Author: BALL, William
Biography:
BALL, William (1785-1869: ancestry.co.uk)
The son of Ann and John Ball, he was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 17 Mar. 1785 and baptised in St. Andrew’s church, Plymouth, on 3 Apr. 1785. Nothing is known about his early life or education. On 2 Sept. 1804 he married Lydia Wyvell (or Wivell) in St. Pancras, London. She was born in London in 1784 to Walter and Mary Wyvell. William Ball’s application to the RLF states that he and Lydia had twelve children but just four were alive at the time of applying in 1856. The family seems to have lived mainly in London but spent some time in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight where a son, Ferdinand Mercer Ball, was born in 1818 and a daughter, Maria, in 1819. In Feb. 1827 a daughter, Mary, was born in London; she died in June 1827. Within a few months Lydia was also dead and she was buried on 18 Aug. 1827; William’s RLF application states that she died “insane.” The application also describes Maria as an “imbecile” living in an asylum where she became pregnant; in 1860 she gave birth to a son in London. William Ball was a prolific writer of popular songs and a translator of lyrics; he was very well-connected in the theatrical and musical world of London. In the 1830s he was encouraged by George Birkbeck to write and give lectures on English comic and ballad literature. But by the 1850s Ball had fallen on hard times and was increasingly infirm. He was awarded an annuity of £25 by the National Benevolent Institution in 1855 and the RLF granted him £40 in 1856. The RLF gave a further £20 in 1860 and again in 1866. He died at home in St. Mark’s Crescent, Notting Hill, on 14 May 1869 and was buried on 19 May in Kensal Green cemetery. A notice of his death in The Era describes the popularity of his drawing room concerts in the 1820s and states that he bequeathed his musical collection and copyrights to a friend, Edward Draper. (ancestry.co.uk 18 Jan. 2023; RLF file 1425; Sun [London] 17 May 1869; The Era 23 May 1869)