Notes
Ref#124:
Inherited homestead, site of "Tuscan Hall", Hilton, NJ
Ref#135:
Sources: Birth: 1721 is probably birth date as accepted by SAR on Dec 9,
1945 on application of Wm. H. Cole by Flora Knapp Dickinson, Genealogist
489 Fifth Ave NY,NY <- is the one who put birthdate at June 5,
1722
Sources: Burnett Mss p.263 ( in NJ Hist. Soc. Library, 230 Broadway,
Newark, NJ) Flora Knapp Dickinson, Genealogist 489 Fifth Ave NY,NY
He married Mary JONES - 19, 19 Nov 1725. Born 19 Nov 1725/1726. Died 21
Mar 1810. residence prior to marriage: Sag Harbor, LI, NY
Architect of note he was Master of St Johns Lodge F&AM He was an inventor
of a machine for cutting and leveling roads.
RESIDENCES: Middleville(Hilton), now a suburb of Newark, NJ. Home was
known as "Tuscan Hall" He built the home , imprting bricks from England
for the purpose.
CHILDREN: had four sons that served in the revolution, it is unknown if
this if 4 sons in addition to Timothy Ball, or 4 sons including Timothy.
Ref#51:
Will of Ezekiel Ball of Newark: Dated 28 Nov 1804. Prob. 24 Dec 1804. To
wife Mary Ball - use of part of estate; to son Edward, son Timothy, to
Dec. Samuel Pierson & Jabez B. Baldwin in turst for Phebe, wid. of son
Wm. & her chn; in trust for dau prussia Allen (her h to have no int. in
it); in trust for Polly Taylor (h - no int. in it); gs Oliver, s/o son
Samuel dec'd.; in trust for ggs Stephen & Edward, s/o gs Geo. Ball; exec.
son Timothy & friends Samuel Pierson & Jabez B. Baldwin.
25 Nov 1804 - Will of Ezekiel Ball qv of Newark, North Farms, leaves 1/2
of estate to trustees for Phebe Ball, widow of s William & her chn, they
to have the property when they become of age.
Names great-grandsons Stephen & Edward of my grandson Geroge
Ball...minors.
Ref#176:
EZEKIEL BALL 1721 - 1804
He was the sixth child, fifth son born to Thomas and Sarah Davis Ball,
who lived in Newark. There were four younger brothers and two younger
sisters.
As a young man of twenty-five, he was listed with the "Supream Court" of
Essex Country for "rioting" for the second time, May term of 1746. The
court records spell his name "Esekill", and make note of the fact that
his fellow offenders are, among others, Nathaniel. Timothy and Aaron
Ball (his older brothers) and Amos Harrison. I once taught in an Amos
Harrison elementary school in Livingston, N. J., certainly not known to
be named for a troublemaker. Another "dissenter," Abraham Pierson, was
in even more trouble and had to leave Newark. He went to Connecticut
where he later became president of Yale College.
The difficulty these young men found themselves in was probably caused
by the Jersey Proprietors appointed by the Crown, who tried to charge
the colonists rent for the land they had previously bought. Protesting
these practices was defined as "rioting." Not only did these young men
protest, but they broke open the jails and freed those who had been im-
prisoned on the complaints of the Proprietors. Local magistrates were
not inclined to deal harshly with young men who rioted for this reason.
Ezekiel was a carpenter. His father Thomas owned property a few miles
outside the city; Ezekiel inherited this property at Thomas' death.
There he built his homestead, named Tuscan Hall. It was in a district
known as Newark Farms, now the southern part of South Orange, on Spring-
field Avenue. The hall was built about 1769, and since Ezekiel and his
wife had seven living children when they first occupied this house, it
must have been large enough to justify the name. It became famous.
Ezekiel came to be known by the name of his place and was commonly called
"Tuscan" Ball. The hall was still in use during the first part of this
century -- not as a residence, but as a local government office. Although
it has since been torn down, the name is perpetuated by Tuscan Road which
runs through the area where the old farm was.
Ezekiel seems to have owned a farmstead jointly with his brother Natha-
niel before Tuscan Hall was built. A newspaper advertisement in 1769
described "a fine plantation, containing 167 acres of choice good land,
lying seven miles from Elizabeth-town, in Springfield; with a good
double house, barn and sawmill, and a fine situation for a grist-mill,
well watered and timbered, with a good orchard, out-houses, etc." It
was signed "Nathaniel and Ezekiel Ball," who asserted that the title was
good and that "easy payments will be taken, with interest."
Perhaps Ezekiel found the roads around his new home rougher than those
of the older town of Springfield. An article in a New York weekly news-
paper tells of news coming by way of Newark about an "ingenious mechanic,"
Ezekiel Ball, who "invented a new machine for leveling the roads with
great Expedition; it is made in the Form of a Triangle, with a small
Expense, and is drawn by Horses; Cutting off ridges and filling up the
Ruts to Admiration, and deserves to be highly recommended to the Public;
if any Gentleman is desirous or knowing in what Manner it is made, the
Model may be now seen at his House.' I wonder how many people came to
see it to make one of their own to smooth their rutty roads.
Ezekiel seems to have had a deep interest in public affairs. The Newark
town records show that he was a surveyor of highways. From 1769 to 1770
he was overseer of the poor. This last office was less complicated and
demanding then than it is now. Receipts of the dog tax were used for
the poor; these needy people were "farmed out" -- housed on farms where
they worked for their keep. The overseers arranged for all this. They
were also responsible for seeing that the children of the poor were sent
to school by the farmers.
In addition to his other enterprises, Ezekiel kept up a brisk trade in
livestock. He bred cows, and bred and trained blooded horses for car-
riage and saddle He also bought, sold and rented properties in the
vicinity of Newark.
Ezekiel was married to Mary Jones of Sag Harbor, Long Island; many Eng-
lish Protestants had recently come from there to settle in New Jersey.
They had eleven children. The first, Edward (born 1748) lived less than
a year. Next were Stephen (born 1749, died 1783, married Sarah Ross),
Prussia (born 1750, died 1813, married Sam Alling, a jeweler in Newark).
Samuel J. (born 1752, died 1780, married Hannah Gardner), Jane, (born
1754, died 1765), Edward (born 1756, died 1815, married Esther Mulford),
Timothy (born 1758, died 1828, married first Mary Crowell, second Mary
Edwards Resch), Mary (born 1761, died 1813, married first William Miller,
second Nathaniel Taylor), William (born 1763, died 1765), William 2nd
(born 1765, died 1804, married Phebe Hatfield) and Oliver (born 1768,
died 1776).
Ezekiel died at the age of eighty-three, having outlived seven of his
children and at least one of his grandchildren. His will leaves one-third
of his real estate to his wife (she lived to be eighty-four), the riding
sulky. one cow and the cupboard and furniture for one room. He provided
for his four surviving children: Timothy, half his real estate; Edward,
interest from $150 yearly during his life, the principal to be divided
among his children at his death; to Phebe, widow of his son William,
rents and profits from the remainder of his real estate; to daughters
Prussia and Mary (whom he nicknamed "Polly"), $75 in trust "so their hus-
bands may not have use of the money." A grandson and two great-grandsons
are left $62.50 each when they come of age.
Ezekiel personified the vigorous, enterprising generation that followed
the pioneers who established the widely separated cities of the early
eighteenth century. His contemporaries did not live with the extreme
hardships of their forebears; more of their energy could be employed in
improving the quality of their lives, in developing their skills in a
trade, in seeking better land to occupy and in building more comfortable
houses. Ezekiel was a man of property, a man of energy and inventive-
ness -- not afraid to speak out against injustice. It was he, and
others like him, who raised the generation that revolted against the
English king and made possible the founding of a new nation on the land
where they had established their homes.
From : Joseph J. Felcone / jfelcone@mail.idt.net
Post Office Box 366, Princeton, New Jersey 08542
Tel (609) 924-0539 / Fax (609) 924-9078
I'm looking for the dates (years only) of Ezekiel Ball, of Tuscan Hall,
who I'm sure would be a well known individual to a Ball genealogist. I'm
compiling a bibliography of N.J. printing through 1800 and there is a
unique copy of an undated but 1775-1779 stud broadside issued by Elihu
Spencer of Trenton for a colt at Ezekiel Ball's in Newark Farms; I just
need Ball's dates for a footnote. It's also curious why Spencer, a
Trenton minister, would advertise a stud of Ball's, but this is beyone my
scope.
A "stud broadside" is a broadside advertising .... uh oh, maybe I should
begin by defining a broadside, which is something printed on one side of
an unfolded sheet; what today would be called a poster. They were used,
as they are today, for announcements, etc. Large ones are commonly called
broadsides, smaller ones handbills.
Stud advertisements, very common in late 18th and early 19th cent.
newspaper advts. but also found in broadsides, simply advertise that my
horse, with such and such fancy pedigree, is available to mate with your
horse, at so many pounds the season, or so many shillings "the single
leap."
Ezekiel Ball seems to have been something of a horse breeder, as he
appears in the 1770s newspapers a couple of times advertising his horses.
The broadside whose entry I was preparing the other day seems to have
been owned by a Trenton minister but was being pastured and available for
mating at Ball's in Newark. A bit unusual, but not for me to worry about.
From: The Maplewood WWW page
CHIEF TUSCAN - 1600
The first inhabitants of the valley which in now Maplewood were a tribe
of American Indians known as the Leni-Lenape. The translation the their
name is most appropriate; it means "original men." They were a small
peaceful group, sometimes known as the Delawares, who were part of the
Indian culture of the Eastern Woodlands.
Primarily they were hunters; the forests abounded with deer, beaver, and
smaller animals. Their dependence on wild game caused them to live in
small groups rather than in large tribal villages. Nuts and wild fruit
were also gathered, and they raised a few crops of corn and beans. Their
houses were made of bent branches covered with strips of elm bark. This
type of wigwam was quite serviceable but when a family moved on in search
of better hunting, it was no great loss to abandon it. Baskets were made
from strips of wood or cane, and boxes were formed from birch bark sewn
together at the edges with grass. Wooden bowls were hollowed out of logs
with fire, and sleeping and floor mats were woven from reeds or bark.
They made a primitive type of pottery from the local clay which turned
gray after being fired in their camp fires. Many tall jars have been
found which seems to indicate that they preferred this style.
There is a local legend that two Indian chiefs had a contest for a girl
whom each wished to marry. It was agreed that the winner would take the
girl and, to insure peace, would move away. Chief Tuscan was successful,
took his bride, and moved to the little ravine behind the present day
site of Tuscan School parallel to Tuscan Road. He lived there happily for
several years and after he died he was buried nearby. To this day the
site of his grave has never been discovered.
Probably there were never more than ten or twelve Indians living in this
valley at any one time. The early white settlers had little trouble with
them as they moved westward following the wild game displaced by the
farms. In 1678 Essex County, including Maplewood, was bought by the
English from the Indians for 50 double hands of powder, 100 bars of lead,
20 axes, 20 coats, 10 guns, 20 pistols, 10 kettles, 10 swords, 4
blankets, 4 barrels of beer, 10 pairs of breeches, 50 knives, 20 horses,
1850 fathoms of wampum, 6 anklers of liquor, and 3 troopers' coats. The
few remaining members of the Leni-Lenape tribe now live on reservation in
Oklahoma.
"History of Newark". I found it in the Montclair Public Library. It
contains biographies of quite a number of prominent persons in the City
of Newark, New Jersey at that time. Two of the biographies are about
Frederick Girard Agens and Sylvester Halsey Moore Agens, his son.
Sylvester is my grandfather. It seems obvious from reading these
biographies that the individuals profiled contributed significantly to
them. Likely, the writer(s) of the biographies interviewed their
subject(s) and received other documentation from them.
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