Family background
James Ball was born in about 1813 in Highgate, Middlesex, England, the son of Thomas and Sarah Ball. He married Susannah Smith (1814-71) on 16 April 1835 at Shoreditch, London. The pair had three sons and six daughters together.
Ball and his family arrived in Sydney in 1857 on the ship Matoaka. The assisted immigration list notes Ball was a carpenter, while Susannah was a house servant and the couple’s eldest child, James, was also a carpenter. Ball died on 7 May 1879 at ‘Claptonville’, Cleveland Street, Redfern, aged 65 years, and was buried in the Old Church of England Section of Rookwood Cemetery.
Occupation & interests
James Ball was listed on his assisted immigrant passenger list as a carpenter. He later worked as a bookbinder.
Community activity
James Ball was part of a deputation that waited upon the Colonial Secretary on 2 March 1868, to present a petition, on behalf of the ratepayers of the borough of Redfern, requesting the government to divide the borough into four wards, instead of into three.
Local government service
James Ball was nominated on 7 February 1865 to represent the Redfern Ward. He was an alderman on Redfern Council in 1865-68.
References
‘Suburban Municipalities’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 February 1865, p.10, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13102117
‘Municipality of Redfern’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 March 1868, p. 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28609422
State Records Authority of NSW, Persons on bounty ships to Sydney, Newcastle, and Moreton Bay (Board’s Immigrant Lists), Series: 5317, Reel: 2476
‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 May 1879, p. 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13434597
‘Advertising’, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 August 1879, p. 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13441678