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Three generations of the Ross Family had associations with the town.  The progenitors of the family were James Tyrell Ross (1763-1830) and his second wife Charlotte (nee Winbolt, 1800-1892).  She was one of four daughters born to a solicitor James Winbolt and his wife Mary Adams, namely Mary Ann, Charlotte, Emma Edwardina and Jemima.  In 1809 when she was 10 years old Charlotte was living at Abele Tree House with her uncle Dr Thomas Bedcott Adams and his sister Elizabeth Adams (1) and therefore was well aquainted with the town.

Charlotte’s husband, James Ross, had an interesting, if slightly fraught, career as Secretary to Lords Granville and Malmesbury and to Mr Canning.  Some details of his life are contained in a letter that Charlotte wrote to her two surviving children in 1832 (2). 

James’s married sister Sophie Spencer and her husband (3) had built a house in Budleigh Salterton in about 1812 and James and his first wife would come across from their home in Hampshire to visit them.  After his first wife’s death, on a visit to Salterton James made the acquaintance of Charlotte Winbolt and, regardless of a large gap in their ages and of parental disapproval, she married him in Paris at the British Embassy in 1822. They had three children who were all born at Avon Cottage near Ringwood (2); two survived, James Tyrell Carter Ross born 1823 and Emily Jane Ross born 1829. Emily married Edward Beatty and they moved to Canada where their descendants still live.

James Tyrell Ross died in 1830 and at some stage Charlotte moved back to Budleigh Salterton; she was living at Abele Tree House in Fore Street from at least 1866 to 1892 (4).  Charlotte’s sister Jemima was also living in the town in Cliff Terrace from at least 1861 to 1888 when she died and was buried in East Budleigh churchyard.

Charlotte’s son James Tyrell Carter Ross studied medicine at St. George’s Hospital and became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1845.  James was recommended to the East India Company by an uncle, Dr Colin Rogers, who had been a surgeon in Madras, and he was appointed as an assistant surgeon in the Bengal Medical Department (1,5).  He was involved in several campaigns, the 1st and 2nd Sikh Wars, actions on the North West Frontier, and the Indian Mutiny 1857- 9, and served in the Himalayas in the Daphia region.  In 1857 he was on furlough in England where he married Sarah Wadham of Frenchay Bristol at St. Andrew’s Clifton in May of that year.  Because that was the month that the Indian Mutiny broke out, James must have returned to India to assist in the aftermath of the Mutiny because he received the Mutiny Medal (5).  In view of the dangers in India, he left his wife in England to have their first child born in Clifton in 1858. They had a further seven children, William 1859, Guy 1861, Tyrell Carter 1863 (vide infra), Edith born Umballa, India 1865, Walter born Simla, India 1867, Mabel born Budleigh Salterton 1872 and Mary born Clifton 1875.  

In July 1865 James became a Surgeon Major and Hart’s Army List shows that he had the job of Secretary to the Inspector General of Hospitals in 1870.  At the time of the 1871 census he was on leave again and, with his wife and several children, was visiting his mother at Abele Tree House.  Also visiting Abele Tree was Edward Tyrell Beatty (Charlotte’s grandson) born in Canada in 1851.  Edward had been sent over to be educated at Blundell’s School in Tiverton and is recorded in the Register from August 1861 to July 1864.  In 1874, Edward Beatty married Emily Jane Makeig in Budleigh, and in 1878 he was listed in Kelly Directory as being a resident at No. 3 Cliff House, Budleigh Salterton, the house belonging to his great aunt, Jemima Winbolt.  On June 9, 1879, Edward Tyrell Beatty was appointed Curate of Tavistock where he stayed until 1882.  He then went to India where he spent the rest of his working life, dying while on active service with the Tirah Expeditionary Force on 31 Oct 1897, age 46.  He was buried in Rawalpindi (1).

James Tyrell Carter Ross was awarded the C.I.E. (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire) on 1st January 1878 and retired in March of that year with the rank of Surgeon-General (6) with a pension of £550 per annum and an additional annuity of £250. The family returned to England and were living in St. Helens, Hampshire in 1881 and on the Isle of Wight in 1891.  James died in 1897 leaving personal estate valued at £3,946 (1).  His mother Charlotte Ross had died in August 1892 in Budleigh Salterton and his sister Emily died in Canada in 1898.

Tyrell Carter Ross (1863-1939) was the son of James Tyrell Carter Ross and his wife Sarah and when young visited his grandmother Charlotte in Budleigh Salterton, and after a military career he retired to the town.  He was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Manchester Regiment in August 1884 but transferred to the 71st Highland Light Infantry in September.  He was in India by 1888 as Station Staff Officer at Dugshai.  He was promoted to Captain in November 1892 and saw active service with the Malakand Field Force on the North West Frontier of India 1897-98 and later received the India Medal 1895-1902 with Malakand Clasp.  He was adjutant to the Sind Rifles who had their main base in Bombay but had detachments in Hyderabad, Sukker and Jacobabad.  The Sind Rifles were a volunteer force and he remained as adjutant until April 1903 (7).  He was promoted Major and went back to the Highland Light Infantry and was still with them in India in 1905.  He retired from the army as a Major in September 1912. At the outbreak of World War 1 he was reappointed to serve as Retired Officer and General Staff Officer Grade 3 being promoted to GSO Grade 2 in August 1917.  He finally retired in August 1919 (8).

In the 1930s Tyrell lived at the newly built bungalow called Moorpark in Upper Stoneborough Lane, Budleigh Salterton, opposite Lees Road (9).

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon & Jenny Bakken © 2009

(1)Information from Jenny Bakken

(2)Letter from Charlotte Ross OVApedia article

(3)Possibly William Spencer, see Pigot’s Directory 1830 for Budleigh Salterton

(4)Censuses and Town Directories

(5)Hart’s Army List 1873

(6)Hart’s Army List 1888

(7)Engraving on Scottish Officer’s Presentation Broadsword for sale on eBay 2008

(8)Information compiled by Jenny Bakken and Stephen Wood

(9)Who’s Who in Devon 1934

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