Birth
Peter Ball was born 1699 in Mauchenheim Germany the son of Johannes Ball and Anna Catherina Ball (Adam). Although his name was Johan Peter Ball he was always referred to as Peter Ball.
Immigration
His family immigrated in 1709 with hundreds of other German Palatines. With him were his mother Anna Catherina Ballin (Adam), his father Johann Ball, his sister Anna Maria, and his brother Frederic. His mother, sister, and brother were held upon arrival at Governors Island because of the sickness encounter in the voyage upon which at least 450 people died. There is no record of his father and he was presumed to have died either on the voyage or shortly thereafter.
Life
Along with other Palatine immigrants, Anna Catherina and her three children were taken to West Camp on the Hudson River. They were housed in rough shacks an given subsistence by the English Crown in return for their labor removing pine pitch from the trees. They appeared on the subsistence list for two years.
The one son Frederic was taken to the Manor house to work for the owner of the Land Grant, Robert Livingston. He remained there 1710/1711. Anna Maria was married in 1711 to a Christopher Bellross.
Peter and his mother moved from the camp when the rations were discontinued. Johan Peter Ball (Peter Ball) was naturalized in Albany, NY March 1715/16.
A Ball family history by James Guinn Ball says they then moved on to Princeton Hamlet near Schenectady. This land grant may have been originally a Dutch land grant authorized by Holland to encourage the owners to populate the grant with at least 50 families. In time the plots were given or possibly sold to the occupants. Due to the burning of Schenectady any records of these proceedings were destroyed along with other records of marriages and births.
The move to Princetown (not Princeton) may be family lore probably based on the fact that Peter's son Johannes owned land in Princetown when he died.[1]
The family may have been living in Beaverdam (now Berne)[2] in what is now Albany County, NY before 1733 when son Jacob was baptized at the Schoharie Lutheran Church.
Marriage and Children
Peter Ball married to Anna Margaretha Ballen probably in the year 1720. They had 11 children:
- John Peter Ball (Nov 11 1722)
- Johannes Ball (May 15 1724)
- possibly Maria Ball (abt 1726)
- Catherina Elizabeth Ball (abt. 1727) married a man named Petri.
- Anna Dorothea Ball b. 1730
- Johan Jacob Ball b. 1732/33
- Johan Frederich Ball b. 1735/36
- Johan Jurrie Ball b 1740 died young.
- Johan Henerick Ball b. 1743
- Johan George Ball (1744)
- William Wilhelm Ball (abt 1747)
John Pieter Ball (Peter Ball) was a member of the Schoharie Reformed Church April 1 1743
Death
John Peter Ball (Peter Ball) died by Nov. 4 1753[3]
Sources
- ↑ Will of Johannes Ball
- ↑ Harold Miller, Berne Historical Project
- ↑ Banns posted at the Schoharie Reformed Ch. for Jacob Ball, s/o the late Piter Bal. to Maria Elisabeth Mann, d/o Piter Mann.
