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Significant Scots
Alexander Ross |
ROSS, ALEXANDER, frequently confounded with the
former, was the son of James Ross, minister at Strachan, in Kincardineshire,
and afterwards at Aberdeen. The date of his birth has not been ascertained,
but it was probably between 1570 and 1580. He was for some time minister of
the parish of Insch, in 1631 he was appointed minister of Footdee, a
catechetical charge in the close vicinity of Aberdeen; and in 1636, was
chosen one of the ministers of St Nicholas’ church in that city. Ross, like
his colleagues, supported the episcopal form of government, and subscribed
the "Generall Demands" propounded to the commissioners, appointed by the
tables to enforce the subscription of the covenant in Aberdeen The day
before their arrival, he thundered from the pulpit against their
proceedings, and exhorted his hearers to resist their threats. He appears
also to have been in correspondence with Laud. In March 1639, the
covenanting forces approached Aberdeen, and the chiefs of the episcopal
party fled. Ross was unable to quit the town from a sickness, from which he
seems never to have recovered: he died on 11th August, 1639. His only
publication appears to be the following, which is extant in Bishop Forbes’s
Funerals (p. 149 to 178): "A Consolatorie Sermon, preached upon the Death of
the R. R. Father in God, Patrick Forbes, late Bishop of Aberdene. By
Alexander Rosse, Doctour of Divinitie, and Minister of the Evangell in
Aberdene, in Saynct Nicholas Churche there, anno 1635, the xv of Aprill." |
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