CHARLES BALL

CHARLES BALL

Born: 1765

Died:

Source: Chaplains in the Jurisdiction of the Presidency of Fort St George from 1647 to 1805 (Rev Frank Perry, The Church In Madras 1904)

Biography: CHARLES BALL was born in London in 1765, being the son of William Ball of London, gent. He matriculated at St. John's College Oxford in 1783, graduated B.A. 1787, M.A. 1791; and when he was at home on leave in 1808 he took the further degrees of B.D. and D.D. He was appointed a Chaplain in 1797, but his name does not appear in the Canterbury Act Book. When he was appointed there can be hardly any doubt that the Directors intended him to take the place of Dr. Bell, who went home in 1796 and sent in his resignation in 1797. On his arrival at Fort St. George he found that the local Government had appointed Mr. E. H. Kerr to the vacancy, and that they intended him to occupy it. Ball appealed to the Government in vain; he was ordered to Trichinopoly; here he remained from 1798 to 1802. There can be no doubt that he cherished some resentment against Kerr, his junior in point of age, who had been allowed to supplant him in the post to which he had been appointed in London. In 1802 he became Junior Presidency Chaplain under Kerr, and soon found a means of obliging him to take leave. Kerr returned at the end of 1803, and Ball returned to Trichinopoly and remained there till 1807. Although Kerr was junior to Ball in point of age he was senior to him in the service; beside this he had made himself useful to the Government; he was therefore supported by the Government in his contention with Ball; and Ball, even though right in his contentions, was reprimanded both by the Government and by the Directors for insubordination. On his return from leave in 1809 he went to Wallajabad for a year; in 1810 he succeeded Atwood at St. Thomas Mount, and remained there till his retirement in 1818.