John (I) ROSE (ROSS, ROSSE)

A maker of viols and lutes in London about 1560 to 1600. In a collection of airs called " Tripla Concordia," published m London, 1667, by John Carr, is the following advertisement: "There is two chests of viols to be sold, one made by Mr. John Ross, who formerly lived in Bridewell, containing 2 trebles, 3 tenors and one basse: The chest was made in the year 1598." In the instrument known as Queen Elizabeth's lute, in reality a species of guitar known as cither, with ten strings to be tuned in five pairs of unisons, is the inscription : "Johannes Rosa, Londini fecit, in Bridwell, the 27th of July, 1580."