Born ‎± 1620 Shalluck, Wiltshire, England, died ‎10 Feb 1675 Lancaster, Massachusetts‎, approximately 55 years
JOHN BALL, b. England abt. 1620, d. Lancaster, Massachusetts Feb. 10, 1675-6, m(1) ELIZABETH PEIRCE, b. Eng., d. prob. 1664, m(2) Watertown, Massachusetts Oct. 3, 1665[7/27] ELIZABETH FOX, d. Lancaster Feb. 10, 1675-6. John Ball was a tailor. He
married Elizabeth Peirce, daughter of John and Elizabeth Peirce, and had four children by her. She was insane in 1660 and probably had been thus some time. In March of 1660-1 John Ball resigned his three children to his father and mother "Peirse" as
their own and gave them two oxen and two cows as their own. He also yielded his wife to his in-laws and the use of his house and lands as long as she continued there, and if God took her before she returned to him, the said property to be his
children's by his said wife, Elizabeth.[3/3:81] The deed wasn't recorded until Oct. 31, 1664, which makes it likely that Elizabeth probably died shortly before that date. John's subsequent marriage a year later helps bear out this probability. We
don't know what the Ball's situation was exactly like, but from the selectmen' s records we can see that John and Elizabeth were still together in 1657, as evidenced by Abigail's birth in 1658, but were unable to care for the children as seen in the
following records. On December 8, 1656 it was "Ordered yet John Ball bewarned to the next town meeting to make known his condicion".[5/1:48] December 11th at a "meeting of the 7 men", i.e. selectmen, "John Ball appearing, it is ordered yt Capt Masan
is to Joyne wth Brother Baall in putting forth two of his children to Brother
Pearce, as also one other child to such as may be thought fitt to take the same".[5/1:49] On January 3, 1656-7 "Richard Gale, have covenanted to take, the daughter of John Ball, Sarah Ball about the age of 2 years, in consideration thearof, the said
Gale is to have the child for fower yeares, & the said Ball is to find the said Sarah necessary clothing for 3 years of the said 4 ...".[5/1:49] Also on January 3, 1656-7 "These are to testyfe, yt John Ball with the consent of the selectmen, hath put
two of his children as apprentices unto John pearce Senior untill ye come to the age as the law provides, yt is to say , John the son of John Ball, untill he come, to the age of 21 years, in which time the said John pearce, is to find him sufficiency
of meat drink & clothes, & the above named John Ball is to obey all those lawfull comands given by the said John pearce & his wife, at the end of his term, John pearce is to give John Ball, a Loom fitted to fall to work, and double apparrell, with the
trade of weaving, he is all to instruct him, & to learn him to read the English tongue, & to teach him & instruct him in the knowledge of God, & concerning the other child which is a made child of the age of 5 years, she is to be as an apprentice,
untill she come to the age of eighteen years, except the said John pearce & his wife dept this world before the time pefixed, that then the said Marie shall be free, but if they all live then the said Marie is to rece of the said John pearce her
granfather or grandmother, a bible & double apparrell, & in the time of her appentiship she is to be brought up to read the english tongue, & instructed in the knowlege of God".[5/1:50] Several years later at a selectmen's meeting on September 20,
1658 it was agreed that Joseph Morse would take the three year old child of John Ball for a term of two years. This would be Esther Ball, and Joseph Morse was her uncle, who had married Esther Peirce, the sister of John Ball's wife. John signed the
agreement by mark, Joseph signed his name. At the same time another child, one half year of age, was placed with Anthony White for one year.[5/1:57] This child would have been Abigail, born five months earlier.
There is also a record from February 3, 1656-7 at which "It is ordered yet Capt. Masan with our Brother Bearsto do go to Sister Ball, and there to acquaint her yet it is the mind of the Selectmen, yet she set her self to the Carding of two Skaines of
Cotton or sheeps wool & her daughter to spin it, with other Business of the family & this to be her daily task, the wch is she refuse, she must expect, to be sent to the house of corection".[5/1:50] There is no explanation of the order or what is to
become of the wool, but it seems a bit harsh to send her to jail if she ignored the order. While this "Sister Ball" could be John's mother, I presume it to be his wife and to have something to do with her circumstances. Perhaps the work wa s to be
done to help pay for the care of her children placed in other families. John Ball's second marriage was on October 3, 1665 to Elizabeth Fox, possibly the daughter of Thomas Fox of Concord. On Oct. 21, 1665 John sold to William Perry hi s farm in
Watertown, which he had purchased from John Lawrence, and went to Lancaster. It is not known if the children lived with their father after his second marriage or not. Their grandfather John Peirce had died in 1661 and thier grandmother would die
shortly. In any event, they luckily were not at John's house in Lancaster in 1676. The town of Lancaster was destroyed by Indian attack on February 10, 1675-6 at the height of King Phillip's War. Sholan had invited the English to th e area and was
their staunch friend. After his death, his nephew Matthew continued the friendship, but Matthew's successor Shosanin apparently saw things a little differnetly. He was enlisted in Phillip's cause to exterminate the colonists.
As a frontier town, Lancaster had no settlement between it and the Connecticut River. Groton was 15 miles to the north and Stow and Marlborough were on the east and south, respectively. It was thus a good candidate for attack. The towns people had
made some preparations for trouble during the Indian War. Four or five of the houses had been designated as garrisons. These were centrally located buildings that had been fortified. One of these garrisons was the house of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson,
the minister of the town. The town was clearly fearful of the Indians as on the 10th of February, Rev. Rowlandson and two others were in Boston trying to get the General Court to send soldiers for the defense of the town. On the morning of February
10th, 1500 Indians are said to have attacked the town in five different places at once. The Rowlandson garrison came under strong attack and was the only garrison overrun. Mary Rowlandson, wife of the minist er, was taken prisoner and some weeks
later ransomed back to her family. She wrote a fascinating account of this period in The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. In it she writes, "Quickly it was the dolefulles t day that ever mine eyes saw." After some
hours and several attempts, the garrison was finally set on fire. Forty-two people were in the building. Many were shot or tomahawked as they tried to escape the flames. Those women and children wh o got out alive were herded off into the woods to
be later sold for ransom if they did not die from their wounds or were killed for traveling too slowly (see below). Very early in the attack a house was overrun by the Indians before the inhabitan ts could escape to the garrison. " There were five
persons taken in one house. The father and the mother and a sucking child they knocked on the head; the other two they took and carried away alive." This was the family of a tailor named John Ball.[2/3,65] John Ball's estate was administered by his
son John of Watertown Feb. 1, 1677-8.[4] The Ball homestead and the Rowlandson garrison were in the south part of Lancaster.[6/105] John's lands were never described in the town's Book of Lands although he was one of the first inhabitants. His lands
were sold in 1682 to Thomas Harris.[6/288] The following excerpt is taken from Mrs. Rowlandson's book and is included to portray some of what the people of the time had to live with. While a captive of the Indians, she had been traveling with nine
English cap tives, eight children and Goodwife Joslin. This woman was Mrs. Ann Joslin, aged 26, the widow of Abraham Joslin who was killed in the Rowlandson garrison. The Indians were on the run and were preparing to split up when the two women got a
chanc e to talk. Mrs. Rowlandson being taken with one group, the other captives with another. Mrs. Joslin "told me she should never see me again, and that she could find in her heart to run away. I wished her not to run away by any means, for we wer
e near thirty miles from any English town and she very big with child and had but one week to reckon, and another child in her arms, two years old, and bad rivers there were to go over, and we were feeble with our poor and coarse entertainment. .. .
And now must I part with that little company that I had. Here I parted from my daughter Mary (whom I never saw again till I saw her in Dorchester, returned from captivity) and from four little cousins and neighbors, some of which I never saw af
terward - the Lord only knows the end of them. Amongst them also was that poor woman before mentioned, who came to a sad end, as some of the company told me in my travel. She having much grief upon her spirit about her miserable condition, bein g so
near her time, she would be often asking the Indians to let her go home. They, not being willing to that and yet vexed with her importunity, gathered a great company together about her and stripped her naked, and set her in the midst of them . And
when they had sang and danced about her (in their hellish manner) as long as they pleased, they knocked her on the head, and the child in her arms with her. When they had done that, they made a fire and put them both into it, and told the other
children that were with them that if they attempted to go home, they would serve them in like manner. The children said she did not shead one tear, but prayed all the while".[2/14-15]
REF:
[1] History of Watertown - Henry Bond, 1860
[2] The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
-Lancaster Bicentennial Commission, 1975
[3] Middlesex County Deeds
[4] Middlesex County Probate
[5] Watertown Records, 1894
[6] The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts - Henry S. Nourse, 1884
[7] Records of Births Marriages and Deaths, First Book - Watertown Records, Vol. 1, 1894
The below information come from "The Descendants of John Ball of Watertown, Massachusetts 1630-1635" page 11, 2nd Generation:
Accompanied his farther to this country, became a tailor by trade and settled in Watertown. He married (1st wife) Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Pierce, of Watertown, by whm he had six children.
About the year 1655-6, his wife became violently insane, which fact doubtless accounts for the apprenticing of his children as follows:- John Jr. and Mary or Marie (aged 5 years) on Jan. 3, 1656, to John Pierce Sr; Sara (aged 2 years) on Dec . 9, 1656,
to Richard Gale; on Aug 3, 1658, he apprenticed two other children (aged 3 years and 6 months respectively).
His wife died previous to or about 1665.
On Aug 3, 1665, he marred (2nd wife) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Fox, of Concord. On Oct. 21, 1665, he sold his farm in Watertown and removed to Lancaster, where he ws one of the three earliest settlers. In the attack upon the town by Indians ,
Feb. 20, 1676, he, his wife and son Joseph were slain and two other children (Ester & Abigail) taken into captivity.

Born ‎11 Apr 1624 Norwich, Norfolk Co., England, died ‎2 Oct 1665 Lancaster, Worcester Co., MA‎, 41 years

Born ‎± 1622, died ‎10 Feb 1675 Lancaster, Massachusetts‎, approximately 53 years