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 Australia, and for a short time in 1863 acted as aide-de-camp to Sir Dominic Daly; he already seems to have contemplated permanent settlement in the colony, and purchased the estate of Highercombe, Gumeracha. But in 1864, on hearing of the outbreak of the war in New Zealand, he obtained a transfer to that colony, and served through the campaign of 1864–5. From July 1865 till 1869 he was stationed chiefly in Victoria. In 1869, on his way to England, he was requested to go to India and discuss the question of providing in South Australia a remount service for the Indian cavalry. At the close of the same year he was attached to the flying columns which dealt with the fenian scare in Ireland; on 12 Feb. 1870 he became commissary-general and was placed in charge of the department of control at Manchester.

On 1 Jan. 1871 Ross retired from the service and returned to South Australia. After leading a comparatively secluded life for some time, carrying on experiments at Highercombe in the making of wine and cider, he came forward to encourage the opening of fresh markets for Australian produce. In 1875, after being defeated for his own district of Gumeracha, Ross entered the assembly as member for Wallaroo. From June 1876 to October 1877 he was treasurer in the Colton ministry. In 1880 he acted for some weeks as deputy-speaker, and on 2 June 1881 (sitting now for his own district, Gumeracha) was unanimously elected speaker of the assembly; he was re-elected session by session till his death, winning universal approbation by his firmness, courtesy, and good humour. He was knighted on 24 May 1886.

Ross was president of the Royal Agricultural Society of South Australia and a member of the council of the university of Adelaide, besides being chairman of the Adelaide Steamship Company and director of other commercial companies. He died at the private hospital, Adelaide, on 27 Dec. 1887, and was accorded a state funeral at St. George's cemetery, Woodforde, on 29 Dec.

Ross married, in 1864, a daughter of John Baker, a member of the South Australian assembly; his wife died in 1867, leaving one son and one daughter.

[Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biogr.; South Australia Advertiser, 28 Dec. 1887; Adelaide Observer, 28 Dec. 1887; official information.] 

ROSS, THOMAS (1575?–1618), libeller, born about 1575, was the third son of John Ross of Craigie in Perthshire, and his wife, Agnes Hepburn. The family had been established at Craigie since the days of David Bruce (, Heraldry, i. 416). Thomas studied at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A., and was laureated on 10 Aug. 1595. Having resolved to enter the ministry, he was licensed by the presbytery of Perth before November 1602, and was presented by James VI on 26 July 1606 to the parish of Cargill in Perthshire. He continued to hold this charge till about 1615, when he resigned it, and went to England, bearing letters from some of the lords of secret council and the bishops, recommending him to James for a scholarship at Oxford. But he was disappointed in his hopes, and, being in a state of great destitution, and perhaps crazed by his misfortunes, in July 1618 he affixed a Latin thesis to the door of St. Mary's, Oxford, to the effect ‘that all Scotsmen ought to be expelled from the court of England, with the exception of his majesty himself, the prince, and a very few others.’ This main thesis was accompanied by ten appendices still more violent in their wording. The paper was instantly taken down by a scholar and conveyed to the vice-chancellor, who readily recognised the writing, because Ross had repeatedly solicited him for a license to beg money to carry him to Paris. Ross was arrested, and by James's order was sent to Edinburgh to be tried. His trial took place on 20 Aug. 1618, and, in spite of a plea of insanity, he was found guilty, and sentenced to have his right hand struck off, and afterwards to be beheaded at the market cross. He was respited till James's pleasure was known, but, as no reprieve was received, the sentence was carried out on 11 Sept. His head was set up on the Nether Bow Port, and his hand on the West Port. A copy of his thesis, translated for the benefit of James I, exists in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh among Sir James Balfour's manuscripts.

Ross has been identified with Thomas Rosa or Ross who published an extremely eulogistic work on James I, entitled ‘Idæa, sive de Jacobi Magnæ Britanniæ Galliæ et Hyberniæ præstantissimi et augustissimi Regis, virtutibus et ornamentis, dilucida enarratio,’ London, 1608, 12mo (British Museum and Bodleian). The evidence as to the identity of the two cannot be considered conclusive.

[Masson's Reg. of the Scottish Privy Council, 1616–19, p. 447; Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. II. ii. 797; Pitcairn's Crim. Trials, iii. 445, 582; Calderwood's Hist. of the Kirk, vii. 336; Balfour's Historical Works, ii. 70; Arnot's Crim. Trials, p. 70.] 

ROSS, THOMAS (d. 1675), poet and politician, a near relative of the writer Alexander Ross (1590–1654) [q. v.], may have received his education at Christ's College,