Alexander Ross (writer)

Alexander Ross
Alexander Ross, 1653 engraving by Pierre Lombart.
Born	c. 1590 Aberdeen, Scotland
Died	1654 (aged 63–64) Bramshill, Hampshire, England
Occupation	Clergyman, translator
Nationality	Scottish
Alma mater	King's College, Aberdeen
Notable works	The Alcoran of Mahomet (the Qur'an), translated into English

Alexander Ross (c. 1590–1654) was a prolific Scottish writer and controversialist. He was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Charles I.

Ross was born in Aberdeen, and entered King's College, Aberdeen, in 1604. About 1616 he succeeded Thomas Parker in the mastership of the free school at Southampton, an appointment which he owed to Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. By 1622 he had been appointed, through William Laud's influence, one of Charles I's chaplains, and in that year appeared The First and Second Book of Questions and Answers upon the Book of Genesis, by Alexander Ross of Aberdeen, preacher at St. Mary's, near Southampton, and one of his Majesty's Chaplains. He was vicar of St. Mary's Church, Carisbrooke in the Isle of Wight from 1634 to his death; he left Southampton in 1642.

In Pansebeia, Ross gave a list of his books, past and to come. He died in 1654 at Bramshill House in Hampshire, where he was living with Sir Andrew Henley, and in the neighbouring Eversley church there are two tablets to his memory. Ross left many legacies, and his books were left to his friend Henley, an executor and guardian to a nephew, William Ross.

Among Ross's friends and patrons were Lewis Watson, 1st Baron Rockingham, John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet, Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and John Evelyn. His correspondence with Henry Oxenden, in English and Latin, is in the British Museum.