Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/405

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


quiry, which was ordered by the Secretary c«' the Treasury, and he was acquitted by the examining board of any intention to de- fiaud the government. President Jackson disavowed this return, and, declaring that he did believe Randolph intended to defraud the government, dismissed him from the navy. In May, 1833, Jackson went to be pres- ent at the unveiling of the cornerstone of the monument in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Mary, mother of Washington, and on his return stopped at Alexandria, where Ran- dolph sought the presidential presence and pulled Jackson's nose. It was attempted to arrest him, but nothing was done. He mar- ried Eglantine, daughter of Peter Beverley, and left issue.

Ball, Fayette, born April 20, 1791, son of Bu-rgess Ball and Frances Washington, his wife, daughter of Col. Charles Washington and Mildred Thornton, his wife. His god- fathers were President George Washington (by proxy, and who named him after his friend, the Marquis Lafayette) and Col. Gustavus B. Wallace; his godmothers were Martha Washington, wife of the President, and Mrs. Sarah Roane. He served in the war of 1812 as corporal, under his brother, Captain George Washington Ball. In 1825, while Lafayette was visiting in this coun- try. Mr. Ball met him at Aldie and conveyed him in his own carriage to Leesburg, a dis- tance of fourteen miles, where a great ova- tion was accorded the distinguished guest. At parting, the Marquis gave to his name- sake a papier mache snuflF box, containing his likeness, telling him to keep it, and he would redeem it with one more valuable. After returning to France, the Marquis sent him a very handsome box of gold and tor-


toise shell, suitably inscribed. Fayette Ball married (first) Frances Williams, daughter of Major-General James Williams, of the \'irginia line: and (second) Mary Thomson Mason, daughter of Gen. Thomson Mason,

Carter, Thomas, eldest son of Peter and Judith Norris Carter, was born in Fauquier county, April 24, 1731. He removed to Rye Cove, Clinch river, in what is now Scott county, Virginia, in 1773. with his first cous- ins. Dale and John Carter, sons of Charles Carter, of Amherst. On March 26, 1774, they all had surveys of land, Thomas for one hundred and ninety-seven acres in Rye Cove, and on March 31. 1783, he had an- other survey for fourteen hundred and twenty acres, to include his improvements. From 1774 to 1784 he was a road overseer in Washington county ; and when his home fell into the new county of Russell, he was a justice of the first court of that county, May 9, 1786, and a lieutenant of militia. He represented Russell county in the constitu- tional convention of 1788, and is said to have served in the legislature several times. His will was probated in Russell county, October 25, 1803.

Ruffner, David, born in Page county, Vir- ginia, in 1767, son of Joseph and Anna (Heistand) Ruffjier, and grandson of Peter Ruffner, who emigrated from the German- Swiss border to Pennsylvania in 1739, and later settled in Page county, Virginia, where he became owner of an immense tract of land. Joseph Ruffner, in 1795, sold his Shenandoah estate, purchased five hundred and two acres in the Kanawha valley (now in West Virginia), and removed there with his family. This property included the salt spring on the Kanawha river, at which a


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