Family and Childhood

Abstract

In an autobiographical note which was written in 1916 (Ross Archives, hereafter &4, 1916.05.02, 69/005) Sir Ronald Ross claimed that his family’s headquarters was Perthshire, but in his autobiography (Ross, 1923a, hereafter Memoirs, Chapter 1) he said that they could be traced, with others of Clan Ross, to Ross-shire. The outline and traditions of his father’s family reflect the turbulent history of seventeenth and eighteenth century Scotland and like most family traditions they may have gained embroidery in the telling. However, both an article on his father’s career in The Cosmopolitan (1888) and Memoirs agree that the family was settled on estates at Kerse in Ayrshire some generations before him. This would lend credence to his father’s claim that the family was related to Margaret Ross of Balniel, Viscountess Stair, who was the original of Lady Ashton in Scott’s Bride of Lammermoor, as the Stair estates are in the area (Crockett, 1912, p 254).