Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Peter Ball (died 1680) was an English landowner,

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, and

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the officia ...

who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1626, 1628/1629, and briefly in 1640. A royalist during the English Civil Wars, he was attorney general to

Queen Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria of France ( French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649. She was ...

. Ball was the son of Giles Ball of

Mamhead Mamhead is a rural village and civil parish near Dawlish and Kenton, Devon, Kenton in Devon, South West England, in the Teignbridge local authority area. Current community venues includMamhead Village Halland The Church of England parish church ...

, Devon. He was called to the bar from the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1623 and became

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

of Exeter.''Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Baal-Barrow'', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891)
pp. 51-78
accessed 24 February 2011 He was elected as one of the two Members of Parliament for Tiverton in 1626 and was re-elected in 1628. He sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. In 1636, he became an associate to the bench. Ball's father bought the Mamhead estate from the adventurer Sir Peter Carew (1514–1575). After inheriting the property, Ball began to build a new

Mamhead House Mamhead House, Mamhead, Devon, is a country house dating from 1827. Its origins are older but the present building was constructed for Robert William Newman, an Exeter merchant, in 1827–1833 by Anthony Salvin. The house is Grade I listed as Da ...

, replacing an older one. In April 1640, Ball was re-elected as one of the members for Tiverton in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

, which sat from 13 April to 5 May of that year. He then became attorney-general to

and was Lent reader in 1641. He was knighted at Oxford on 7 October 1643 and was awarded the degree of

Doctor of Civil Law Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; ) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees. At Oxford, the degree is a higher doctorate usually awarded on the basis of except ...

by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

on 19 February 1644. Ball died in 1680 and was buried at Mamhead on 4 September 1680. Ball married Ann Cooke, daughter of Sir William Cooke, of Gloucestershire. They had seventeen children including

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

the astronomer,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

the physician and Robert Ball, the MP.

Arms

The

canting ' (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: , Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, VOS Spelling: , ) is a pen-like tool used to apply liquid hot wax () in the batik-making process in Indonesia, more precisely (). Traditional consists of copper wax-con ...

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the head of the Ball family of Mamhead, Devon, is

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

ed: ''Argent a chevron gules between three fire balls proper''.As seen in 19th century stained glass window in Mamhead Church. Blazoned with chevron sable and with difference of a martlet, per Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.), ''The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620'' (Exeter, 1895), p. 35

External links

Image of arms of Ball
per

John Lambrick Vivian Lieutenant-Colonel John Lambrick Vivian (1830–1896), Inspector of Militia and Her Majesty's Superintendent of Police and Police Magistrate for St Kitts, West Indies, was an English genealogist and historian. He edited editions of the Heraldic V ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Peter Year of birth missing 1680 deaths Members of the Middle Temple 17th-century English lawyers English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April)