32 of 56 · Pennsylvania
ROSS
A Lawyer's Second
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
A Tory lawyer who crossed the floor. Conversion is more expensive than birthright.
George Ross · 1730–1779 · Lawyer · judge · uncle to a flag
01
Cross the Floor
1 of 4
Start Tory if that is where the brief put you. Do not end there.
“He served twelve years as Crown prosecutor. His politics were Tory, as was typical of many gentlemen of the bar, until the conflict between the assemblies and Parliament taught him otherwise.”
Biographical account of George Ross · 1774
Conversion is more expensive than birthright. You lose the old room and are never fully trusted in the new one. Do it anyway when the facts have moved.
Cross when you can still be of use, not when the parade has passed.
“George Ross reportedly did not support independence until 1774. Thereafter he was of the provincial conference, the Committee of Safety, and the Congress.”
Political record of George Ross · 1774
Two years of heat, then the parchment. Late is still on time if you arrive with a profession and a county. Late is fatal if you are waiting to be fashionable.
The old clients will notice.
“As Crown prosecutor he had represented the king's interest in Carlisle. He spent the next years representing the other side of the same table.”
Office of Crown prosecutor, then patriot offices · 1776
Same courts, opposite caption. People will call it ambition. Sometimes it is literacy. Read the statute that named you a rebel, then pick a door.
And then sign, so the conversion has a date.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Talk is a mood. Ink is an event. If you have crossed, put the name where they can confiscate the estate. Otherwise you only changed dinner partners.
Cross the floor. Conversion is more expensive than birthright, and better.
“He had been of the proprietary party, and left it.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Left it. A Tory lawyer who crosses pays in friends. Pay. Birthright loyalty is just inertia with a wig.
A converted man must vote louder than a born one. The room doubts you.
“He became a decided friend of the patriot cause.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Decided. Doubt is rational. Answer it with attendance and aye, not with a speech about your journey.
Do not keep a back room in the old party. Burn it.
“He broke with his former connections completely.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Completely. Half-crossed is a spy in everyone's story. Finish the walk.
02
The Brief
2 of 4
Learn the law under a brother, then open your own town.
“He studied law in the office of his brother John in Philadelphia, was admitted at twenty, and opened his practice in Lancaster.”
Legal training of George Ross · 1750
Capital for the reading, county for the living. A bar in Lancaster is a republic in miniature: German farms, English forms, and juries that have to be persuaded in daylight.
Twelve years for the Crown is an education. Spend it.
“He served as Crown prosecutor for twelve years from 1768 toward 1776, and came to understand firsthand the rising conflict between the colonial assemblies and the Parliament.”
Record of his prosecutorial office · 1776
You learn a government's habits by trying its cases. He learned them, then left them. Inside knowledge is a weapon if you are willing to become unwelcome.
Take the Indian brief when the colony asks.
“He undertook negotiations with the northwestern Indians on behalf of his colony, a lawyer's errand into a country that did not run on writs.”
Pennsylvania Indian negotiations · 1776
Not every brief is a courtroom. Some are a path, a translator, a patience. Carry the profession into the woods. It travels if you let it.
Die on a bench if the remainder is short.
“In March of 1779 he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Court of Admiralty. He died in that office in July.”
Appointment and death of Judge Ross · 1779
Four months of judging prizes and wrecks. A last useful docket. If the body is failing, sit where the law still needs a signature. Then stop.
Keep the brief. A cause needs attorneys, not only colonels.
“He was an able lawyer, and served in that character.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
That character. Muskets are not the only enlistment. File the papers that make a confiscation legal. That is a kind of gunnery.
A Crown prosecutor's mind, turned, is a gift. Turn it all the way.
“He had practiced on the other side, and knew its moves.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Knew its moves. Use them. Do not pretend you never learned the dark arts. Redeem them in court.
Short sentences win juries and congresses.
“He was clear, and not copious.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Not copious. Copious is how a brief hides. Strip it.
03
The Family Trade
3 of 4
A minister's house is a first school. Use it.
“His father was a clergyman educated at Edinburgh. The children were given a classical education at home, and the law came after.”
Family background of George Ross · 1730
No academy required if the table talks. Languages, then writs. Inheritance here is a syllabus, not a coat of arms. Take the syllabus.
The niece will be the famous one. Do your own signing anyway.
“John Ross, his brother's son in the law's tangle of the house, married Betsy Griscom. The flag story attached itself to her name, and his remained a signature on a parchment.”
Ross family connections · 1777
Uncle to a legend. Fine. Legends are interior decoration. The Declaration is a legal instrument. Prefer the instrument. Let the flag have the parlor.
Sons in the line are a second brief.
“His son James raised the first company of troops in Lancaster County in 1775 and became a lieutenant-colonel in the Eighth Pennsylvania.”
Ross family military record · 1775
You crossed the floor. They enlisted. That is how a conversion becomes a house style. Do not require them to make the same speech. Require the same direction.
Bury the wife, then finish the public work.
“Ann Lawler Ross died in May of 1773, more than three years before the signing. She may never have known his change of heart.”
The conversion came after the funeral. Private life does not wait for the republic, and the republic does not wait for grief. Carry both calendars.
The family trade can include a flag. Let it.
“He was uncle to the woman who, by tradition, sewed a flag.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
By tradition. Even traditions need a lawyer in the family. Be the dull relative who makes the bright one possible.
Do not require your kin to orate. Require them to show up.
“The Ross connection was useful to the cause in more than one shop.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
More than one shop. A family is a small battalion if you stop being delicate about it.
Nephews will mythologize you. Work anyway.
“He did not live to hear the stories.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Did not live. Good. Work that needs stories to start will not start. Start.
04
A Short Remainder
4 of 4
Gout will not adjourn the war. Work until it does.
“He was re-elected to Congress in 1777 and resigned before the close, his health already failing. Gout took the rest.”
Congressional service and illness of George Ross · 1777
Three years from ink to grave. Forty-nine. The remainder is not a career. It is a coda. Spend it as if the clock were honest, because it is.
Vice-president of a state convention is still a chair.
“He sat as vice-president of the first constitutional convention for Pennsylvania, and helped to put a government on the province he had just unkinged.”
Pennsylvania convention · 1776
Signing is a morning. Constituting is the afternoon. He stayed for the afternoon. A short remainder is long enough for that if you do not waste it on being tired in public.
Admiralty is a good last docket.
“He died in July 1779, in the Court of Admiralty, of a severe gout, and was buried at Christ Church, Philadelphia.”
Death and burial of George Ross · 1779
Prizes, cargoes, the law of the water. A Crown prosecutor's mind, turned. Finish in a specialty you already own. Do not invent a new self for the last four months.
Late to the cause, early to the ground. Still counts.
“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
He had been the king's man. He had three years as the country's. The pledge does not prorate. You are in or you are out. He got in. The stone at Christ Church is not a caveat.
A short remainder is long enough to constitute a state.
“He sat as vice-president of Pennsylvania's convention, and died in 1779.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Convention, then grave. Three years from ink. Spend a short remainder on a charter, not on being tired in public.
Finish in the court you already know.
“He died of a severe gout, in the Court of Admiralty.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
In court. A good last docket. Finish in a specialty you already own.
The pledge does not prorate. Get in.
“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
He had been the king's man. He had three years as the country's. The pledge does not prorate. Get in.