Ball Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Ball Family History

Ball Family History

The Ball ancient family history was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. Ball is a baptismal name meaning 'son of Baldwin', a name of great antiquity. Variants of this name include Balle, Bald, Baller and Ballard. This name is of Anglo-Norman descent spreading to the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales in early times and is found in many mediaeval manuscripts throughout these countries. Examples of such are a Custance Balde, County Cambridgeshire, a John Balle, County Norfolk, and a Thomas Baldwyn, County Oxfordshire, who were all recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls', England, in the year 1273. This is a personal name so popular in the surname period that it has left its mark deeply indented. An Aunt of William the Conqueror married Baldwin, Earl of Flanders and William himself espoused Matilda, daughter of the fifth Baldwin of that Earldom. Flanders was called 'Baldwins Land'.

In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland, especially during the seventeenth century. During the 'Plantations of Ireland' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Ireland was colonized by the English Crown with this period marking the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland. This period brought an influx of settlers into the country but, unlike the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century that resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.

The Ball family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Ball descendants.