Clan Ross
also Clan Ross, Mac in tSagart
The promontory clan — earls of the North.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Clan Ross
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Clan Ross.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
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Stake your name →Motto
Spem successus alit
— Success nourishes hope
What does the Ross name mean?
From the Gaelic Ros — a promontory or peninsula. The name is locative for the great northern peninsula of Easter Ross and Wester Ross between the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths. The earldom of Ross was created in the 12th century for Ferchar Mac in tSagart ('son of the priest'), and the Mac in tSagart line — Anglicised in time as Ross — held the earldom into the 14th century. The clan's later chiefs descend from Hugh Ross of Balnagown.
The history of Clan Ross
Ferchar Mac in tSagart was made Earl of Ross by Alexander II in 1226 for his military service against the MacWilliam claimants to the Scottish throne. Through the 13th and 14th centuries the Rosses of Ross were among the principal northern magnates of Scotland — building strongholds at Delny, Dingwall and Tarradale, and later Balnagown. The earldom was conveyed in 1372 to the Lord of the Isles by the marriage of Euphemia Ross to Donald MacDonald, ending the direct Ross line of earls; the clan's chiefly line continued under the Balnagown branch.
Sir John Ross of Hamilton (1777–1856) led the 1818 Royal Navy Arctic expedition that re-confirmed the existence of Baffin Bay and probed the entrance to Lancaster Sound — the basis of all subsequent Northwest Passage attempts. His nephew Sir James Clark Ross (1800–1862) led the 1839–43 Antarctic expedition that mapped the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf and Ross Island — every modern Antarctic feature so named carries the family name. Marion Ross (b. 1928), the Watertown, Minnesota actress who played Marion Cunningham on Happy Days, was Scottish-American Ross on her paternal side.
Notable bearers of the Ross name
- Sir John Ross (1777–1856) — Arctic explorer, Royal Navy
- Sir James Clark Ross (1800–1862) — Antarctic explorer; Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf bear his name
- Marion Ross (b. 1928) — American actress (Happy Days)