The younger son of Elizabeth Wood and her husband, John Rose, minister of Birse, he was born in 1634.
Rose's position in the church improved when he was moved to the nearby parish of Old Deer in Autumn 1663.
However, Rose was not to be Bishop of Galloway for long, for in October of the same year he succeeded Burnet as Archbishop of Glasgow.
Rose was formally installed as Archbishop of St Andrews and Primate of Scotland on 25 December 1684.
He died at Campbell's Close in Canongate, Edinburgh, and was buried in the graveyard of the church of Restalrig.