Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/398

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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Ball, Burgess, born July 28, 1749, son of Jeduthan Ball and Elizabeth Burgess, his wife. He was a member of the Lancaster county (Virginia) American Association, and was by it appointed one of th^e twenty- live "guardians of the county/* Early in the revolutionary war he was a volunteer aide to Washington. By his own prefer- ence, he subsequently accepted a captaincy in the Fifth Virginia Regiment. In 1776 he was unsuccessful in saving a stranded ship from the British, at Willoughby's Point; was court-martialed for the seeming negligence, and was honorably acquitted. In 1776, at his own expense, he recruited, clothed and' equipped a regiment for the Continental line, and was subsequently reimbursed. In 1777 he was made lieutenant-colonel of the First Virginia Infantry Regiment. He was in active service until taken prisoner at Charleston, in 1780, and after being ex- changed, busied himself with fitting out pri- vateers for Virginia waters. After the war. he retired to his homestead. "Travelers' Rest." near Fredericksburg. Through his boundless generosity and hospitality, he be- came impoverished, and late in life became almost a recluse in a rustic cabin. He mar- ried Mary Chichester, who died in 1775. He married fsecond) Frances Washington. He died in Virginia. March 7, 1800.

Grinnan, Daniel, Jr., born in Accomac county. Virginia, April 19, 1771, son of Dan- iel Grinnan, Sr., and Mary Cotton, his wife. The father, born in the same county, in ^739» removed to Culpeper county, and lived on a handsome estate lying on Cedar Run, near the present Mitchell's Station, on the Virginia Midland railroad : he served in the revolutionary war. under General Ed-

ward Stevens, in a Virginia brigade, in which his oldest son John was a quarter- master; and was at the battle of Guilford Court House. Daniel Grinnan, Jr., removed to Fredericksburg, about 1792, and became a clerk for James Somerville, who at his death, about 1798, made Grinnan his execu- tor, and who succeeded to the business. About 1800, Mr. Grinnan became a member of the firm of Murray, Grinnan & Mundell, with counting houses and warehouses in Fredericksburg and Norfolk; the firm had an extensive foreign trade, and were agents for the Argentine Confederation in their war with Spain. Mr. Grinnan married (first) Eliza Richards Green, daughter of Timothy Green, who in 1787 established the "Virginia Herald," for many years the only newspaper in Fredericksburg. Mr. Grinnan died March 25, 1830; married (second) Helen Buchan Glassell. daughter of Andrew Glassell. of 'Torthorwald.*' Madison county, Virginia.

Lewis, John, born in Spotsylvania county. Virginia. February 25, 1784, son of Col. Zachary Lewis, of the revolutionary army, and Ann Overton Terrell, his wife. That he was a man of ample knowledge is attested by his recoid as a teacher of law as well as of the ordinary branches. He taught the "Llangolen'' school, near the North Anna river, not far from Lewis' store, in Spotsylvania county, where he had among his pupils Gen. R. T. Daniel (who became attorney-general), and William Green and William Robertson, who became jurists of much ability. In 1832 he moved to Kentucky, and in 1834 located in Frank- lin county, that state, where he settled near his brother Addison, naming his place

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