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| BACKGROUND / FAMILY HISTORY Before we deal with Robert himself, lets take a look at his family background. His ancestors were English, landowners with estates in Devon dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries. These estates were in Mamhead near Dawlish, and Morebath just north of Tiverton. He had some fighting forefathers including, a great great great grandfather who had been an officer in the 1680 army of Charles II. On the other side of the Atlantic, Bent Ball, a great uncle had fought under William Howe as a captain in the 63rd regiment in the American War of Independence. Despite being severely wounded by 3 musket balls at the Battle of Bunker Hill, he lived on until he was 80, dying in 1832 and with one of the shots still inside him. Coincidentally, two of the Ball lineage were astronomers in the late 17th century. They were brothers William and Peter. Ball found out about these ancestors when he researched his family history much later in life. Inevitably, there was a Black Sheep in the family, who went by the name of Nicholas Ball; his main claim to fame seems to have been his love of gambling. His epitaph read |
| Here lies Nick Ball Who had a fall From grandeur to decay His fine estate His gold and plate All lost was in a day “Mamhead” the stake And so he brake Now turns he into clay |
| It was the loss of this Devon estate that prompted at least part of the family to move and settle in Ireland, in Youghal, on the coast, some 30 miles from Cork. At first I was unsure how to pronounce this, until I came across a limerick, often quoted by Ball, which he picked up during his cruising days. |
| There’s a light in the harbour at Youghal Such a very good station and smoughal That the keepers elsewhere One and all I declare For that station incessantly boughal |
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| Youghal Harbour Lighthouse |
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