Person:James Ross (4)

James was one of the surviving soldiers of Charles II's Scotch army made prisoners at the Battle of Worcester, 3 September 1651 by Cromwell. After the battle, Cromwell was greatly exercised to find sustenance for them, and to keep them under restraint as a potential source of danger. Many died of pestilence and, as a measure of relief, many were sent to Boston as redemptioners on such terms that they soon acquired their freedom.

John Cotton, the minister of Boston, wrote to Cromwell in 1651, that they were kindly used, having been sold for a limited servitude in a country where their labor was in such demand that they were not ill-rewarded.

These people, rich in the love of freedom of a highland race, became a potent factor in the development of the new country, and later generations contributed generously to the fighting forces of the revolution. They have had many distinguished in America, among whom may be named: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Governor Claffin of Massachusetts and Governor Black of New York.

James Ross was living in Sudbury, Mass. before 5 Dec 1658 when he married Mary Goodnow, daughter of Thomas and Ann Goodnow.

Ref: Directory of Scots banished to the American Plantations 1650-1775

The age old antipathy between the English and Scots broke out into war in 1649. By 1652 over 500 Scottish prisoners from Dunbar and Worcester had been transported as servants to MA Bay. By 1680 only some 120 remained. During the 1650s they certainly made their presence felt, but as much for their savage violence as their sexual indiscipline. Thus James Ross, the father of Mary Goodenow's bastard, had received heavy punishment of thirty-nine stripes for "shameful abuse and violence towards his master."

Ref: Whitney, Wyne, and Allied Families: Genealogical and Biographical by Mary Catherine Wyne Whitney.

Mary GOODNOW and James ROSS had the following children:

+40i.Mary ROSS.
+41ii.Thomas ROSS.
+42iii.James ROSS.
+43iv.Jane ROSS. descends to Shirley Humphreys
+44v.Dorothy ROSS.
+45vi.Sarah ROSS.
+46vii.Elizabeth ROSS.
+47viii.Susanna ROSS.
+48ix.Hanah ROSS.
+49x.Daniel ROSS.

!Birth and Death dates copied from genealogy records prepared by Fern Russell

Willis, now in possession of Carol Willis Gale, Mesa, AZ.

!Marriage date researched by Kimber Norton Blatter, Fresno, CA.

1. ↑ James Ross, in Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   3:577.

   JAMES, Sudbury, by w. Mary had Mary, b. 25 Dec. 1656. He, or the succeed, may have been that soldier, whose w. Mary, in the spring, of 1676, says her h. went to Narraganset, under Capt. Mosely, of course in Dec. bef. was near 70 yrs. old, was still in the serv. and his fam. suffer. so that she beg. for his release. Sudbury James had d. Dorothy, wh. m. 11 Apr. 1687, Eliezer Whitney from Watertown.

2. ↑ Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903)
   325.

   ROSS, James, (died) Sept. 18, 1690 [Middlesex County record, East Cambridge].