BFHA-RC-000010
Research record and source registry for Edward Ball. This archive entry preserves the corresponding publication section for website research review.
Publication excerpt:
EDWARD BALL: Bartholomew; William, Sr. Edward Ball, son of Bartholomew Ball and wife, Elizabeth Henlen, was born in Prince Frederick Winyaw Parish, old Craven County, South Carolina, during February 1744, and was baptized 29 October 1745. Prince Frederick Winyaw Parish was located roughly where Williamsburg County is now. Edward grew up there and in the Queensborough Township area located in present day Florence -Darlington-Marion Counties area. 1 In the book HISTORY AND PUBLISHED RECORDS OF THE MIDWAY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, LIBERTY COUNTY, GEORGIA; page 274, by James Stacy, is the statement that Edward Ball was from Virginia. There is no source reference for this statement. The above record of Edward’s birth dispels any such information. Nothing is known of Edward’s early life but in February of 1767, at age 23, Edward filed on 100 acres of land “on the waters of the Great Pee Dee, being in Craven County, state of South Carolina and bounded southeast and northeast by land laid out to Bartholomew Ball and all other sides by vacant lands.” 2 There is no record that tells of the disposal of this 100 acres of land filed on by Edward in 1767, but in December of 1768, Edward had moved to Liberty County, Georgia and had petitioned for 200 acres of land, “He has been in Liberty County for one year from the Provence of South Carolina, and has two slaves.” These 200 acres were located between the Satilla River and St. Mary’s River, 5 miles south of Cowston's Bluff, surrounded on all sides by vacant lands. The petition was granted. 3 In November of 1769 he petitioned for another 300 acres of land because he now had 8 slaves, an addition of 6, and he was entitled to 50 acres per slave. He filed for 200 acres on a branch of the St. Mary’s River and another 100 acres about one half mile north. Edward was supposed to file on this land and register with the registrar’s office in order to be put on the tax roll, census roll, voting roll, etc. within seven months of this date; but he failed to do so, and the grant was voided. He applied again during 1771 and the land was granted again and this time Edward complied with the law and registered with the Registrar’s Office. 4 On January 21, 1772, Edward Ball married Rebecca (Baker) Jones, a widow with three children, in the Congregational Church, at Midway, Liberty County, Georgia. 5 Rebecca was a daughter of William Baker, Sr. and wife Sarah Osgood and a sister of Sarah Elizabeth Baker, wife of Sampson Ball, a brother of Edward Ball, who came with Edward in 1767 to Liberty County from Craven County, South Carolina. William Baker, Sr. was an Elder in the Congregational Church located at Midway and was involved in the movement of the Church from Dorchester, South Carolina; and may have been involved in the move of the Church from Dorchester, Mass. to South Carolina. 6 In 1773, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born to Edward and Rebecca Ball. 7 Edward also petitioned for an additional 100 acres of land in St. Mary’s Parish because he now had two additional people in his household, a wife and a daughter. Each was entitled to 50 acres of land. 8 On 30 August 1773, an indenture was signed by Edward Ball and his wife, Rebecca, to sell to Edward Way, a plantation or tract of land of 500 acres for 50 lbs, lawful money of the Province, located in St. Mary’s Parish that William Baker, father of Rebecca, had willed to Rebecca.9 Two doctors, James Dunwoody and Nathan Brownson, were partners in medical practice. They dissolved their partnership and divided up the accounts of their patients. One of the patients was Edward Ball. 1 0 On the first of December 1773, Edward witnessed the Will of Edward Splatt of St. John’s Parish. Lyman Hall and Joseph Bacon were the other witnesses. 11 Elizabeth, the first born of Edward and Rebecca, was baptized 16 April 1774 into the Congregational Church at Midway, Liberty County, Georgia. 1 2 It was about this time that Edward joined the Congregational Church where he and Rebecca were married and where his first born child had been baptized and registered.
[Excerpt; the full publication section is preserved in the BFHA source registry document.]