Ross, Thomas

(d. 1675)

   A near relative of Alexander Ross (1591-1654), he was educated at Charterhouse School and graduated B.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 16421643. An adherent of Charles II in his exile, he was involved in political intrigues of that period. About 1658 he became tutor to James Scott (afterwards Duke of Monmouth), the king's natural son. His conspiracies worked against him, for at the Restoration, he was removed and given some sinecure. He was created M.A. at Oxford in 1663, and the following year he acted as secretary to Henry Coventry (1619-1686) when the latter was sent on an embassy to the court of Sweden. There is a reference in Sailing Navies, 1650-1674 (http://www.sailing navies.com/show_chronology.php?t=0) to one Thomas Ross, and a suggestion in the DNB that Ross was in the Navy. So it is possible that he died at sea. Some of his poems: "An Essay Upon the Third Punique War," "Silius Italicus of the Second Punick War," "The Phenix," "Theodosius His Advice to His Son," "To the Death of Hannibal," "To the King."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Oxford Book of Classical Verse in Translation. Adrian Poole, and Jeremy Maule, ed. 1995.