William Ross (b. circa 1800 - d. 1882)
MSA SC 5496-050635
War of 1812 Escaped Slave, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1814
Biography:
William Ross, usually called Rolla, was born into slavery around 1800.
A "stout healthy lad ... accustomed to farm work," Ross was among Lewis
Neth's five slaves1 in 1810. He worked on Neth's farm south
of Annapolis, Primrose Hill. A wealthy merchant, Lewis Neth 
also
operated a European imports store near the Annapolis dock. On the night
of December 11, 1814, Ross escaped from Primrose Hill to the British ship
Menelaus,
which was anchored in the Annapolis harbor.2 The Maryland
Gazette in Annapolis printed a
news
item the following week, reporting "between twenty or thirty" slaves
who had also absconded on the vessel.3 An American prisoner
of war, a Captain Rich, saw Ross on board the Menelaus with the
slave Thomas, who had run away from Henrietta
Ogle.4 Both were "waiting" in the cabin, likely serving
as cabin boys. Lewis Neth Jr. later boarded the
Menelaus, under
the command of Captain Edward Dix. Although he found William Ross among
other slave refugees on the ship, Ross declined Neth's invitation to return.
In 1821, Lewis Neth Jr. testified that Ross had "entered into the British service, and wrote to his Mother, that he had shipped himself on board of one of his majesty's ships and was on the India Station."5 Although the British recruited many slaves to fight the Americans, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane of the Royal Navy had also received orders from Britain to recruit refugee slaves for West Indian regiments.6
The details of Ross's life after his escape from Maryland had remained unknown to the Archives until 2011. Christine Hampton, one of his direct descendants, graciously contacted the Archives with well-substantiated research revealing Ross's naval service and his life in England.7
Royal Navy records show that William Ross, under the name Rolla Ross, found a career in British naval service. He joined the HMS Iphegenia at Halifax, and served on that ship from September 16, 1815 to April 24, 1818, surviving the fever that killed eighty-three men during the ship's time in the West Indies.9 He also served on the HMS Ferret from August 15, 1818 to March 1, 1819, and on the HMS Helicon from March 2, 1819 to May 15, 1821, first as an able seaman and then as captain of the hold. On May 16, 1821 — the day after his tour on the Helicon ended — he married Mary Ann Gloyne in the Stoke Damerel Parish in Plymouth, England.10 Mary Ann was born in New Passage in Devonport, Plymouth.11 Their first child, Caroline, was born around 1822.12
By the time of Caroline's birth, Ross was serving on the HMS Seringapatam. He worked on the ship as an able seaman from 1821 to February 5, 1824. He served on the HMS Ocean from February 18, 1824 to May 15, 1830, again as captain of the hold, and on the HMS Caledonian May 5, 1830 to January 6, 1830. From February 6, 1830 to August 13, 1831, Ross served on the HMS Kent.
Ross then joined the crew of the HMS Pike on January 5, 1832 as an able seaman. He was soon part of the gun crew, in which he achieved the rank of 2nd master and then gun master. Unfortunately, the Pike wrecked on the Pelican Reef in Jamaica in February 1836. Ross arrived in England on June 6, 1836, but was back at sea again by June 25, 1836, on the HMS Skylark until October 20, 1836, and then on the HMS Blazer from October 21, 1836 to June 25, 1840. His service took him to the East Indies, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Spain, and England. When he was paid off on June 25, 1840, he had achieved the rank of ship's corporal and given over thirty years of naval service. That year, the admiralty bestowed Ross with a medal and gratuity.13 Ross later said that he had achieved the rank of Master at Arms, a term often used interchangeably with Ship's Coporal.14 In order to be promoted to that position, he would have had to meet certain requirements, as later described in The Queen's Regulations and the Admiralty Instructions for the Government of Her Majesty's Naval Service in 1862:
When first nominated, he is to undergo an examination by the Captain and Naval Instructor of the Flag Ship at Woolrich, Sheerness, Portsmouth, or Devonport. To qualify a man for this rating, he must produce certificates of servitude and good conduct for three years in the Navy, Army, or Police force, ... be active intelligent, and free from any physical inefficiency,—able to keep accounts correctly, and to write sufficiently well to keep a defaulters' book—and be not under 30 years of age, nor above 40, on first appointment to the force. The Captain must be very careful not to select for this rating any unworthy or incompetent person.15Ross and his wife Mary settled in Southampton, England. They had one more daughter, Catherine (b. circa 1841).16 By 1861, three grandchildren also lived in the Ross household. Interestingly, Ross claimed increasingly earlier birth years in each successive census. The 1871 census listed William "Rolla" Ross as an
eighty-year-old
military pensioner (birth date of 1791), although he was likely closer
to seventy at the time. It recorded his birthplace as Halifax, Nova Scotia,
which was actually the location from which he had joined the HMS Iphegenia
in 1815.17 In 1881, the widowed Ross claimed to be 100 year
old (birth date of 1781), and was listed as a "Retired Master of Arms."
He gave Eastern Ferry, Canada, as his birthplace.18 Ross may
have begun giving Canada as his birthplace for protection. Since his escape
in 1814, he had been a fugitive slave for fifty years until Maryland abolished
slavery in 1864.
Ross died on April 6, 1882, and was buried in Southampton Old Cemetery, section N82, grave number 268. His grave lies next to those of his wife Mary and their daughter Caroline.19 Ross had claimed the age of 108 at the time of his death (birth date of 1774), although he was more likely in his early eighties. He was mentioned in The Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette shortly after his death:
...the Southampton papers of last week record two cases of centenarians which appear to be genuine. The first case is that of an old man named Rolla Ross, who died at Southampton last week, and whose age was registered as 108 years, the surviving relatives stating that the fact can be proved by indisputable evidence.20Many of Ross's descendants still live in Southampton and other areas of England to this day.21
3. Claim
of Lewis Neth.
3.
Untitled.
Maryland Gazette and Political Intelligencer 22 December
1814: 2.
4. Claim of Henrietta Margaret Ogle, Anne Arundel County, Case Files. Ca. 1814-28, 3.5 ft., entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
6. Junius P. Rodriguez, ed.,
"Black Freedom Fighters (War of 1812)." Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance
and Rebellion. Vol. 1: A-N (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007) 63.
3.
Hilary McD. Beckles, "'War Dances': Slave Leisure and Anti-Slavery in the
British-Colonised Caribbean," Working Slavery, Pricing freedom: Perspectives
from the Caribbean, Africa, and the African Diaspora (New York, NY:
St. Martin's Press) 237.
3.
Mary R. Bullard,
Cumberland Island: A History (Athens, Georgia:
University of Georgia Press, 2005) 120.
3.
William E. Alt and Betty L. Alt, Black Soldiers, White Wars: Black Warriors
from Antiquity to the Present (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002)
30.
3.
John K. Mahon, The War of 1812 (Gainsville, FL: De Capo Press, 1972)
344.
7. Hampton, Christine. Email Interviews. August 2011.
9. National Archives Public Records
Office, Kew. Admiralty: Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Coastguard and related
services: Officers' and Ratings' Service Records (Series II) Navy Pay Office:
Entry Books of Certificates of Service. ADM 29/26. Royal Navy record, Rolla
Ross.
9.
"The Iphegenia." Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Age of Nelson.
http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1224.
10. Stoke Damerel Parish Records, Plymouth,
England. Marriage record for Rolla Ross and Mary Ann Gloyne, May 16, 1821.
10. England
Census Record for Mary A. Ross, 1851, Hampshire, Southampton, St. Mary,
District 1p, Page 22, Line 9. Ancestry.com.
12. Hampton, Christine. Email Interviews.
August 2011.
11. England
Census Record for Mary A. Ross, 1851, Hampshire, Southampton, St. Mary,
District 1p, Page 22, Line 9. Ancestry.com.
13. Royal Navy record, Rolla Ross.
13. Clowes,
William Claire, The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to
the Present, Vol. 6 (London, UK: Sampson Low, Marston and Company,
1901) 10.
14. The Queen's Regulations and the Admiralty Instructions for the Government of Her Majesty's Naval Service (London, UK: Harrison and Sons, 1862) 82.
15. Ibid.
16. England
Census Record for Mary A. Ross, 1851, Hampshire, Southampton, St. Mary,
District 1p, Page 22, Line 9. Ancestry.com.
16. England
Census Record for Mary A. Ross, 1861, Hampshire, Southampton, Holy Rood,
Page 21, Line 11. Ancestry.com.
19. Hampton, Christine. Email Interviews.
August 2011.
19. England
& Wales, BMD Death Index: 1837-1915. Rolla Ross, Hampshire, Apr-May-Jun
1882. Ancestry.com.
19. Friends
of the Southampton Old Cemetery. http://fosoc.org/the-cemetery/.
20. The Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette Vol. 10 (London, UK: Balliere, Tindall, & Cox, 1882) 167.
20. Hampton, Christine. Email Interviews.
August 2011.
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