BFHA-RC-000048
William Bartholomew Ball (1767-1841/46) Revolutionary War Patriot By Susan Sloan, MEd., Fayetteville, GA November 2011
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to present proof of the Revolutionary War service of William Bartholomew Ball of Craven County, South Carolina. William Bartholomew Ball According to the William Bartholomew Ball Family Bible, William Bartholomew Ball was born 2 December 1767 32 in South Carolina. On 1 January 1796, he posted bond in Richmond County, Georgia to marry Charlotte Lee. 33 William Ball obtained a passport to travel through the Creek Nation in Georgia on 2 October 1809.
34 He settled on land in Mississippi, granted to him in 1811. 35 He appears on the 1820 census in Jackson County, Mississippi and the 1830 and 1840 censuses in Greene County, Mississippi. On each census his age category indicates a birth date range of 1760-1770. 36 He was last taxed on his land in 1841 and then in 1846 his estate was taxed for the land. 37 This indicates his date of death as sometime between 1841 and 1846. 32 William Bartholomew Ball Family Bible, Letter dated 30 June 1954 from Paul Z. Ball of Greene County, Mississippi to Mrs. Horace B. Slimp, certified as a true copy of the original on 19 May 1986 in Harris County, Texas, by R. C. Ball and notarized by Alton R. Slater, Notary Public 33 Richmond County Marriage Bonds (1785-1849), A-Cupper, unpaginated, alphabetized, Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia, microfilm.
34 Dorothy Williams Potter, Passports of Southeastern Pioneers 1770-1823 (Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, Inc., 1982), page 245. 35 Mississippi Private Land Claim 74, William Ball; Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, NARA, Washington, DC (from Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, FASG, Unraveling Balls of Yarn: Lessons in the Use of a Skeptical Eye [as taught by William Bartholomew Ball and William F. Ball, Esq.], Genealogical Journal, Volume 19, Numbers 1 & 2, 1991, pp. 5-21) 36 Ancestry.com United States Federal Census [database online]: 1820 US Census, Jackson Co., MS, p. 45; 1830 US Census, Greene Co., MS, p. 175; 1840 US Census, Greene Co., MS, p. 149-150. (from Mills, see footnote 4) 37 1841 and 1846 Land Tax Rolls, Greene County, MS, vol.
433, Record Group 29, Department of Archives and History, Jackson, MS, (from Mills, see footnote 4)187 Evidence of Revolutionary Service In South Carolina, proof of Revolutionary Service is documented in a process that produced documents called stub indents. Each claim was audited by the State, producing an “Audited Account” number and each claimant received an “indenture” in the amount to be paid for his service. In 1910, A. S. Salley, Jr., then Secretary of the Historical Commission, edited a book titled Stub Entries to Indents Issued in Payment of Claims Against South Carolina Growing Out of the Revolution. In this book, he listed each claim, by book and number, that the state of South Carolina paid to individuals who filed claims for service or materials provided during the Revolutionary War.
On page 265, he lists an entry dated 24 January 1785, for William Ball, who was paid for “101 days of militia duty as a Serjant (sic) in the militia in 1782.” 38 In 1983, Bobby Gilmer Moss published his book Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution39in which he lists William Ball as serving 101 days as a sergeant in the militia. In 2001, John Lennell Andrews, Jr. published South Carolina Revolutionary War Indents: A Schedule, which provides additional information not included in previous works. Columns indicating the source of the information and the district where the person lived provide further information confirming that this William Ball was William Bartholomew Ball of Craven County, South Carolina.
40 He appears on “Powe’s return” of Cheraw District as being paid for militia duty. Thomas Powe owned land in Craven County, South Carolina, adjacent to Bartholomew Ball, the father of William B. Ball. 41 At the time of the Revolution Cheraw District would have been in Craven County, South Carolina. 42 38 A. S. Salley, Jr., Stub Entries to Indents Issued in Payment of Claims Against South Carolina Growing Out of the Revolution, (Columbia, SC: the State Company, 1910), page 265. The entry reads “No. 104, lib. N, Issued 24 January 1785 to Mr. Wm Ball for Nine pounds & 4 ½ d Sterling, 101 days duty as Serjant (sic) in the militia in 1782.”
39 Bobby Gilmer Moss, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (Baltimore: 1983). Audited Account 1451, Book N, page 104 40 Information on this book is from the website: http://www.olddarlington.scgen.org/review-sc-revolutionary-war.html, accessed 9 November 2011. The website states “this schedule was compiled in 1791 but has remained unpublished until now. It contains summarized information on an individual's claim for services or materials provided during the Revolution...”
41 Thomas Powe’s Plat for 300 acres in Craven County South Carolina Archives Website http://archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/Thumbnails.aspx?:recordId=112413, accessed 1 March 2009 42 The website http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Settlement/craven_county_original.html, accessed 9 November 2011, provides the following information concerning the land location of Craven County, South Carolina: Craven was an original county, created by the Lords Proprietors in 1664. “None of the counties were ever surveyed, but were ambiguous in geographical areas that changed over time.” At its creation, Craven County included land below the Cape Fear River, south to the present areas of Georgia and Florida. In 1682 two new counties, Berkeley and Colleton were created south of Craven. Also, Website188 Conclusion As early as 1636, militia units were established in the towns and counties of the American colonies.
All able-bodied men, generally between the ages of sixteen and sixty were expected to serve, which included attending regularly scheduled drills and providing their own weapons and ammunition. This custom was still in use in the colonies at the time of the Revolution. 43 William Bartholomew Ball came of age during the last years of the Revolution, and served for 101 days in the South Carolina militia during that conflict. http://www.carolana.com/SC/Counties/cheraws_district_sc.html, accessed 9 November 2011 states: In 1768, South Carolina eliminated all of the original counties and established seven new "Districts," with governmental seats in each district. From 1768 to 1785, these districts remained intact; however, the district seats did change some during that time frame.
43 James C. Neagles, U.S. Military Records, A Guide to Federal & State Sources, Colonial America to the Present (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 1994), p. 10189 “