ROSS, Horatio (1801-1886), of Rossie Castle, Kincardine

Renowned as ‘The King of Sportsmen’, Ross was a moderate Reformer during his short parliamentary career, but later became a staunch partisan of Peel, to whom he regularly sent game, including grouse and venison.1The Times, 7 Dec. 1886; Horatio Ross to Peel, 20 Nov. 1832, 10 Nov. 1842, 9 Dec. 1844, Add. 40403, f. 103, 40518, f. 271, 40555, f. 223. In 1816, Ross had succeeded his father Hercules, a West India merchant who had built Rossie Castle in 1805, but as ‘barrack life proved irksome to him’ he abandoned the army, and won fame for a series of sporting achievements in the 1820s.2‘Ross, Horatio’, HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 1015-16; ‘Ross, Horatio’, DNB (1897), xlix. 264; Forfarshire illustrated; views of gentlemen’s seats, antiquities and scenery (1843), 77-8; F. Boase, Modern English Biography (1901), iii. 298-9; ‘Ross, Horatio’, DNB (1897), xlix. 264-5; C. Wheeler, Sportscrapiana (1868), 49-53, 63-77; Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes (1870), xvii. 1-4.

Elected for Aberdeen Burghs in 1831, Ross supported the Grey ministry’s reform legislation, and was returned for the reconstituted Montrose Burghs at the 1832 general election, after defeating a radical reformer.3‘Ross, Horatio’, HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 1016-17; Aberdeen Journal, 26 Dec. 1832; Caledonian Mercury, 24 Dec. 1832. In Parliament, where he was described as a ‘Whig’ by Dod, Ross reiterated his belief that factory conditions and hours should be set by masters rather than the state, his opinion unaltered by his experience of serving on Sadler’s committee on the issue in 1832.4Hansard, 8 Feb. 1833, vol. 15, c. 392; ibid., 3 Apr. 1833, vol. 17, cc. 90-1; Dod’s parliamentary companion (1833), 155. In a thinly-attended House, he successfully opposed a bill giving tenants the right to kill game without the landlord’s permission, 17 Apr. 1833.5Hansard, 17 Apr. 1833, vol. 17, c. 262. A strong supporter of the Scottish established church, Ross nonetheless seconded a bill to abolish lay patronage, 16 July 1833, which he believed would strengthen the Kirk by removing a source of bitterness.6Hansard, 16 July 1833, vol. 19, cc. 706-09 (at 706-7). Ross’s cautious support for Kirk reform was endorsed by a select committee of the following year, on which he was a silent member.7PP 1834 (572), v. 2-4.

Ross backed Irish coercion, 11 Mar. 1833, but opposed the ballot and shorter parliaments. He regretted his vote for a low fixed duty on corn, 17 May 1833, telling constituents in February 1834, that such a measure ‘would be no protection to the landed interest, and ought never to be mentioned by way of protection’.8Caledonian Mercury, 17 Feb. 1834. Accordingly he voted against Hume’s motion for a low fixed duty, 7 Mar. 1834. Ross did not seek re-election for Montrose at the 1835 general election, but unsuccessfully contested Paisley. Although Ross stressed his past support for burgh and parliamentary reform at the nomination, his private correspondence makes clear that he would have supported the Conservatives if he had been returned.9Caledonian Mercury, 17 Jan. 1835; Ross to Peel, 17 Apr. 1835, Add. 40420, ff. 16-17. He was by now a ‘most furious partisan’ for that party, active at local meetings, and in frequent correspondence with Peel, whom he greatly admired.10Ross to Peel, 9 Nov. 1835, Add. 40425, f. 313; Caledonian Mercury, 1 May 1837, 4 Jan. 1838. In 1841 he was invited by Glasgow’s Conservatives to stand at the general election but when he arrived in that city he found that the party had already put up the lord provost, and so withdrew.11Ross to Peel, 28 June 1841, 5 July 1841, Add. 40429, ff. 432-3, 40485, ff. 50-4. He remained eager to return to Parliament, however, not least because it would allow him to employ ‘my time in a more active & useful manner than I can at present’, though he recognised that opportunities were limited as Scottish Conservatives faced ‘a very uphill struggle’ against Radicalism, especially in urban areas.12Ross to Peel, 16 Feb. 1843, Add. 40525, ff. 27-30.

Ross lived the life of a country laird in the later 1840s and 1850s, selling Rossie Castle in 1853 and moving to Netherley, which he purchased for £33,000.13W. Anderson, The Scottish nation (1867), iii. 368; Burke’s landed gentry (1871), ii. 1192-93. An early enthusiast for photography, in which he maintained an interest, in 1856 Ross helped to establish the Photographic Society of Scotland, becoming its president two years later.14J.A. Doyle, rev. J. Lock, ‘Ross, Horatio (1801-1886)’, www.oxforddnb.com; Photographs by Horatio Ross, 1801-1886, intro. C. Titterington (1993). In the following decade the growth of the volunteer rifle movement rekindled Ross’s interest in competitive shooting. ‘Unsurpassed with a rifle’, Ross was a regular prize winner at the annual Wimbledon tournament in the 1860s, and led the Scottish team, which included three of his sons, in the Elcho Shield competition against England, 1862-73.15Wheeler, Sportscrapiana, 47, 55-7, 98-9. Even in old age he remained a phenomenal marksman, shooting 86 grouse with 89 shots in 1875.16Boase, Modern English Biography, iii. 99. On his death in December 1886 he was succeeded by his eldest son, Horatio Seftenberg Ross.