He had been Ketch's assistant during the period of the Bloody Assizes. When Ketch was imprisoned for "affronting" a London sheriff, Rose was appointed in his place. A few months after taking over Rose was arrested for robbery, after he and another man had broken into the house of a William Barnet and stolen "a Cambler coat and other apparrel".[2] He was hanged at Tyburn on 28 May 1686, following which Ketch was reinstated.