Padre Ballí

Padre Ballí (ca. 1770–1829), also known as José Nicolás Ballí, was a rancher, a priest, and an original grantee of Padre Island, which was named after him. However, when he owned the island, it was known as the Isla de Santiago land grant.

Early life Padre Nicolas Balli was born circa 1768. He was born into a wealthy family in Reynosa, Mexico. His brother was the chief justice and captain of Reynosa. His grandfather had also been a justice and captain. He owned vast amounts of land in the Rio Grande Valley. Nicolas chose to become a priest.

He did not live on the island but had two hired hands who managed things for him there. Gilbert Kerlin a law graduate from Harvard University had bought titles to the Island from Ballí heirs in 1938. The titles included 61,000 acres and the water segment separating Padre Island from the mainland. The heirs of Ballí filed a lawsuit against Kerlin in 1993. A Jury of their peers in 2000 ruled in favor of the heirs. 500 relatives of Padre Jose Nicolas Ballí were represented in the case. The family accused that they did not receive their share of the oil and gas revenue generated on the island based on the Original agreement. They were not paid one cent of the mineral rights they were promised. Kerlin died in 2004 at the age of 94. In 2008 the Texas Supreme Court ruled in Kerlin's favor, the verdict declared that the family of Padre Jose Nicolas had no claims on the land as they "waited too long" to file a claim.