| Male, Born | in Scotland Parish, Windham County, Connecticut on 3/29/1761 |
| Died | 8/9/1842 |
Born March 29, 1761, in Scotland Parish, Windham County, Connecticut, of Jeremiah ROSS and Ann (PAINE) ROSS. He was the youngest of three male children, and had seven sisters. His brothers were Perrin and Jeremiah; and he had sisters Aleph, Ann, Sarah, Diana, Mary, Lucy, and Elizabeth. The family moved to Montville, New London County, Connecticut; then, in early 1774, they moved to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania.
While William’s older brothers and cousins were away serving in General Washington's army, he was forced to remain home. He was only fifteen when the Wyoming Independent Companies marched off to war in December 1776, but the conditions at home were equally as severe as at Valley Forge and the other locations his brothers fought. Indian raiding parties, acting on their own or under the instigation of British forces, were a continuous threat. Numerous engagements were fought between the Indians and the families of soldiers who were left virtually without protection. William and all the other boys, old men, and women did what they could, strengthening existing fortifications and building new ones, and conducting scouting missions to prevent surprise attacks. (See Perrin ROSS, A410, for additional details).
When his father died of smallpox in early 1777, William became the head of the family--a heavy responsibility for a sixteen-year-old, particularly considering the times and conditions.
On July 1, 1778, he marched with a scouting party in response to the massacre of a family which had occurred the previous day. Returning to Forty Fort, where the settlers had gathered for protection from the Indians, he was joined by his brothers on July 2nd after they had returned under near panic conditions to help defend their family. The availability of firearms had been severely limited, his brothers more experienced in warfare, and other considerations resulted in William being required to stay at Forty Fort during the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778. Both his brothers, Perrin and Jeremiah, were killed in the battle which was consummated by a grisly massacre. Upon learning of the defeat, William joined with other members of the family and fled the Valley (his mother and sisters having escaped the night before). The surviving members of the family (William, his mother and six sisters; and his brother Perrin, Jr., who was not yet born) joined again at a rendezvous at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
“All except his mother and sister Sarah returned (under escort of Captain SPAULDING’s company) to Wyoming in the following August 1778. They settled down again in the Wilkes-Barre Fort, he being now the head of the family. He kept the fodder about half a mile from the fort and always went armed when he fed his cattle. Indians made frequent incursions into the neighborhood and would burn the hay and kill or drive off the cattle of the settlers. On the 23d of March, 1779, two hundred and fifty Indians attacked the fort, but were repulsed with the only cannon the settlers possessed.”
The Pennamite-Yankee War (see Perrin ROSS, A410) continuing, in July 1784, the settlers learned of an armed force under command of a Major MOORE which was on their way to attack them. William was one of thirty men selected by Captain John SWIFT to accompany him “to meet, dislodge and defeat them before they could reach the Valley.” “The two forces met on August 2nd at Locust Hill, Northampton County, Stoddardsville, and one of the Pennamites was killed and several were wounded on each side. On the 8th of the same month, upon the arrival of Col. John ARMSTRONG, Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council...Mr. ROSS and the other men...were arrested by ARMSTRONG’s order (although he had promised on his faith as a soldier and his honor as a gentleman that they should be protected) on the charge of murder, bound with cords, thrust into the guard house and threatened with instant death if they attempted to escape.” They were then bound with cords, hands behind their backs, bound together in pairs and marched off toward the prison in Easton. “Going up the mountain, some hung back, and impeded the march; some contrived to loosen their hands, and cut the cords. Threats of instant death did but increase the mischief. Maj ABBOTT and Waterman BALDWIN escaped at Larner’s. William ROSS, by superior activity, took leave from Heller's. The rest were lodged in prison.”
On December 31, 1782, the Trenton Decree formally ended the Connecticut-Pennsylvania dispute over the Wyoming Valley--dominion being settled in favor of Pennsylvania. The majority of the settlers willingly accepted this legal determination, some more reluctantly than others. By 1788, William was not only respectful of the Decree, but an avid defender, as shown in the following account. Colonel Timothy PICKERING was abducted by a group of “wild Yankee” settlers. In early June, “four companies of militia were ordered out” for his rescue. “The company from Wilkesbarre was under the command of Captain William ROSS.” William, having recently been a rebel, himself, was now an effectual vindicator of the violated law! An encounter occurred on the Susquehanna River near Meshoppen (about 30 miles northwest of Scranton) on July 4, 1788. In the ensuing action, “Captain ROSS received a severe wound in the body, the ball passing through him, lodged in the skin of the opposite side, from which it was some time after extracted. He was removed with all possible care to Wilkesbarre, where he slowly recovered.”
“Recovering, his gallant services were so highly estimated that the Executive Council of the state (of Pennsylvania) presented him with an elegant sword with an appropriate inscription: ‘Capt. Wm. Ross, The Supreme Executive Council present this mark of their approbation, acquired by your firmness of the Laws of the Commonwealth on the 4th of July, 1788’.”
William returned to New London County, Connecticut, where he married Elizabeth STERLING. Elizabeth was born at Sterling City (Sterling, Connecticut, now; near the Rhode Island border in Windham County), on November 3, 1768, daughter of Samuel STERLING and Elizabeth (PERKINS) STERLING. She died May 16, 1816. Elizabeth had nine brothers and sisters: Irene, born October 17, 1758; Sarah, born December 20, 1761; Caroline, born May 21, 1764; Samuel, born September 17, 1766; James, born December 25, 1770; Ruth, born September 27, 1773; Lucy, born December 9, 1775; Lord, born April 3, 1780; and Hannah, born September 3, 1782. (The last two children, Lord and Hannah, were born of Elizabeth’s father’s second wife, Sarah STOW). Elizabeth was married to William on October 10, 1790, at Lyme (a small town near the coast about fifteen miles southwest of New London). He returned to the Wyoming Valley that same year and purchased Colonel PICKERING’s farm which was described as nothing short of royal, with an impressive white residence. That property, in 1840, was valued at $80,000.
“Having a taste for military affairs, he rose by regular graduations from Major to Brigade Inspector and General in the militia. For twenty years he held the Commission of a Magistrate.”
“In 1803 or ‘4...Colonel ROSS resolved with natural pride...to visit his birth-place in Connecticut. Mounted on a high-spirited and elegant steed, black as jet, with holsters and pistols, his dress elegant though unostentatious, he visited New London County, his native home.”
He was a state senator from 1812-1813 as a Democrat, a position later (1845) occupied by his only son.
On November 10, 1821, he was recognized at the Susquehanna County Agricultural Society's first show as having grown the best acre of wheat. The farm also became a favorite stopping-place for drovers and also served as a place for general public entertainment. The farm was located adjacent to the State Road in Wilkes-Barre.
William “established a family burying-ground, in which he had erected a tablet of marble to the memory of his brothers” and where he, presumably, was buried. Having lived a long and eventful life, he died August 9, 1842. “Every fitting demonstration of respect was paid to his remains; the court adjourning to attend the funeral. One incident was too remarkable not to be noted. A thundercloud arose over the North East mountain, a most unusual place, as the procession moved, and cast its dark shadow over the plains. For some time the repeated peals of thunder were regarded as minute guns from the cannon placed in some proper position. The cloud passed away without rain, and as the train arrived at the mansion house the sun came out again in all its brightness.”
Only one son was born to William and Elizabeth: William Sterling ROSS. The number of daughters is uncertain: one married a man named ATHERTON; a second married a Daniel CURTIS, of Bridgewater; a third, Caroline Ann, married Samuel MAFFETT; and a fourth, Irene, married Peter P. LOOP.