John Merry Ross

John Merry Ross (1833–1883) was Scottish academic author and teacher. He was an expert on British poetry.

Life

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Ross was born in Kilmarnock on 21 April 1833, the third son of George Ross and his wife Agnes Merry.[1] He was educated at Kilmarnock Academy. In 1851 he matriculated at Glasgow University studying English Literature and Classics.[2]

Ross trained as a United Presbyterian minister but quit after three terms to instead be sub-editor of Chambers Encyclopedia. In 1866 he was appointed Senior English Master at the Royal High School, Edinburgh.[1] In 1874 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Glasgow University.[3]

He contributed a section on Scotland's language and literature to Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1901) by Francis Hindes Groome.[4]

Ross lived his final years at 30 Great King Street in Edinburgh's Second New Town.[5] He died in Edinburgh on 3 February 1883, aged 49,[1] and was buried in Warriston Cemetery.

Publications

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  • The Poetical Works of William Cowper (1863)
  • Poems of John Milton (1871)
  • Scottish History and Literature to the Period of the Reformation

References

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  1. ^ a b c Ross, John Merry (1833–1883), Richard. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24128. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ "John Merry Ross".
  3. ^ "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of John Merry Ross".
  4. ^ Groome, Francis Hindes (1885). Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Staistical, Biographical and Historical. T. C. Jack.
  5. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1882