Nicholas Ball (lawyer)

Nicholas Ball PC (Ire), KC (1791 – 19 January 1865) was Irish barrister, judge and Liberal politician.

He was the eldest son of John Ball, a silk mercer of Dublin, where he lived for many years at No 75, St Stephen's Green. Ball was called to the bar in 1814 and became a King's Counsel in 1830.[1]

Six years later, he was nominated a and was admitted additionally a bencher of King's Inns.[1] In the same year he entered also the British House of Commons for Clonmel. Ball served as Attorney-General for Ireland during Lord Melbourne's second government from 11 July 1838 to 23 February 1839, having been sworn off the Privy Council of Ireland on taking office. When he subsequently was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland), he was only the second Roman Catholic since the reign of King James II of England to have held this post.

On 30 October 1817, he married Jane Sherlock, daughter of Thomas Sherlock and his wife Jane Mansfield, of Butlerstown, Waterford. Their daughter, Jane Isabella, married Henry Edward Doyle, director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and uncle of author Arthur Conan Doyle. Ball's son, John, was a Liberal politician and a noted naturalist.

References

1. Dod, Robert P. (1860). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Whitaker and Co. pp. 101–102.

• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Vol. I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Nicholas Ball Obituary, Gentleman's Magazine, March 1865

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Nicholas Ball

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Dominick Ronayne	Member of Parliament for Clonmel 1836–1839	Succeeded by David Richard Pigot
Legal offices
Preceded by Stephen Woulfe	Attorney-General for Ireland 1838–1839	Succeeded by Maziere Brady