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Ball families papers
This is a collection of papers of the Ball family of Philadelphia. It encompasses the families of William Ball, Joseph Ball, and John Ball. Other persons represented in this collection are Henry Banks, a merchant of Richmond Virginia, Daniel Brodhead, a Philadelphia lawyer, Robert Morris, and the Du...
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| Corporate Author: | |
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| Collection: | Ball Families Papers |
| Collection Number: | 0028 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Physical Description: |
6.9 Linear feet ; 10 boxes, 2 flat files |
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| Access: |
The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
This is a collection of papers of the Ball family of Philadelphia. It encompasses the families of William Ball, Joseph Ball, and John Ball. Other persons represented in this collection are Henry Banks, a merchant of Richmond Virginia, Daniel Brodhead, a Philadelphia lawyer, Robert Morris, and the Dupuy family. The collections primarily contains legal and business-reated docuemnts. There are very few personal letters, with the exception of a letter book written by Elizabeth Byles, wife of William Ball Sr.
William Ball, Sr., and William Ball, Jr., were merchants who owned Hope Farm, in Northern Liberties Township (Shakamaxon). Correspondence, accounts, surveys, and other papers (1760-1771), relate to the Nova Scotia Land Company, and a colonizing venture in Nova Scotia. There is a Richmond Meadows Company account book (1760-1762), and an election returns book (1763, 1766). Elizabeth Byles, wife of William Ball, Sr., left a letterbook (1759-1783), and diary (1757-1763). There is a rent and bond account book (1782-1808) belonging to William Ball Jr. and miscellaneous other business, land and estate papers. Joseph Ball was a Philadelphia merchant, industrialist, insurance executive, and bank director. Documents pertaining to his business include accounts, land agreements, descriptions of the outfitting of several vessels including privateers, and related litigation. There are insurance policies; estate papers and genealogical depositions from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia (1855-1860) gathered in the settlement of his vast estate. John Ball, brother of Joseph Ball, was a resident merchant at St. Eustatius, St. Thomas and St. Croix for several years, and partner of William Waddrop and Daniel Jennings (Ball, Waddrop and Jennings). The collection has his business papers and correspondence, (1779-1782), including letters to William Bingham. The bulk of the Ball family material is comprised of documents from William W. Ball (1801-1874); William Ball (1842-1868); Robert H. Ball (born 1811); and Charles D. Ball (born 1850) and their immediate families. The Joseph Ball family papers are also represented, particularly in the early 19th century. Henry Banks was a merchant of Richmond, Va. His business papers and correspondence relate to commercial activities, land purchases, and privateering, including correspondence with his Kentucky partner in trade and land speculation, John Fowler. Bank's financial problems are revealed in legal papers on various suits and correspondence with Philadelphia lawyer, Daniel Brodhead, in Bank's bankruptcy trial and imprisonment with Robert Morris in 1798. Joseph Ball was a trustee of Morris’s bankrupt estate. The collection also includes, from the Richards and Dupuy families, a Lewis M. Walker and John Richards receipt book (1817-1821); extracts of Burlington, New Jersey; land surveys (1741-1833); and deeds and other items. Also, a Thomas Witherspoon, Philadelphia merchant, receipt book (1796-1804). Among the miscellaneous material in the collection is an unidentified Philadelphia merchant's journal (1733-1739), a report of a viewing of a road through William Ball’s property signed by Benjamin Franklin, an Evening Bulletin newspaper article written in 1965 reports on 5,000 Ball heirs suing to collect interest on a loan given to the city of Philadelphia by Joseph Ball. The dozens of deeds found in the collection could be a significant resource for scholars who are interested in an in-depth look at Philadelphia and its neighborhoods in pre and post-revolutionary times. The deeds track ownership in many addresses in Philadelphia and surrounding counties. |