George Rose

George Rose (17 June 1744 – 13 January 1818) was a British politician. Life Born at Woodside near Brechin, Scotland, Rose was the second son of the Reverend David Rose of Lethnot, of an ancient family of Kilravock, in the County of Nairn, titled Baron of Kilravock by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Donald Rose of Wester Clune (and a descendant of James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews from 1661 to 1679, through his daughter, Isabella). David Rose was said to be the illegitimate son of Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont; no illegitimate son is mentioned by Thomas Finlayson Henderson in Marchmont's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, and George Rose's own entry in that same edition states: 'Later gossip, which made him out a natural son of Lord Marchmont [see Hume, Hugh, third Earl of Marchmont], an apothecary's apprentice, or a purser's clerk, may safely be disregarded'. This indicates the lack of exact detail attached to the claim (as it was in fact George Rose's father David that was said to have been Marchmont's illegitimate son). Nevertheless there was a strong connection with the Marchmonts: Rev. David Rose became tutor to Marchmont's eldest son, Lord Polwarth, and George Rose, on leaving the Royal Navy, was recommended by Marchmont for the position of deputy-chamberlain of the Tally court of the Exchequer, and on Marchmont's death, serving as his sole executor, was bequeathed his library, 'consisting of one of the most curious and valuable collections of manuscripts in Great Britain'. George Rose's son, politician Sir George Henry Rose, published in 1831 'A Selection from the papers of the Earls of Marchmont'. An account of the relationship between the Marchmonts and the Rose family is given in 'The Diaries and Correspondence of the Right Hon. George Rose' (1860), edited by Rev. Leveson Vernon Harcourt. Owing to his father's poverty, at the age of four years Rose was sent to live with a maternal uncle who ran a school at Hampstead; he was educated for a short time at Westminster School before entering the Royal Navy, a service which he left in 1762 after he had been wounded in some fighting in the West Indies. He then obtained a position in the civil service, becoming joint Keeper of the Records in 1772 and secretary to the Board of Taxes in 1777.