Modern English biography, volume 1 (of 4), A-H by Frederic Boase

for 1879 pp._ 8–54. BALL, WILLIAM. _b._ 1785; composed hundreds of comic and sentimental songs, his song _Jack’s lament for the loss of his tail_ was one of the most popular songs of the day ever written; his Drawing room concerts in 1829 were very successful; adapted to English words librettos of Masses of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Mozart’s _Requiem_, Spohr’s _God thou art great_, Rossini’s _Stabat Mater_ and Mendelssohn’s _St. Paul_ and _Lobgesang_; edited with N. Mori _The musical gem_, _2 vols._ 1831–32; edited _The London Spring annual lyrical and pictorial_ 1834. _d._ London 14 May 1869. BALL, SIR WILLIAM KEITH, 2 Baronet (_only child of Sir Alexander John Ball, 1 Baronet_). _b._ Greenwich 27 Oct. 1791; succeeded 25 Oct. 1809. _d._ Spernall hall, Warwickshire 9 March 1874. BALL-HUGHES, EDWARD HUGHES (_said to be son of a slop seller in Ratcliffe highway, London_). _b._ 1799. Ed. at Eton and Trin. coll. Cam.; cornet 7 hussars 28 Aug. 1817 to 11 Feb. 1819 when placed on h.p.; took additional name of Hughes by royal license 7 Aug. 1819 on coming into a fortune of £40,000 per annum from his uncle Admiral Sir Edward Hughes; one of the leading dandies of his day, known as the Golden Ball; lost £45,000 in one night at Wattier’s club, Piccadilly 1819, lost three quarters of his fortune at play, the greatest gambler of his day; bought Oatlands near Weybridge 1827, which he sold to Lord Francis Egerton; lived at St. Germain near Paris for some years before his death. (_m._ 22 March 1823 Mercandotti the opera dancer, natural dau. or protégée of 4 Earl of Fife, she was then aged 16). _d._ St. Germain 13 March 1863. _R. H. Gronow’s Celebrities_ (1865) 112–17. BALLANTINE, JAMES. _b._ The West Port, Edinburgh 11 June 1808; a house painter at Edin. 1830; one of the first to revive the art of glass painting; executed the 12 stained glass windows in the House of Lords, Westminster, representing kings and queens both regnant and consort of the U.K.; sec. of committee of Burns centenary 1859; grand bard of Scottish Grand lodge of Freemasons about 1862 to death; contributed about 50 songs to _Whistle-Binkie or the piper of the party_ 1832; author of _The Gaberlunzie’s wallet_ 1843; _A treatise on painted glass_ 1845; _Poems_ 1856; _Chronicle of the hundredth birthday of Robert Burns_ 1859, which contains reports of 872 Burns’ centenary meetings held all over the world 25 Jany. 1859; _The Provost’s daughter_, a musical farce in 2 acts performed at T.R. Edin. 1855; _The Gaberlunzie_, a drama in 3 acts