Early Tombs in Westmoreland, Richmond, and Northumberland Counties; Wm. & Mary Qrtly, V.11, N.3

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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Early Tombs in Westmoreland, Richmond, and Northumberland Counties

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 3.
   (Jan., 1903), pp. 191-195.

               EARLY TOMBS IN WESTMORELAND, RICHMOND, AND
                       NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTIES.

                       (Continued from page 130).

                         BY REV. DR. G. W. BEALE

TOMBS IN WHITE CHAPEL CHURCH YARD, LANCASTER CO., VA.

   In the yard of White Chapel Church, in Lancaster county, there are a group of heavy
horizontal tombs, and several vertical slabs, commemorative of members of the Ball family
and their wives.  One of the massive tombs has this inscription:

Here lies Interred the
Body of Mr. DAVID BALL*
a twin and seventh son of
Capt. WILLIAM BALL Gent.
Dece'd was born ye 26th of
Sep. 1686, and departed
this life ye 14th of December, 1732
in the 47th Year
of his Age.

A tomb near the one above bears these words:

Here lies the Body of
Mr. JEDUTHAN BALL+ son of Colo
JAMES BALL of Lancaster county.
Born the 9th Day of July, 1725,
and Died the 5th Day of March,
1749, in the 25th year of his Age.
______________________________________________
   *David Ball was the sixth son of Capt. William BAll, the second of the name in Lancaster.
He was brother to Col. James Ball, whose tomb is near his own.  He was twice married, but
left no issue.
   +Jeduthan Ball was the fourth son of Col. James Ball and Mary Conway, and was brother to
James and Jesse Ball, whose tombs are near his own.  He married Elizabeth Fox, and was father

of Col. Burges Ball, of the Revolution.

Page 192.

A similar horizontal stone is thus inscribed:

Here lyeth Interred the Body of
JESSE BALL++ Gent.
He was born 27th Day of June 1716
and departed this Life
the 11th Day of Aug., 1747,
in the 32nd Year of his Age.

The three inscriptions below are from the tombs of Col. James Ball, of Bewdley, and two of
his wives:

Here lieth the Body of
MARY* the Wife of JAMES BALL
Daughter of EDWIN CONWAY Gent.
deceased, who departed this life
the 15th Day of September, 1730
in the 44th year of her Age.
leaving three sons and five Daughters
She was a loving Wife, a tender Mother
a peaceable, good neighbour, and lived
and died a pattern of Piety and Virtue.

Here also lieth interred ye Body of
ye above mentioned JAMES BALL Gent., dec'd,
Who departed this Life the 13th Day
of Oct. 1754, in ye 76th Year of his Age
having lived in the constant 
Practice of Temperance and Sobriety
and other moral Virtues & died in
a Steadfast Faith in CHRIST
& full hope of a glorios Resurrection
___________________________________________
   ++Jesse Ball, an older brother to Jeduthan, married Mary, daughter of J. Philip Smith,

who names her in his will of July 11, 1743.  She was sister to Baldwin M. Smith, and was
married a second time (1749) to Col. John Lee, of Westmoreland.  She again married John
Smith. Jesse Ball's marriage is usually incorrectly given in the published genealogies of
the Balls.
   *She married Col. Ball April 18, 1707, he being a widower at the time, and she a widow.
Her previous husband was John Daingerfield, and his previous wife Ann (Elizabeth?) Howson.

Page 193.

Here lyeth the Body of
MARY ANN+ Wife of JAMES BALL
Gent. and daughter of the
Reverend JOHN BERTRAND
She departed this life the 12th
of February 1749/50 in the 60th
Year of her Age.
She was a dutiful Wife, a Tender
Mother, and very Charitable to the Poor.

The following three commemorate Col. James Ball II., and two of his wives:

In memory of
[drawing of a willow tree in between two vertical tombstones]
Col. JAMES BALL
2nd Son of James &
Mary Ball, his 2nd wife
daughter of
Edwin Conway.
Born Dec. 31st, 1718.
Died Nov'r 24th, 1789.

Here lieth the Body of
MILDRED BALL Wife of JAMES BALL
Jun'r, Gent. who departed this life the

1st day of Dec'r 1751 in the 26th year
of her Age
Leaving one son and three Daughters,
having faithfully discharged
the several Duties incumbent on a wife
and Parent, a Neighbour & a Christian.
___________________________________________________
   +She was a widow when she married Col. Ball, having been married before to William
Ballendine.

Page 194.

In memory of
[drawing of a willow tree in between two vertical tombstones]
LETTICE*
3d wife of
Colonel James Ball,
daughter of
Richard Lee of Ditchley
Died Nov'r 17th 1811,
in the 80th year of her age.

In memory of
[drawing of a willow tree in between two vertical tombstones]
Col. JAMES BALL+
Son of James & Lettice Ball
Born Feb. 20, 1755,
Died Dec'r 18, 1825.
And FANNY his wife
daughter of Rawleigh
& Frances Downman
Of Morattico.
Born May 4th, 1758.
Died Jan'y 23rd 1821.
One grave contains the faithful pair.
__________________________________________
   *Lettice (Lee) Ball was daughter of Richard Lee and Judith Steptoe.
   +Col. Ball lived at Bewdley, where he died not long after the death of his promising son
William Lee Ball, whose end came in 1824, while a member of Congress, and who was buried in
the Congressional Cemetery in Washington.


Page 195.

   On a dark stone slab sunken to the level of the soil, and placed near one of the doors
of the church, is the tomb of one of the early clerks of Lancaster.  The inscription is in
these words:

Here Lieth interred the Body of
JOHN STRETHLEY++ Gent.
who departed this life the
8th Day of December, 1698,
in 50th year of his Age.
___________________________________________
   ++He was probably related to Capt. William Ball, as one of the latter's sons appears to
have been named for him.