FAMILY NAME	BALL
Given name 1	David
Given name 2 etc
Date of Birth	Baptised 23 August, 1789, Christ Church, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England
Place of Birth	Macclesfield, Cheshire, England
Date of Death	30 August 1877
Place of Death	Ararat, Victoria
Place of Burial	Ararat, Victoria
Arrived in South Australia (date/ship etc.)	Duchess of Northumberland, left London 6/8/1839, arrived Adelaide 19/12/1839
Lived in Prospect Council Area (Dates)	1840 to 1851, intermittently
Addresses in Prospect Council Area	Section 349, allotment 51, eastern half (Vine Farm)
Lived outside Prospect Council area (Dates)	1845-1856, intermittently (ran a succession of pubs
Addresses outside Prospect Council Area	1841: Coltmans Family Hotel, Franklin Street, Adelaide 1846-1850: Black Lion Hotel, 19 Richard Street, Hindmarsh (still trading in 2019) 1850-1851: The Brighton Hotel, Brighton Road, Brighton, Adelaide 1852-1853: The British Tavern, 58 Finniss Street, North Adelaide (still trading in 2019) 1856-1877: Ararat, Victoria
Names of houses (if any)
Parents - names; DOBs etc (if known)	Father: Thomas Ball, baptised 4/9/1758 St Michael’s Macclesfield,  Cheshire, England, married 5/8/1787, died Prestbury, Cheshire 1801. Mother: Mary Bennet
Spouse(s) - including maiden name; DOBs etc. (if known)	Martha Pimlot Ball, born Henbury, Cheshire, 15/5/1780, baptised Prestbury 8/6/1780. Stayed in England when her husband and 3 children went to South Australia. Reason unknown. Lived alone for 30 years before her death 20/10/1876, at the age of 96, at her lodgings at 55 Robert Street, Chelsea, London.
Date(s) of Marriage(s)	Married David Ball 14/1/1811.
Place(s) of Marriage(s)	Gawsworth Church, Cheshire, England
Children - names and dates of birth/death if known	Henry William Ball, 1816-1893 Mary Elizabeth Ball Colley, 1823-1897 Frederick David Ball, 1827-1913
Education	A 'Sunday School" opened in Macclesfield in 1796 and David was one of the first batch of 40 pupils to be enrolled. The Sunday school movement had started as a means to offer at least some education to children who spent the other six days of the week working. David Ball was still there, apparently, in  October 1810, when he would have been at least 21. He could certainly write well.
Occupation(s)	Started as a silk throwster, became a silk merchant and eventually went bankrupt.
Interests/Activities
Religion/Churches
Local Government experience (if any)
Notes (points of interest etc.)	David Ball travelled to South Australia with his 12-year-old son Frederick, his 16-year-old daughter Mary Elizabeth and his 23-year-old son Henry William. He claimed to be 35 (the upper age limit for assisted passage) but he was 50. He also claimed to be a widower. Family legend said otherwise: rather, that his wife had felt unable to face the sea voyage and had stayed in London. That was, indeed, the case: whatever the reason, she lived alone in London for almost another 40 years.   Family legend also had it that David Ball swindled his son-in-law James Colley out of his annuity. No proof has been found but David Ball’s wife referred to herself in successive census returns as being of independent means, or as an annuitant. Was it James Colley’s annuity that supported her? The jury is out, but the fact that David Ball had received poor relief only a week before he and James Colley bought their land in Prospect lends credence to the legend. At the very least, it looks as if he touched James for a loan. David Ball does seem to have had a chequered career. He and his wife Martha Pimlot were born and bred in or near Macclesfield.   David Ball worked as a silk throwster in Macclesfield but in about 1822 he and his wife moved to London, where he continued in the silk trade. About eight years later they moved to another centre of the silk trade, Taunton in Somerset, and David set up his own business. Things did not go well in Taunton and by 1834 David Ball was bankrupt and in the Marshalsea Debtors’ Jail. It is not surprising that by 1839 he was looking for a change of direction   David Ball was rather more entrepreneurial than his son-in-law James Colley, but he did not live in Prospect all the time. A mine of information, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia 1836-1984, tells us quite a bit about David Ball's activities in South Australia. Racier details were found in Trove. Timelines are confirmed by South Australian Gazette entries relating to publican licenses, which were renewed annually.   In May 1939, a J Coltman started up a pub known as Coltman’s in Franklin Street, on the north side with the total frontage between Cannon and Tatham Streets. On Friday 7 May 1841, David Ball took out a very large advertisement in the Southern Australian paper announcing that he had taken over Coltman's Family Hotel. The household department would be under the superintendence of Mrs Barslem and David Ball sought the support of past patrons and the gentlemen of Adelaide and the surrounding country. There was a newly established chess club and skittles, a coffee room serving breakfast at 9, dinner at 2 and tea at 7 o'clock, soups, confectionery, well aired beds, wines and spirits, and good stabling. (South Australian, 7 May 1841.) The pub's name was changed in 1841 to the Royal Hotel and Bush Club House. The more prosaic name of the Joiner's Arms was adopted in 1847 and the pub ceased business in 1850. David Ball seems not to have lasted the year out as its licensee, being replaced in that role by Francis Henry Burslem. The husband of Mrs Barslem, perhaps?   It is not known what David Ball did for the next five years, but he seems to have been in Prospect.  David Ball was listed as a subscriber to the Vigneron and Gardening Manual (South Australian Register, 28 June 1843.) His address was Vine Farm, Prospect. The name of the farm is intriguing. Was he growing grapes for wine?   James and David were signatories to a Memorial by the Colonists of South Australia Against the Introduction of Convicts, published in the South Australian 14 February 1845, page 2. They were both listed as living in Prospect. They also gave notice, with Joseph Ward, of their intention to protect their lands (part of s 349, County of Adelaide) under the provisions of the Act to Authorise and Regulate the Impounding of Cattle. (S.A Register, 8 August 1846.)   David was also was in Prospect in 1845, when his 18-year-old son Frederick ran afoul of the law. Frederick was accused by a neighbour, Mrs. Lawrence, of having wilfully driven a goat into her house, not for the first time. David Ball reckoned he'd seen nothing, but reported that Frederick had told him Mr Lawrence had set the dogs on the goat. Dismissed on an informality, perhaps because Mr Lawrence said there was no point putting questions to the accused (Frederick), he having perjured himself so badly! (Adelaide Observer, 18 November 1845.)   In 1846, on 19 March, David started up a pub at 19 Richard Street, Hindmarsh.  He called it the Commercial Inn, but it is now known as the Black Lion. (In fact, that was the name used in the licence notice, 19 March 1846 Gazette). It was not necessarily the most salubrious of pubs: one of the customers, a Mr Splatt, was arrested there in July 1846 on a fraud charge. David Ball gave evidence with a colourful turn of phrase. For example, he claimed to have said to the prisoner, having lent him £12, 'either you are gulled or I am." Well, David was, for he never got his money. Mr Splatt was found guilty of issuing forged cheques. South Australian, 25 September 1846).   While David Ball was at the Commercial Inn/Black Lion, he bought from John Wilkinson 8 acres of land in Section 348 for the sum of £60. It is not known what happened to that land holding.   On 28 June 1850 David Ball sold the Commercial Inn/Black Lion to Isaac Hall, who ran it until 2 April 1862. (Though it seems it stayed in the Hall family until about 1975.) The pub was still trading in 2019.   David Ball went straight from running the Commercial Inn (Black Lion Hotel) to running the  Brighton Inn, Brighton Road (west side, between Cemetery and Downing Street) Brighton.  It had been started in July 1849 by one William Roberts.  David Ball ran it for a year, selling up on 18 June 1851. The pub ceased business in 1909. The building is now on the National Trust file (item 788).   In 1852 David Ball took over the British Tavern, 58 Finniss Street, North Adelaide.  It was founded in 1837, rebuilt in 1883, and renamed the British Hotel in 1913.  It was still trading in 2019, a very upmarket gastropub in a beautiful, tree-lined residential street, and is also on the National Trust file (item 1167).   David Ball transferred his licence for the British Tavern to William Johnston on 12 December 1853. David Ball and his son Frederick moved to Ararat in the Victorian goldfields in 1856. They became farmers and publicans. Both died, at a ripe old age, in Ararat
Cross-references eg to siblings, parents, children	David Ball was the father of Henry William Ball Mary Elizabeth Colley nee Ball Frederick David Ball   He was the father-in-law of James Colley, who also arrived in South Australia on the Duchess of Northumberland.
Sources of information	Various. See notes section
Principal Researcher(s)	Joan Wilcox