| Male, Born | in Windham, Connecticut on 7/26/1721 |
| Died | 2/8/1777 |
Parents
Spouses / Children
Born July 26, 1721, in Windham, Connecticut, of Joseph ROSS and Sarah (UTLEY) ROSS. He was one of ten children, but only the names of seven are known: brothers Joseph, Simeon, John, and Zebulon; sister Abigail; and a seventh, Jerusha, which may have been either brother or sister.
His father having business in Pomfret, Connecticut, apparently accounts for Jeremiah's marriage in that town on October 31, 1744, to Ann PAINE. Ann's ancestry, according to one source, can be traced to before 1341. She was born February 11, 1720, in Pomfret, Connecticut, of Samuel and Ruth (PERRIN) PAINE. Her father was born September 14, 1686, and moved to Pomfret in 1706. In 1709, in Pomfret he married Ruth PERRIN (who was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, March 30, 1686, of Samuel PERRIN and Sarah (WALKER) PERRIN). Her father's great-grandfather, Stephen PAINE, with his wife Rose (----) PAINE, and their son, also Stephen, came from Shropham, near Hingham, County Norfolk, England, aboard the ship "Diligent" in 1638. They settled first at Hingham, Massachusetts. The younger Stephen was born in England in 1629 and died at Rehoboth in January 1678; his fifth son was named Samuel. Samuel was born at Rehoboth May 12, 1662, and married Ann PECK. That Samuel's eldest son was also named Samuel, and became the father of Ann PAINE, Jeremiah's wife.
Jeremiah and Ann moved to Scotland Parish, Windham County, Connecticut, where their children were born. Then, about 1763, they moved to New London County, uniting with the North Parish Church, now the town of Montville, Connecticut.
Jeremiah was an early member of the Susquehanna Company, of Hartford, Connecticut, and is named as a grantee in the Indian Deed of July 11, 1754. The Susquehanna Company purchased the land for “the sum of Two Thousand Pounds of Current Money of the Province of New York.” The deed was issued by the Chief Sachems and Heads of the Five Nations of Indians called the Irequois (sic). It was described as “a large Tract of Land on, about, and adjacent to the River Susquehannah, between the forty-first and forty-third Degrees of North Latitude.” I counted 528 names on the deed, including Jeremiah Ross.
Presumably, Jeremiah traveled to and from the Susquehanna Company purchase in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania to prepare that wilderness for a settlement--as was the practice of that particular group of pioneers. The first peaceful year in the Wyoming Valley was 1772; that summer the first white woman arrived. In early 1774, the third year of tranquility, Jeremiah and his family moved to the valley.
(A more detailed account of this migration can be found at pages 413-417 of “An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil, Political, and Military, from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, including Historical Descriptions of Each County in the State, their Towns and Industrial Resources,” by William H. Egle, M.D., Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; published in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by De Witt C. Goodrich & Co., 1876. Volume was sold ‘by subscription only.’)
Jeremiah's eldest son, Perrin, was a prominent member of the settlement from the time of their arrival. (See Perrin ROSS for numerous details concerning the conditions of those early days in the “town of Westmoreland”, as it was called.
After nearly four years of comparative peace in the valley, in 1775 there was a renewal of hostilities against the settlers by Indians, by the Pennsylvania authorities who were attempting again to effect the settlers’ total expulsion, and by the new threat of the British who were now virtually at war with the colonists. The town petitioned Congress both for the resolution of the Connecticut-Pennsylvania boundary problem, and for military help in dealing with the Indian threat. Congress responded by telling the town to raise two companies of the Continental Army to be stationed there for their defense. This congressional resolution was passed August 23, 1776, and in less than sixty days both companies were full. Both of Jeremiah’s sons who were old enough enlisted in Captain Samuel RANSOM's company--Perrin as a First Lieutenant, Jeremiah as a Private. (His son William was too young, but went on at a later time to become a General).
Then, in December 1776, Congress ordered the two companies to join General WASHINGTON. This action effectively left the soldiers’ families without any protection, since every able-bodied man had responded to the need to enlist. As a consequence, women, young boys, and aged men were pressed into constructing fortresses and conducting scouting missions, ever watchful against their newest and most deadly enemy--the Indians under British leadership. Within a year this threat would become a serious and pressing confrontation; and within eighteen months it would be consummated by the Wyoming Massacre (see Perrin ROSS) which would once again temporarily empty the valley of settlers.
Yet, despite these hardships and dangers, those hardy people were intent on leading a life as normal as possible. They were people of forethought, and had interest in the news of the young nation. In 1777, more than fifty subscribers joined together and “established a post to Hartford, to go once a fortnight and bring the papers. A Mr. Prince BRYAND was engaged as post-rider for nine months.” Jeremiah ROSS was one of those subscribers, paying a varied fee of from one to two dollars each. Could such an instance have occurred elsewhere among less stalwart people, particularly under the circumstances in which the Wyoming settlers were living, to bring newspapers a distance of two hundred fifty miles at their own expense?
Although the particulars of his community involvement are not known, Jeremiah is recorded as having been highly respected: “In the early summer of 1777 (actually February) one of the most respected citizens, Jeremiah ROSS, returned from Philadelphia, was taken sick with smallpox and died.” The date of his death is recorded as February 8, 1777. He and his wife are buried in Hollenbach Cemetery at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in the plot of William S. ROSS (almost certainly General William Sterling ROSS).
Jeremiah and Ann had ten children: sons Perrin, Jeremiah, and William; and daughters Aleph, Ann, Sarah, Diana, Mary, Lucy, and Elizabeth.
