Sir John Rose, the 1st Baronet, was born on August 2, 1820, in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

He was a lawyer, financier, politician, and diplomat. He was educated at Udny Academy and King’s College in Aberdeen. In 1836, he immigrated to Quebec with his parents, settling at Huntingdon, where he was a teacher for a brief period. He studied law in Montreal and was called to the bar in 1842. He soon built a thriving practice in commercial law. From 1857 until 1867, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada and a member of the Executive Council from 1858 until 1861. He was Lower Canada Solicitor General (1857-1859) and acted as a commissioner of public works and Receiver General. His major public activity was diplomatic, assisting in the settlement of the HBC claims for losses incurred by the cession of lands to the United States in the Oregon Territory. In 1864, the British government appointed him commissioner to settle these claims. In 1867, Rose was elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the electoral district of Huntingdon, Quebec, and was appointed Minister of Finance in the government of John A. Macdonald. He resigned from Parliament in 1869 to return to private life with the banking firm of Morton, Rose and Co. He was a delegate to the London Conference of 1866. In 1869, Rose moved to England to practise law and acted as an unofficial representative of the Canadian government. He also sat on several Royal Commissions in Britain and became a baronet in 1872 and a member of the Imperial Privy Council in 1886.

In 1843, he married Charlotte Temple (1813–1883), and in 1887, he married Julia Charlotte Sophia Stewart-Mackenzie (1846–1937). He died on August 24, 1888, in Ord, Highland, Scotland.