The John Ball Memo Book, 1850-1851, is a bound volume listing crops at Hyde Park Plantation and the Villa as well as miscellaneous accounts for corking a dock, grass for cows, seeds for the garden, blue denim cloth, tobacco, ticking, shoes, molasses, tea and other household items. Also included is a list of men defaulting on militia duty and patrol service for January, March and April of 1851.
The Travel Expenses Book, 1806-1810, is a bound volume kept by John Ball listing expenses for his travels to New York, Boston, Cambridge, Montreal, Quebec, Philadelphia, Bowling Green, Washington, Alexandria, Trenton, and other locations. Expenses are kept for food, clothing, lodging, and hiring servants. Notes indicate Mr. Ball's rating for service and fare at hotels and taverns in various locations.
The Account of Enslaved Persons and Various Stories, 1831-1844, is kept by or for a member of the Ball family. The first half of the account book contains various lists of enslaved men, women and children owned by John Ball at Comingtee/Stoke, Kensington and Midway Plantations in Berkeley County, South Carolina. These lists include enslaved persons given first or second quality blankets, cloth, clothes and osnaburg fabric as well as lists of pregnant enslaved women or enslaved infants given clothes.
The second half of the book contains stories retold by various persons on topics such as an eyewitness account of the Steamship Pulaski Disaster in 1838, stories of enslaved persons including the execution of an enslaved man, stories about the family of George Chicken, eyewitness accounts of the British occupation in Charleston during the Revolutionary War, numerous ghost stories and an account of the first settlers of Charlestown.
1770-1779, 1760-1769, 1740-1749, 1750-1759, 1720-1729, and 1730-1739
Description:
The Ball Family Account and Blanket Book, 1720-1778, includes lists of purchases, expenses, blankets given out to enslaved persons, and names/ages of enslaved persons at Midway, Limerick, Comingtee and Kensington Plantations. The book includes a loose list of enslaved men with their place of birth and ages, ca. 1750, currently on exhibit at the South Carolina Historical Society Museum.
The Foaling Register, 1745-1777, is a bound register kept by Elias Ball II recording the selling and purchasing of horses, mules and mares and the births of colts at Kensington and Limerick Plantations.
The Surveyor's Notebook, 1767, is a bound volume kept by or for a member of the Ball family containing field notes, tables, conversions of liquid, cloth measures, and a description of rules of "three direct" and "three inverse."
The Account Book for Caroline Olivia Ball, 1812, was kept by Caroline Ball's father John Ball Sr. recording rent money received for a house given to Caroline Ball from Elias Ball.
