| BACKGROUND / FAMILY HISTORY (cont.) Youghal, by the way, was the one time home of another famous Englishman. In 1580 he was given a 42000 acre estate for his services to the crown. Later he became Mayor of the town. It was Sir Walter Raliegh. It is alleged that when he introduced tobacco to Ireland, the Youghal fire brigade stood ready with their pails of water, in case a fire started when he lit his first pipe. This was also where he planted Europe’s first potato crop. Anyway, he made the area popular with English colonists from the West country, and no doubt this was one of the reasons for the family to settle there. Generations of the Ball family lived in the area during the next 100 years or so. His grandfather, Henry, was also mayor of Youghal, but in 1827 Robert Ball senior was finding life difficult in that part of Ireland. and decided it was time to move on if he was to achieve fame and fortune. He was a learned botanist and naturalist, well known in the town; he was even a magistrate at the remarkably young age of 22. He headed north to the Irish capital, where the Duke of Devonshire secured him a job in local government, and he quickly gained acceptance in Dublin society and academic circles. On 21st September 1837, he married Amelia Gresley, daughter of a Bristol merchant. They moved into what was to be the family home for many years, 3 Granby Row, near Rutland Square, a fashionable house with many rooms, several domestic staff and large enough to accommodate his library and museum, in which he kept many artefacts from around the world, and no doubt much in the way of stuffed animals, birds eggs, butterflies and other such specimens that interested him. He found his work in the office of the under-secretary distasteful, but he did it rather too well, and during the next 25 years was always passed over for promotion, eventually being retired on the grounds that he spent too much time on his scientific studies. He held many important posts in Dublin including that of secretary to the Dublin Zoological society, where he would be remembered as the man who, for years, kept the entrance fee to Dublin Zoo at one penny. Many years later Robert jnr. had cause to ride past Granby Row; and he told his mother that the Balls were back at no 3. This picture shows the house as a pawnbrokers. |
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