BALL, Robert (son of Bob Stawel Ball). b. Cove of Cork 1 April 1802; clerk in under secretary’s office in Dublin 1827–52; F.R.S. Dublin 1834; M.R.I.A. 23 Feb. 1835, treasurer 1845 to death; member of Geol. soc. of Ireland 1835, pres. 1852; sec. to Zoological society of Dub. 1837 to death; director of museum of Trinity college Dub. 1844, presented his valuable private collection to the college; hon. LLD. Dub. 1850; sec. to Queen’s Univ. in Ireland 1851; founded University zoological and botanical association 1853. (m. 21 Sep. 1837 Amelia Gresley dau. of Thomas Hellicar of Bristol, merchant, she was granted a civil list pension of £100 4 Oct. 1858). d. Dublin 30 March 1857. Natural history review v, 1–34 (1858), portrait.
BALL, Samuel. Member of East India Company’s establishment at Canton 1804–26; author of Observations on expediency of opening a second port in China 1817; An account of the cultivation and manufacture of tea in China 1848. d. Sion house, Wolverley 5 March 1874 in 94 year.
BALL, Thomas Gerrard (son of Abraham Ball of Chester). b. Chester 24 Jany. 1791; served in navy 1801–1807; ensign 34 foot 17 Sep. 1807; lieut. col. 8 foot 2 Oct. 1835 to 25 Oct. 1842 when placed on h.p.; col. 46 foot 24 April 1860 and of 8 foot 17 June 1861 to death; general 10 Jany. 1870. d. 7 Stanley place, Chester 18 Dec. 1881.
BALL, William (son of Richard Ball of Bridgwater who d. 1834). b. Bridgwater 1 Jany. 1801; solicitor at Bristol 1828–35; a minister of Society of Friends 1846 to death. (m. 1834 Anne Dale, she d. 1861). Author of Nugæ Sacræ or psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [anon.] 1825; The Transcript and other poems 1855; Hymns or lyrics 1864; Verses composed since 1870, 1875. d. at an hotel in Aberdeen 30 July 1878. Annual Monitor for 1879 pp. 8–54.
BALL, William. b. 1785; composed hundreds of comic and sentimental songs, his song Jack’s lament for the loss of his tail was one of the most popular songs of the day ever written; his Drawing room concerts in 1829 were very successful; adapted to English words librettos of Masses of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Mozart’s Requiem, Spohr’s God thou art great, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn’s St. Paul and Lobgesang; edited with N. Mori The musical gem, 2 vols. 1831–32; edited The London Spring annual lyrical and pictorial 1834. d. London 14 May 1869.
BALL, Sir William Keith, 2 Baronet (only child of Sir Alexander John Ball, 1 Baronet). b. Greenwich 27 Oct. 1791; succeeded 25 Oct. 1809. d. Spernall hall, Warwickshire 9 March 1874.
BALL-HUGHES, Edward Hughes (said to be son of a slop seller in Ratcliffe highway, London). b. 1799. Ed. at Eton and Trin. coll. Cam.; cornet 7 hussars 28 Aug. 1817 to 11 Feb. 1819 when placed on h.p.; took additional name of Hughes by royal license 7 Aug. 1819 on coming into a fortune of £40,000 per annum from his uncle Admiral Sir Edward Hughes; one of the leading dandies of his day, known as the Golden Ball; lost £45,000 in one night at Wattier’s club, Piccadilly 1819, lost three quarters of his fortune at play, the greatest gambler of his day; bought Oatlands near Weybridge 1827, which he sold to Lord Francis Egerton; lived at St. Germain near Paris for some years before his death. (m. 22 March 1823 Mercandotti the opera dancer, natural dau. or protégée of 4 Earl of Fife, she was then aged 16). d. St. Germain 13 March 1863. R. H. Gronow’s Celebrities (1865) 112–17.
BALLANTINE, James. b. The West Port, Edinburgh 11 June 1808; a house painter at Edin. 1830; one of the first to revive the art of glass painting; executed the 12 stained glass windows in the House of Lords, Westminster, representing kings and queens both regnant and consort of the U.K.; sec. of committee of Burns centenary 1859; grand bard of Scottish Grand lodge of Freemasons about 1862 to death; contributed about 50 songs to Whistle-Binkie or the piper of the party 1832; author of The Gaberlunzie’s wallet 1843; A treatise on painted glass 1845; Poems 1856; Chronicle of the hundredth birthday of Robert Burns 1859, which contains reports of 872 Burns’ centenary meetings held all over the world 25 Jany. 1859; The Provost’s daughter, a musical farce in 2 acts performed at T.R. Edin. 1855; The Gaberlunzie, a drama in 3 acts 1858. d. Warrender lodge, Edinburgh 18 Dec. 1877. Whistle-Binkie ii, xiv-xxvii (1878); History of the lodge of Edinburgh by D. M. Lyons (1873) 50, 363, portrait.
BALLANTINE, William. Barrister I.T. 5 Feb. 1813; magistrate at Thames police court 1821–48. d. 89 Cadogan place, Chelsea 14 Dec. 1852 in 74 year. I.L.N. ix, 317 (1846), portrait.
BALLANTYNE, James Robert. b. Kelso 13 Dec. 1813; ed. at Edinburgh new academy and college; teacher of Hindi and Sanskrit at Naval and military academy Edin. 1839; principal of College of Benares 1845–61; librarian of India office library Cannon row, Westminster 1861 to death; author of Lectures on the sub-divisions of knowledge, Sanskrit and English 1848; The Mahabhashya or great commentary on the aphorisms of Panini 1856; Christianity contrasted with Hindu philosophy 1859 and 14 other works. d. 16 Feb. 1864. Journal of Royal Asiatic Society i, v-vii (1865).