Hi Vaughn.
You have mentioned these Wills of Alexander Ross & his sister Jean to me before. I feel bad that I don't have more answers about it yet. But I do think it's very interesting.
I went through all the books of New Jersey Wills that I could find & entered all the Rosses into my database.
https://archive.org/details/documentsrelatin23newjuoft/page/n8
I didn't come across anything that sheds any more light on Alexander Ross & his sister than what you've already told me, so I just kept on going with the project to work through all of the Ross DNA evidence in hopes that it would provide more clues.
This is what I think is interesting so far. You've already hit on some of it.
- Y-DNA says that Isaac Ross, Sr. is a match to George Ross of Elizabethtown. So definitely some relation there.
- Y-DNA also says that James Ross, of Anson County is a match to Isaac Ross & George Ross. So these 3 lines connection somewhere.
- The Y-DNA says that they connect within the last 450 years or so.
- People often say that James Ross, of Anson County is the son of William Griffin Ross, Jr. & Mary "Polly" (Griffin) Ross. The Rev. War pension app of James Ross, of Anson County says that his birth date was 8 Jun 1761 and The biography of Elder Reuben Ross says that the birth date of James, the son of William Griffin Ross, Jr. & Mary "Polly" (Griffin) Ross, is 19 Mar 1769, so not the same James. There are also other discrepancies that support these being 2 different men.
https://revwarapps.org/w5722.pdf#page=2
https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofelder00ross/page/22
- Brashear says that James Ross, of Anson County is the son of William Griffin Ross, Jr.'s brother Hugh Ross, Sr.. He gives lots of evidence pertaining to Anson County that makes this seem plausible.
https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/ross/13112/
Here's the thing, though...
Your James P. Ross, I is thought to be the cousin of William Griffin Ross, Jr. & Hugh Ross, Sr.. And James P. Ross, II & Henry Ross are thought to be the sons of James P. Ross, I. And descendants of these two sons have done the Y-DNA testing.
http://www.thefryingpan.net/charts/ross-mrca-chart-reorganized.html#20
They are not a match to James Ross, of Anson County, Isaac Ross, Sr., & George Ross of Elizabethtown.
http://thefryingpan.net/charts/ross-mrca-chart-reorganized.html#18
So something's up here.
Either James Ross, of Anson County is not related, at all, to James P. Ross, II & Henry Ross. Or James P. Ross, II & Henry Ross somehow inherited a Y-chromosome that wasn't actually Ross. Like.... someone had an affair & these two boys ended up with the Ross name, but don't actually have Ross DNA.
I can't say now exactly what happened. But obviously this casts some doubt on the trees as we have them now.
So, I'm not sure what to make of Alexander Ross & his sister Jean. For a minute, when I first saw that Alexander Ross was a doctor in Jamaica, I thought he was the same person as Andrew Ross, 4th of Balblair, but then I realized it's Alexander, not Andrew. I thought maybe we had a connection to Balblair for a second.
The DNA seems to be creating as many questions as it's answering.
But I think the Mathesons is a great piece that might help us here.
James Ross, of Anson County, Isaac Ross, Sr., & George Ross of Elizabethtown all match descendants of Chief of Clan Murdoch Buidhe Matheson. And the DNA says that the connection is within the last 450 years, so not as far back as we might expect.
Descendants of other Scottish Prisoners of War are also matches to this group...
George Brush/Bruce of Woburn, William Thompson, of Kittery, & Alexander Tompson who lived somewhere near Wenham, Essex County, Massachusetts.
So, it's very interesting that all of these men with different surnames, but all fighting on the Jacobite side & exiled to America, carry the same Y-chromosome. How did that happen?
So, James Ross, of Anson County, Isaac Ross, Sr., George Ross of Elizabethtown, George Brush/Bruce of Woburn, William Thompson, of Kittery & Chief of Clan Murdoch Buidhe Matheson all descend from the same man who lived within the last 450-500 years.
http://thefryingpan.net/charts/ross-rose-ydna.html#mathesonbruce