Burgess Ball

Burgess Ball was born in 1749 in Lancaster County on Virginia’s Northern Neck to Jeduthan Ball and Elizabeth Burgess. Burgess Ball’s first wife, Mary Chichester, died in 1775; they had two children. Burgess was most notable for his service during the American Revolution as George Washington’s aide. His second wife was Washington’s niece, Frances Thornton Washington. They were married in 1781 and had eight children.

After the Revolutionary War, Burgess Ball spent several years in Stafford County, at a plantation home also used as an inn called Traveler’s Rest. The Ball family moved to Loudoun County in 1793. In Loudoun, Ball started a 740-acre plantation called Springwood. He was also awarded 7,777 acres in the Northwest Territory for his service in the Continental Army. Ball’s grandson, George Washington Ball, later inherited Springwood, which became the site of the battle of Ball’s Bluff during the Civil War.

Burgess Ball’s military service did not end after the Revolution, and he maintained correspondence with George Washington on matters both private and public. In the summer of 1794, President Washington wrote to Ball about purchasing land from him in Loudoun to build an arsenal, writing, “if from an apprehension that the tract you bought is sickly…it is possible the United States would become the purchaser, on which to establish an Arsenal.” In the same letter, Washington quickly switched from discussing military matters to the topic of Ball’s private plantation business. Washington provided a lengthy character reference about an overseer named “Crow” whom Ball considered hiring. Washington warned Ball to keep an eye on Crow. He wrote, “he has good & bad qualities; but if he is to act under your own eyes, the former would preponderate.”

Although Ball only appears in a few short entries in the Mason family manuscript account book between late 1797 and early 1798, he maintained frequent contact with Stevens Thomson Mason throughout the 1790s with regard to militia funding and personnel quotas. Ball specifically sought Mason’s advice on difficulties he encountered in raising money for the militia, “on any terms,” in January 1797.

At Springwood, Ball had fifty-five enslaved people working on his land at the time of his death in 1800. During the appraisal of Ball’s inventory, two enslaved people, Polley and Betsey, were found to not belong to Ball, so they were removed from the inventory list. Polley was the daughter of Jane, one of Ball’s enslaved people. It is probable that Polley’s presence on Ball’s plantation is evidence of the larger kinship networks that connected the enslaved population across separate plantations in Loudoun County.

By Duncan Crossan