Cross was born in Red Scar, near Preston, Lancashire, the fifth child and third son of William Cross JP (1771–1827), Deputy Prothonotary for the Court of Common Pleas at Lancaster and landed proprietor, and his wife Ellen, daughter of Edward Chaffers.

He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1844, and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1849, attaching himself to the Northern Circuit.

[3] In 1868 Cross was elected for South West Lancashire, topping the poll and defeating Gladstone, and continued to represent this constituency until 1885.

[4] Cross was Home Secretary in Disraeli's second government (1874–1880), to which post he had been appointed without first holding junior office.

He was very briefly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Salisbury's third government (1895–1902) before being elevated to the sinecure post Lord Privy Seal.

"[10] In June 1909, when he was senior Director of the GCR, that railway named one of its class 8D express passenger locomotives The Rt.