Samuel Ball1

#2094, (16 March 1647/48 - 13 September 1689)
Relationship7th great-grandfather of William David Lewis
Father*Francis Ball2 (s 1613 - 1648)
Mother*Abigail Burt3 (c 1623 - 1707)

Family

Mary Graves b. c 1654, d. 1727
Children 1.Mary Ball+8 (1673 - 1760)
 2.Francis Ball9 (1675 - )
 3.Elizabeth Ball10 (1677 - )
 4.Mercy Ball11 (1679 - 1683)
 5.Abigail Ball11 (1682 - )
Birth*16 March 1647/48He was born on 16 March 1647/48 at Springfield, Massachusetts.2,1 
Marriage*15 January 1671He married Mary Graves, daughter of John Graves and Mary Smith, on 15 January 1671 at MassachusettsG.4 
Death*13 September 1689He died on 13 September 1689 at Massachusetts at age 41.5,6 
"when a young man of eighteen, was sentenced to the whipping post by the same court that fined another for "smoking on the Sabbath day." His great and unpardonable offence, for which he should have been hung according to the idea of justice held by our ungodly-godly forefathers, was abusing his stepfather, Benjamin Munn, by saying to him, "A father indeed, you are no better than an old Indian." This occurred at the same time that a young girl was hung in London for stealing a yard of silk ribbon. There were then one hundred and sixty offences against English law, which were punishable by "death without benefit of clergy." Samuel Ball had the option of paying fifty shillings in lieu of the lashes he was to receive, so like a man he went to the office and paid his money. This is an object lesson to posterity, showing how men as narrow as our ancestors, could still be honest men, and, as far as they knew, godly men. Genealogy proves the truth of John Wesley's statement to his young preachers, that "the Lord can live with a great many people that we can't live with." The Stebbins Genealogy, citing Rev. orace Edwin Hayden.7 
ChartsAncestors of William D. Lewis

Citations

  1. [S1025] Massachusetts Town and Vital Records: Springfield 1640–1894, Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook), compiler, Provo, UT and Oxford, MA, "16 day 1st mon 1647/1648 and baptized 19 day." Births, Marriages, Deaths 1640-1728, p. 7, img. 468/6014. Online Ancestry.com.
  2. [S1207] Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield (Springfield, Mass.: Henry M. Burt, 1898, 1899), II:525.
  3. [S1207] Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield, II:524-5.
  4. [S1207] Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield, II:526: "Samuel Ball, second son of Francis Ball, married January 15, 1671, Mary Graves of Hadley, daughter of John Graves."
  5. [S1207] Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield, II:526; location not stated but assumed to be Springfield.
  6. [S1206] Clifford L. Stott, compiler, Vital Records of Springfield Massachusetts to 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003), 2:1693. "Samuel Ball was Sicke & died Sept: 13. 1689."
  7. [S1222] Ralph Stebbins Greenlee and Robert Lemuel Greenlee, The Stebbins Genealogy, two volumes (Chicago: privately published, 1904), I:61.
  8. [S1025] Mass. Town and Vital Records: Springfield: Copy 1, p. 23, img. 476/6014. Mary Ball, dau. of Samuel and Mary Ball, b. 12 Jun 1673.
  9. [S1206] Clifford L. Stott, Vital Records of Springfield, 1:32, Bk. 1. "Francis Ball Son of Samuell & Mary Ball born Aprill the 4th 1675."
  10. [S1206] Clifford L. Stott, Vital Records of Springfield, 2:1672. "Elizabeth Ball the Daughter of Samuel & Mary Ball born, Jan: 14th: 1677."
  11. [S1207] Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield, II:526.