Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ros, William de
ROS, WILLIAM de, second Baron Ros (d. 1317), born before 1260, was son of Robert de Ros, first baron Ros of Helmsley or Hamlake, who died in 1285, and Isabel, daughter and heiress of William d'Albini of Belvoir (Calendarium Genealogicum, i. 358). The father was grandson of Robert de Ros, surnamed Furfan [q. v.], son of William de Ros (d. 1258), by his wife Lucia, daughter of Reginald Fitz-Piers, and nephew of Robert de Ros, baron Ros of Wark (d. 1274) [q. v.] On 24 Oct. 1248 Henry III granted a respite for a debt owing from the father to the crown (Excerpta e Rotulis Finium, ii. 42). In 1276–1277 the first baron Ros went by license on a pilgrimage to St. Edmund of Pontigny (Dep.-Keeper of the Public Records, 46th Rep. App. p. 268); he died in 1285 (Calendarium Genealogicum, i. 358), leaving, besides William, a son Robert, and possibly a third son, John de Ros [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle.
William, the second baron, who acquired Belvoir Castle in right of his mother, first appears as a member of the king's suite in his expedition to Wales in 1277 (Deputy-Keeper of Publ. Rec. 46th Rep. p. 268). In June 1291 he was in Scotland on the king's service (Cal. of Patent Rolls, Edward I, p. 433), and also appeared among the claimants to the Scottish crown on account of the marriage of his great-grandfather, Robert de Ros, called Furfan, with Isabella, daughter of William the Lion (Rymer, new edit. ii. 75; Rishanger, p. 125). When his petition came to be examined on Friday, 7 Nov. 1292, he said his advisers were not present, and received a respite till the morrow. On Sunday, 9 Nov. he withdrew his claim (‘Annales Regni Scotiæ’ in Rishanger, p. 276). In 1296 his cousin, Robert de Ros of Wark, son of Robert de Ros (d. 1274) [q. v.], fled into Scotland and joined the Scots. William asked for reinforcements to defend Wark Castle. These were sent by the king, but were surprised and cut to pieces by Robert (Rishanger, pp. 155–6). William received the confiscated lands of his cousin, and seems to have remained faithful. He was in Gascony in the king's service on 24 Jan. 1297, and deputed the guardianship of Wark Castle to his brother Robert (Stevenson, Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, ii. 161–2). He joined in the letter of the barons from Lincoln to the pope in 1301, in which they asserted Edward's rights over Scotland, and disputed Boniface VIII's right to interfere (‘Annales Londonienses’ in Stubbs's Chron. of Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 123). On 8 Nov. 1307 he and Robert, earl of Angus, were appointed jointly and severally to defend the county of Northumberland against the incursions of the Scots (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. II, 1307–13, p. 14). On 6 Aug. 1309 he joined in the letter to the pope from Stamford on ecclesiastical abuses (Annales Londonienses, i. 162). Archbishop Greenfield summoned him to a council at York on 1 Jan. 1315 to devise means of resistance to the threatened Scottish invasion after the defeat of Bannockburn, and to another on the Monday after Ascension day of the same year (5 May) (Letters from the Northern Registers, i. 237, 247).
William died in 1317. On 10 June 1309 he gave the manor of Warter to the Augustinian priory of Warter, East Riding of Yorkshire (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. II, 1307–13, p. 161). He seems to have also been a benefactor of the Cistercian abbey of Thornton in Lincolnshire, and of the Augustinian priory of Pentney in Norfolk (Calendarium Genealogicum, ii. 699, 719).
He married Maud, daughter and coheiress of John de Vaux of Walton, Norfolk, leaving three sons—William, John (see below), and Thomas—and three daughters: Agnes, Margaret, and Matilda. He was succeeded by his eldest son, William, third baron Ros (d. 1342), whose son William, fourth baron Ros (1326–1352), by Margaret, daughter of Ralph Neville, accompanied Edward III to France in 1346, was knighted by the king at La Hogue, and died in Palestine in 1352 (Adam de Murimuth, p. 200; Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke, ed. Thompson, p. 79; Baker, Northamptonshire, i. 269).
William's second son, John de Ros, Baron Ros (d. 1338), admiral, was in 1322 with Edward II at Byland as one of his ‘secretarii et familiarii’ when Edward was surprised and nearly captured by the Scots (‘Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon’ in Stubbs's Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II, ii. 79). He afterwards joined the court party, who were opposed to Edward II, and accompanied Queen Isabella when she landed at Harwich on 24 Sept. 1326 (ib. ii. 86). In the new reign he became seneschal of the royal household, an office similar to that which had been held by his ancestor Robert (d. 1274) (‘Annales Paulini’ in Stubbs's Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 332). He stood bail for his wife's nephew Hugh, son of Hugh le Despencer, who was pardoned by Edward III. In 1337 he and Robert de Ufford (afterwards Earl of Suffolk) [q. v.] were appointed admirals jointly and severally of the fleets from the mouth of the Thames northwards, with power of impressing men by force (Rymer, new edit., ii. 956). He was ordered to escort to France the embassy which Edward was sending thither, consisting of Henry, bishop of Lincoln, and the earls of Salisbury and Huntingdon, as it was rumoured that pirates and others of the king's enemies had planned their capture (ib. ii. 975; Hemingburgh, ii. 313–14). This task he successfully accomplished. On his return he fell in with two ships from Flanders carrying a large number of Scots, which he captured. He died without issue in 1338.
[Authorities cited in text: Baker's Northamptonshire; Dugdale's Baronage of England; Longman's Edward III.]