Joseph Ball

Joseph Ball (May 24, 1649 – July 11, 1711) was an English-born justice, vestryman, lieutenant colonel, and Burgess in the Colony of Virginia.

Ball was the father of Mary Ball Washington and the maternal grandfather of George Washington, the First President of the United States. His father emigrated to Virginia in 1657 becoming a trader and planter, eventually settling with his family in Millenbeck, Virginia.

Settlement in Virginia colony He moved to the Colony of Virginia sometime before 1680. He lived at the Epping Forest plantation in Lancaster County, Virginia. Ball served as justice in the county court, a vestryman for his church parish, and as a lieutenant colonel in the county militia. Ball was a representative in the Virginia House of Burgesses, serving in 1698, 1700, and 1702.

Personal life Ball married twice. His first marriage was to Elizabeth Julia Rogers (or Romney) (1655–1703), with whom he had five children: Hannah Ball (1683–1748), Elizabeth Ball (1684–1711), Esther or Easter Ball (1685–1751), Anne Ball (1686–1764), and Joseph Ball (1689–1760). Joseph and Mary's daughter Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington. Rogers died in the early 1700s. After her death, Ball married Mary Montague Payne Johnson (1672–1721). Johnson was a widow of Thomas Payne and William Johnson who had two children, one from each prior marriages. Ball and Johnson had one child, Mary Ball, in 1708. Joseph Ball died on July 11, 1711, and is buried in Saint Mary's Whitechapel Episcopal Churchyard in Lancaster County, Virginia.