The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Photo by permission: Dan Silva, Find-a-Grave Contributor #46781334
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Photo: 1 of 1
Author: Stephen Christopher Clark
When Uzal Ball was born on March 20, 1747, in South Orange, New Jersey, his father, Timothy, was 35 and his mother, Esther, was 31. He married Abigail Burnett (Burnet) in 1770 in England. They had seven children in 22 years. He died on April 9, 1799, in Springfield, New Jersey, at the age of 52, and was buried at the First Presbyterian Church graveyard, which also contains an adjacent grave of his brother David, also a patriot. The gravestone inscription is clearly legible to this day reading “In Memory of Uzal Ball He Died April 9. 1799. In the 52nd Year of his Age.” This church was burned by the British during the Battle of Springfield, New Jersey in 1780. Research indicates Uzal inherited the house his parents lived in in Maplewood, New Jersey. This house still stands and is occupied. Based upon Uzal Ball’s will, he had extensive land holdings (the will mentions 100 acres), and appears to have been a farmer, or at least farming was a major occupation on his land. Uzal was a private, Second Regiment, Essex County Militia under Captain Samuel Pierson and Isaac Gillam in active service under Captain Pierson February 17 to March 24, 1777 and under Captain Gillam June 1780. As the Battle of Connecticut Farms (Union) New Jersey, and the Battle of Springfield, New Jersey took place in June 1780, and the family home in Maplewood is a short distance away from one of the major skirmishes of the Battle of Springfield (Vaux Hall Road Bridge), it is certainly within the realm of possibility that Uzal Ball saw action literally defending his home.
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