Ball was born on May 2, 1649, in England to William Ball and Hannah Atherold.[2]
His father William Ball (1615–1680) emigrated to Virginia in 1657 becoming a trader and planter, eventually settling with his family in Millenbeck, Virginia.[3]
Ball married twice. His first marriage was to Elizabeth Rogers (or Romney) (1655–1703), with whom he had five children: Anne Ball (1683–1748), Elizabeth Ball (1684–1711), Esther or Easter Ball (1685–1751), Hannah Ball (1686–1764), and Joseph Ball (1689–1760).[1]
Joseph and Mary's daughter Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington.
Rogers died in the early 1700s. After her death, Ball married Mary Johnson (1672–1721). Johnson was a widow who had two children from a prior marriage. 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.[1]
^Browning, Charles H. (1912). "The Mother of "Mary, the Mother of Washington"". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 36 (2): 217–221. JSTOR20085591.