtic branch. These peoples had reached what is now Germany by 2500 BCE and had crossed over to Britain by about by 2100 BCE.[1] This is not to say that the Kilravock line made its way to Britain 4,000 years ago and remained there. It's entirely possible that there were additional migrations that placed them back in the area of Normandy at the time of the Conquest as is postulated by later historians. While Y-DNA testing has not yet refuted this theory, it also has not confirmed it. More testing is needed.
Biography
Early life
Arthur B. Ross was born between about 1781 and 1784, probably in South Carolina.[2] A residence record consistent with this places him, still under sixteen, in Greenville, South Carolina around 1790.
By 1817 the family had moved to Arkansas, where Arthur married Sophia about that year.[3] The couple appear repeatedly in Clark County, Arkansas civil records through the early 1820s:
- 21 Aug 1820 – named in the civil suit Wm McDaniel vs. Arthur Ross, Clark County.
- Mar 1821 – charged with, and found guilty of, assault; the court later deemed him too poor to pay the fine.
- 1821–1822 – served as a juror in Clark County.
- 2 Nov 1821 – party to Arthur Ross vs. Arthur Hemphill, Clark County Circuit Court (some records date this dispute as late as 1827).
- 11 Feb 1823 – listed among Clark County residents issued a license by the sheriff.[4][5]
Taken together, these read as an ordinary settler's life on the Arkansas frontier – farming, occasional litigation, and routine civic duty – before the family's move on into Louisiana.
Louisiana
By 1830 the family was established in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana (the portion later organized as Bienville Parish, formed 14 March 1848), where the federal census recorded Arthur B. Ross's household.[6] On 5 August 1837 he made a cash entry at the Ouachita Land Office for 76.63 acres in the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 2, Township 17 North, Range 6 West – land located northeast of present-day Bryceland, Louisiana.[7] Earlier that year, on 10 April 1837, Joseph Galbreath had sold him additional land in the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 1, Township 16 North, Range 6 West, Claiborne Parish.
Marriage and children
| Jimmy Ross (1744-1826) | |||||||||
| Arthur Erwin Ross (-1833) | |||||||||
| Deborah Alexander (1748-1818) | |||||||||
| Arthur B. Ross of Bienville Parish (1789-1839) | |||||||||
| Barbara Brandon (-1808) | |||||||||
- Arthur B. Ross of Bienville Parish (1789-1839)
Arthur B. Ross married Sophia "Effa" Norred about 1817, probably in Arkansas. They had nine known children:
- Mary 'Polly' Ross (c1817-c1891) (b. abt 1817, Clark County, Arkansas – d. abt 1891, Newton County, Texas; bur. Antioch Cemetery, Buna, Jasper County, Texas), m. William Friend McMahon Jr. She and her husband raised the orphaned Stewart children after their parents died.
- James Ross (1820-1862) (b. 1820, Clark County, Arkansas – d. abt Oct 1862, Tennessee, of wounds received at the Battle of Shiloh, 7 Apr 1862; bur. mass grave, Shiloh National Cemetery, Hardin County, Tennessee). Served as Pvt., Co. G, 20th Louisiana Infantry.
- Elias Abraham Ross (c1823-1863) (b. abt 1823, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana – d. 16 Dec 1863, Jeff Davis Confederate Hospital, Harris County, Texas), m. Delilah Bassett. Served in Capt. Whitehead's Co. F, 1st Texas State Troops Infantry.
- Rebecca Ross (c1825-aft1855) (b. abt 1825, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana – d. aft 1855, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana), m. McCauley Franks.
- Arthur Anderson Ross (1827-1909) (b. 15 May 1827, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana – d. 13 Dec 1909, Burnet County, Texas; bur. Bear Creek Cemetery, Bertram, Texas), m. (1) Meredith Mariette Mary Suttle, (2) Clarissa Vida Lee.
- Joseph Ross (c1833-c1864) (b. abt 1833, Bienville Parish, Louisiana – d. bet Jul 1864 and Aug 1865, Civil War), m. Elizabeth J. Spikes. School teacher (1860); served as Pvt., Co. A, Edgar's Battery; captured at Natchitoches, 21 Mar 1864, later exchanged/paroled.
- Andrew Jackson Ross (1831-1905) (b. abt Jan 1831, Bienville Parish, Louisiana – d. abt 1905, Sabine Parish, Louisiana; bur. Siloam Cemetery, Negreet, Louisiana), m. Sarah Ann Black. Farmer (1870 census); served in Co. A, 28th Louisiana Infantry ("Gray's"), taken prisoner 14 Apr 1863.
- William Monroe Ross (1835-1912) "Bill" (b. 16 Nov 1835, Bienville Parish, Louisiana – d. 20 May 1912, Sabine County, Texas; bur. Weeks Chapel Cemetery, Newton County, Texas), m. (1) Ann Elizabeth Primrose, (2) Matilda Margaret Ferguson. Sawmill laborer; served as Pvt., Crawford's Regiment, Co. G, 3rd Texas Mounted Cavalry, fighting at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, 30 Apr 1864.
- Margaret Ross (1837-c1868) (b. 1837, Bienville Parish, Louisiana – d. abt 1868, Bienville Parish, Louisiana), m. John G. McDowell.
Family tradition holds that six of Arthur and Effa's sons served the Confederacy during the Civil War: three died in service (James, Elias Abraham, and Joseph) and three survived (Arthur Anderson, Andrew Jackson, and William Monroe).[8]
Occupation
No direct occupation record survives for Arthur B. Ross himself. His two 1837 land purchases in Claiborne Parish point to a small landowning farmer, consistent with several of his sons who were later enumerated as farmers or laborers.
Military
A record in the Numerical Index to Pensions, 1860–1934 associates Arthur B. Ross with Company G, 3rd Tennessee Mounted [Infantry/Volunteers – please confirm exact unit designation], dated 1812, consistent with War of 1812-era service in Tennessee prior to the family's move to Arkansas and Louisiana.[9]
Death & burial
Arthur B. Ross died in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, before April 1849 – a date inferred from his widow's guardianship petition for their ten minor children, filed 16 April 1849 and granted 8 June 1849.[10] He was buried on the family's old homestead near Bryceland, Bienville Parish; the site is now just a field, and no markers have been found. His estate was recorded as intestate.[11]
In 1855, his widow "Effa" and four of the surviving children sold the 1837 Ouachita Land Office parcel to William Youngblood, each heir selling their respective 1/8th share of the half not already sold by Effa.[12]
Timeline
Research notes
Common discrepancies
Sophia Norred
Arthur's wife's name was Sophia. We know this from.... She is often found in trees as Sophia "Effa" Norred. This came from a suggestion made several decades ago that has been repeated in trees on the internet.[13] No evidence has been found to confirm the surname of Arthur's wife.
Birth and death dates
Arthur's birth and death dates rest on a single, doubly-uncertain source: a letter his son Arthur Anderson Ross wrote to his wife Clarissa in 1865, giving his father's birth and death dates from memory. The letter itself does not survive; it was transcribed and re-transcribed by later family members, and the handwriting on at least one copy was hard to read.[14] That letter is the origin of the September 1789 birth date and of a death date that different transcribers have rendered as 1837 (FamilySearch), 10 July 1839 (Find a Grave memorial 238962127), and 10 August 1839 (WikiTree Ross-5499) — these are not independent records, they are competing readings of the same illegible source. The two GEDCOMs used to write the Biography section above instead place his death after his widow's April 1849 guardianship petition. A 2023 research note on his FamilySearch profile argues for the same conclusion on independent legal-reasoning grounds: Louisiana succession law of the period gave a widow no reason to delay filing more than a year or two after her husband's death, so a 1849 succession points to an 1849 (not 1839) death.[15] Two independent lines of reasoning (a Louisiana guardianship record and a Louisiana succession-law argument) now converge on a death about 1849, not 1839. This conflict is unresolved; the infobox dates have not been changed pending your review.
Birthplace
The infobox and the Y-DNA narrative above give Arthur's birthplace as Randolph County, North Carolina. Court records located by FamilySearch user rross60 (see Disputed origins, below) instead document his likely parents in York County, South Carolina in 1789–1790, which would place his birth there rather than in North Carolina. Worth checking before this page's text is finalized.
Disputed origins
Arthur is not the only Arthur (B.) Ross born in the 18th century, and several generations of researchers have tried, and failed, to connect him to the wrong one. A 2020 FamilySearch source note (later expanded in 2023) lists four candidate Arthur Rosses born in this period and explains, one by one, why none of the first three can be this man:[16]
- Arthur B. Ross (b. 1746, North Carolina), son of Isaac Ross and Jean Brown – too early a generation, and his own children are separately documented and don't include an Arthur of Arkansas/Louisiana.
- Arthur Ross (b. 1798, South Carolina) – married Nancy Herrin, died in Georgia at 84; too late-born to be a plausible son of the 1746 Arthur, and not otherwise connected to Arkansas or Louisiana.
- Arthur Ross (b. bef. 1774, South Carolina), son of James and Deborah (Alexander) Ross – named in his father's 1826 York County, SC will and still enumerated there in the 1830 census, while this Arthur and his family were counted that year in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.
The fourth candidate, born 1784/90 in South Carolina to parents once identified only as "John L. and Mary (Underwood) Ross," matches this Arthur's known 1790 South Carolina residence, his Clark County, Arkansas years, and his Claiborne/Bienville Parish, Louisiana census record and land patents – but subsequent research revised that parentage. Court minutes from York County, South Carolina record a 1789/1790 bastardy suit, Barbara Brandon vs. Arthur Ross, in which "Arthur Ross" – identified as Arthur Erwin Ross, a great-grandson of Francis Ross – was found to have fathered Barbara Brandon's child.[17] This is offered as the origin of both Arthur's parentage (Arthur Erwin Ross and Barbara Brandon, as now shown in the infobox) and of his own middle initial "B.," possibly for "Brandon." Y-DNA testing of Arthur's own descendants (see DNA evidence, above) independently supports descent from the Francis Ross of Frederick County line rather than from Isaac Ross of Woodbridge, which is consistent with, though it does not by itself prove, this parentage. This identification should be treated as probable rather than certain: it rests on circumstantial and interpretive evidence (a court judgment plus a Y-DNA haplogroup match), not on a direct vital record naming Arthur B. Ross as this couple's son.
WikiTree's profile for Arthur (Ross-5499) independently repeats this same parentage and additionally lists two half-siblings, Deborah (Ross) Owens and Mary Rebecca (Ross) Jones – not yet reflected elsewhere on this page, and worth folding in if confirmed.
A family research note observes that this Arthur B. Ross, of Claiborne/Bienville Parish, was specifically not named as an heir in the will of a different, same-named Arthur B. Ross of Jefferson County, Mississippi – a useful negative record for keeping the two men distinct.[18]
Sources
- ↑ "Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)". Eupedia. May 9, 2017. Retrieved July 27, 2026.
- ↑ Family group record, Arthur B. Ross (I35766), Legacy Family Tree database, Ross Surname Project.
- ↑ Family record, Arthur B. Ross and Sophia "Effa" Norred (F8588), Legacy Family Tree database, Ross Surname Project.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedArkansas gazette February 11, 1823 List of Licenses - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedArkansas gazette February 11, 1823 Receipts - ↑ 1830 U.S. Federal Census, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, roll 44, p. 233; database online, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Provo, UT, 2010, citing NARA microfilm publication M19 (201 rolls), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
- ↑ USA, Bureau of Land Management, Louisiana, Homestead and Cash Entry Patents, Pre-1908; database online, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., Provo, UT, 1997.
- ↑ Family group record (F8588), Legacy Family Tree database, Ross Surname Project. This tradition is corroborated by each son's individual military and death records.
- ↑ Numerical Index to Pensions, 1860–1934, p. 1; The National Archives.
- ↑ LA Court Records on file in the Bienville Parish courthouse; guardianship of the minor children of A. B. Ross, petition filed 16 Apr 1849, letters granted 8 Jun 1849.
- ↑ Bienville Parish Deed Book B, p. 132
- ↑ LA Court Records on file in the Bienville Parish courthouse.
- ↑ jamesgang4 (18 Jul 2001). "Mother of Elias A. Ross". Ross Surname Message Board. Ancestry.com. Retrieved 18 Jul 2026.
- ↑ Letter from Arthur Anderson Ross to Clarissa (Ross) Ross, 28 Apr 1865, cited in FamilySearch person KLQ4-MP8, "Memories."
- ↑ FamilySearch person KLQ4-MP8, source note "Who are the parents of Arthur B Ross," added by user rross60, 27 Feb 2020, last modified 24 Oct 2023.
- ↑ FamilySearch person KLQ4-MP8, source note "Who are the parents of Arthur B Ross," added by user rross60, 27 Feb 2020, last modified 24 Oct 2023.
- ↑ York County, South Carolina, County Court Minutes, October 1789, p. 235, and April 1790, p. 263; cited in FamilySearch person KLQ4-MP8.
- ↑ Annie Mims Wright, Record of descendants of Isaac Ross and Jean Brown. Note: this source is flagged elsewhere in the project as containing errors.
- Louisiana: St. Landry, Natchitoches, Rapides, St. Martin, St. Mary, Lafayette, Ouachita, Avoyelles, Catahoula, and Claiborne Parishes (NARA Series M19, Roll 44) (images). National Archives & Records Administration, Central Plains Region. OCLC 865590579. FHL microfilm 9687.
- James, Mary "Cathy" Porter (contributor manager_number) (added_date). "Arthur B Ross (1789-1839)". Find a Grave. Citing. Memorial ID 238962127. Retrieved July 26, 2026. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - Wright, Anne Mims (1911). A Record of the Descendants of Isaac Ross and Jean Brown and the Allied Families of Alexander, Conger, Harris, Hill, King, Killingsworth, Mackey, Moores, Sims, Wade, Etc. Jackson, MS: Consumers Stationery and Printing Co. OCLC 74815246. OL 23381559M.
- United States, Bureau of Land Management (1993). General Land Office automated records project. Louisiana : pre-1908 homestead & cash entry patents. [Springfield, Va.]: General Land Office Automated Records Project. OCLC 1522784333.
- "Arthur Brandon Ross (1789–1837)". FamilySearch Family Tree. KLQ4-MP8. Retrieved July 27, 2026.
- "Arthur B Ross (1789-1839)". WikiTree. Ross-5499. Retrieved July 26, 2026.
- Morgan, James Logan (1992) [1st pub. 1984]. 1820 Census of the Territory of Arkansas (Reconstructed) (Reprint ed.). Arkansas Research. OCLC 28323712 – via The Pike County Archives and History Society.
- South Carolina. County Court (York County) (1950). Court Records 1786–1792 (images). Filmed by the Southern Microfilming Co. OCLC 866778745. FHL microfilm 008196820.
Acknowledgements
Taken entirely from the work of Cathy James and Roy G. Ross.
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.