WOMAN IN ART
the heritage of the man from his mother. Her portrait done by an artist,
Wooliston by name, expresses what we know of her endowments.
Mary Ball's English grandfather, Colonel William Ball, emigrated to
America in 1657, His son, Colonel Joseph Ball, built his home on the left
bank of the Rappahannock River near its confluence with the tidal waters of
beautiful Chesapeake Bay, one of the beauty spots of old Virginia. His plan-
tation was called Epping Forest, where, in 1706, his youngest child Mary
was born. Little is known of her life in that early home. Her name occurs
in a legal document of June 25, 1711, when her father, "smitten with sore
illness, lying upon the bed in his lodging-chamber, maketh his last will and
testament, commending his soul to God, with sound and disposing mind,"
carefully arranged his estate for the benefit of his family, and made a special
bequest to their youngest child, thus "Item .... I give and bequeath unto
my daughter Mary 400 acres of land in Richmond County, in ye freshes of
Rappa-h-h'n River, being a part of a pattern of 1600 acres, to her and her heirs
forever,"
Books and schools were few and far between in those days and only one of Mary Ball's letters remains; it was written to her half brother Joseph in England, and among other things we learn a fact : "We have not had a school- master in our neighborhood until now in nearly four years."
There were no public schools in Virginia at that time, and few tutors were to be found. But Mrs. Ball lived until her daughter was twenty-two and well grounded in the practicalities and refinements of life. We take a quaint description of Mary Ball from a letter found during the war in a desolated house near Yorktown, Virginia, under date of "Wmsburg ye 7th day of Oct., 1722"; the letter says:
| | "Madame Ball of Lancaster and her sweet Molly have gone Horn. Mamma thinks Molly the Comliest Maiden She Knows. She is about 16 yrs. old, is taller than Me, is very Sensable, Modest, and Loving, Her Hair is like unto flax. Her eyes are the color of Yours, and her cheeks are like May Blossoms,'" | |
This description helps one to understand why, in the flowery language of that time, the sweet girl was called "The Rose of Epping Forest." A scrap of another old letter says : "I understand Molly Ball is going Home with her Brother, a Lawyer who lives in England,"
The visit was probably made, and the inference is that Mary Ball met and married her husband there, for the old family Bible still proves by the
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