John Ross II (abt. 1658)

Born about 1658 in Scotland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in County Donegal, Ireland

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Biography

Removed with his wife and five children to the city of Derry, Ireland from Scotland in 1689. he was in the 1690 battle of the Boyne.

Undoubtedly seeking an escape from the Catholic Protestant embroilment in Scotland, took his family to Ireland settling there in the town of Londonderry. However the conflict he sought to avoid soon caught up with him for in 1690 he found himself fighting with the British forces in the Battle of the Boyne, which was "a victory for the forces of King William III of England over the former King James II fought on the banks of the Boyne River in Ireland on July 11, 1690. James a Roman Catholic, had been forced to abdicate in 1688 and with the help of the French and the Irish, was attempting to win back his throne.

James filing to take Londonderry and Enniskillen, had left Ulster as a bridgehead to William and had wasted his best Irish regiments in England and France. In the Oldbridge area, south of the Boyne, he had assembled about 7000 French infantry, some regular Irish cavalry, and untrained Irish infantry and dragoons all together some 20,000 men.

William led the Dutch Blue Guards, two regiments of French Huguenots, some English, and contingents of Danish, Prussian, Finnish and Swiss mercenaries - all together about 35,000 men. Fearing encirclement by William's cavalry which crossed the Boyne at Rosnaree on the left and at Oldbridge on the right, James fled hastily from the battle and from the country.

The battle was William's but the Jacobite army successfully withdrew to carry on the war for another year in Ireland. The battle of the Boyne is celebrated in Northern Ireland as a victory for the Protestant cause on July 12, which is actually the old style date of the decisive Battle of Aughrim in the following year. (There was approximately ten days difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendar.]

Sources

• *Hawks-Wyley Family Tree
• John Ross