BFHA-RC-000011
Research record and source registry for William F. Ball. This archive entry preserves the corresponding publication section for website research review.
Publication excerpt:
WILLIAM F. BALL: Edward, Bartholomew; William, Sr. William F. Ball was born 31 May 1777 in Liberty County, Georgia. His Parents were Edward Ball and wife Rebecca (Baker) Jones, a widow. He was baptized into the Congregational Church at Midway, Liberty County, 22 June 1777. William was an only child at the time of his birth. A sister, Elizabeth, born 1774 had died in 1774 and a brother, Edward, born in 1775, had died in infancy also. When William was barely two years old, his mother fled back to South Carolina with him to be safe from the invading British Army in that part of Georgia. It was at this time also that his father, Edward Ball, a Second Lieutenant in Captain John Bacon’s Company of Riflemen, was killed in defense of their land and country from the British. William’s mother, Rebecca, was pregnant at the time of the trip back to South Carolina and, while there, she gave birth to twin sons, Sampson Edward Ball and John Osgood Ball, of whom only Sampson Edward Ball lived. During her stay in South Carolina, Rebecca, knowing of the death of her husband, married Thomas Quarterman of Liberty County, Georgia, who had fled Georgia also and who was a lifelong friend and neighbor of Rebecca and whose wife had died five years previously. William, therefore, never knew his real/natural father. Upon their return to Liberty County, Georgia, the marriage of Rebecca and Thomas Quarterman was recorded in the Congregational Church Register at Midway along with the births of Sampson Edward and John Osgood Ball.1 On the night of 13 November 1788, a party of Creek Indians attacked the plantation of Edward Ball. William was seven years of age, having celebrated his birthday the 31st of May 1788. Georgia Personally appeared before me, John Elliott, Liberty County, one of the Justices assigned to keep the peace, Andrew Walthour; who being duly sworn on the holy evangelistof Almighty God, saith that on the night of the 13th of November, one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight, a party of Indians did attack him, the said Andrew Walthour, in his house, killed three Negroes Viz. January a prime fellow, Miley, a valuable wench and her child about four years old and at the same time carried away a Negro fellow named Cooper, his son Jack, about nine years of age, and Cate, his daughter about seven years of age, Rachell, a wench and her two children: Nancy about six years of age, the other, a girl of five years of age; and the deponent further saith that to the best of his knowledge and belief, that three Negros (that is) Pearo, Isaac and Orange; who absented themselves about seven weeks before from the said deponent; were also present with the said party of Indians on the night of the attack on him, the said deponent, and the whole of the said Negroes are the property of Edward Ball’s estate and further this deponent saith not Sworn before me this Andrew Walthour day of August 1789 John Elliott, J.P. 3 killed Endorsed/Estate of Edward Ball As can be seen, the government was almost a year getting around to taking depositions from those who were attacked by the Indians and who suffered losses. The federal government promised that all those who did suffer losses would be compensated. That compensation was 46 years in coming! Edward Ball’s plantation was just one of many, many homes and plantations raided by the Creek Indians. It was a wholesale Indian uprising.2 Nothing more is known of William Ball until the year 1800 and he is twenty-three years of age. His father had left his mother a wealthy woman and a well organized and smooth working business of farming and ranching. The new born nation was flexing its muscles; the sleeping giant was coming awake, and with the return of things to normal, Rebecca prospered even more. It is not known what sort of education William received, but it had to be about the best money could buy. William’s upbringing and education was geared to suit or match his personality and character. He was a refined gentleman, and the profession he chose was that of a lawyer, an attorney at law.
[Excerpt; the full publication section is preserved in the BFHA source registry document.]