John Ross (February 24, 1770 in Solebury,

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, four ...

– January 31, 1834 in Easton,

Northampton County, Pennsylvania Northampton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951. Its county seat is Easton. The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was the c ...

), was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as a Representative to the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Biography

Ross studied law in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1792 and engaged in practice in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River and the Delawa ...

Early career

He served as a member of the

Pennsylvania State House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

in 1800. He was clerk of the orphans’ court and recorder from 1800 to 1803, county register from 1800 to 1809, and burgess of Easton in 1804.

Congress

Ross was elected as a Republican to the

Eleventh In music theory, an eleventh is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a fourth. A perfect eleventh spans 17 and the augmented eleventh 18 semitones, or 10 steps in a diatonic scale. Since there are only seven degrees in a diaton ...

Congress. He was again elected to the Fourteenth and

Fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

Congresses.

Later career

He resigned in 1818 to become president judge of the seventh judicial district of the State. He was transferred to the State supreme bench in 1830 and served until his death.

Family

Ross was married to Mary Ross (1774–1845); they were the parents of Thomas Ross, another congressman.

Death and burial

He was buried in a private cemetery on the family estate, " Ross Common Manor", Ross Township, Pennsylvania. He was buried next to his wife.

Legacy

Ross Common Manor was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1978.

Sources

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The Political Graveyard
1770 births 1834 deaths Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania state court judges Politicians from Bucks County, Pennsylvania Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives {{Pennsylvania-state-judge-stub