Life

He wss born at Ross

Ross

Ross is a region of Scotland and a former mormaerdom, earldom, sheriffdom and county. The name Ross allegedly derives from a Gaelic word meaning a headland - perhaps a reference to the Black Isle. The Norse word for Orkney - Hrossay meaning horse island - is another possible origin. The area...

 in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, on 24 or 25 June 1719, the only son of John Rosse, attorney in that town. He was educated at the grammar school in Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

, was admitted a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

 (April 1737), and on the following 22 June became a Somerset scholar of the third foundation at his college. He graduated B.A. 1741, M.A. 1744, B.D. 1751, D.D. 1756, and on 10 July 1744 was incorporated at Oxford. From March 1744 to 1770 he held a fellowship at St. John's, and down to 1768 he discharged college duties.

In 1757 Ross was appointed to the preachership at the Rolls Chapel, although Richard Hurd

Richard Hurd

Richard Hurd was an English divine and writer, and bishop of Worcester.-Life:He was born at Congreve, in the parish of Penkridge, Staffordshire, where his father was a farmer. He was educated at Brewood Grammar School and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He took his B.A. degree in 1739, and in 1742...

 was a competitor and received the support of William Warburton

William Warburton

William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...

 and Charles Yorke

Charles Yorke

Charles Yorke was Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Life:The second son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was born in London, and was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His literary abilities were shown at an early age by his collaboration with his brother Philip in the...

, and in the same year became a king's chaplain. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 23 February 1758. Lord Weymouth

Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath

Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath KG was a British politician who held office under George III serving as Southern Secretary, Northern Secretary and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Between 1751 and 1780 he was known as Lord Weymouth...

, who had been one of his private pupils, gave him in 1760 the benefice of Frome

Frome

Frome is a town and civil parish in northeast Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres around the River Frome. The town is approximately south of Bath, east of the county town, Taunton and west of London. In the 2001...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, and he retained it until his death; he further received in March 1769 the twelfth canonry in Durham Cathedral. He was consecrated on 25 January 1778 as bishop of Exeter, and held with the bishopric, as was the case with many successive occupants of the see, the archdeaconry of Exeter, a prebendal stall in the cathedral, and the rectory of Shobrooke in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

. He retained the vicarage of Frome, but resigned the canonry at Durham.

He disapproved of the introduction of Sunday school

Sunday school

Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

s, but in a sermon before the House of Lords on 30 January 1779 he advocated an extension of toleration to dissenters. John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

 attended a service in Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

 on Sunday, 18 August 1772, and was much pleased with it; Ross asked him to dinner, which Wesley also enjoyed. For some time before his death his faculties were greatly impaired. He died at the palace, Exeter, on 14 August 1792, and was buried on 18 August in the south aisle of the choir, the place being marked by a flat tombstone and the inscription 'J. R., D.D., 1792.' The bishop left most of his fortune to Miss Eliza Maria Garway, a distant relative; she was stepdaughter of Samuel Collett of Worcester, and afterwards married Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley of Drakelow

Drakelow

Drakelow is a hamlet in the parish of Church Gresley in South Derbyshire, England. It is two and a half miles south-west of Burton on Trent. It is pleasantly situated on the east bank of the River Trent. Drakelowe Hall was the principal residence of the Gresley Baronets, but this has been replaced...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, son of Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet

Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet

Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet was an English land-owner, mine-owner and the builder of Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal.Gresley was the son of Sir Thomas Gresley, 4th Baronet and his first wife Dorothy Bowyer, daughter of Sir William Bowyer, 4th Baronet. He succeeded his brother who died of smallpox...

.

Works

Ross edited in 1749 letters of Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

. When Jeremiah Markland

Jeremiah Markland

Jeremiah Markland , English classical scholar, was born at Childwall in Liverpool on the 29th of October 1693. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Peterhouse, Cambridge...

 brought out a volume of 'Remarks on the Epistles of Cicero to Brutus,' and added 'a Dissertation upon Four Orations ascribed to Cicero', Ross published an ironical 'Dissertation in which the Defence of P. Sulla ascribed to Cicero is clearly proved to be spurious after the manner of Mr. Markland.' He was the author of sermons, and revised Richard Polwhele

Richard Polwhele

Richard Polwhele was a Cornish clergyman, poet and topographer.-Biography:Born at Truro, Cornwall, Polwhele met literary luminaries Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More at an early age. He was educated at Truro Grammar School, where he precociously published The Fate of Llewellyn...

's English Orator; and was a patron to George Ashby

George Ashby (antiquary)

George Ashby was an English learned antiquary and sometime president of St. John's College, Cambridge.-Life:Ashby was born in Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, in 1724. Educated at Croydon, Westminster, and Eton, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, on 30 Oct. 1740, and took the degree of B.A, in...

.