Ball
Ball names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Ball John, "the mad priest," an English priest who took
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
John, "the mad priest," an English priest who took part in the rising of the peasantry under Wat the Tyler. He was a Lollard, a follower of Wyclif's teachings. He pleased the peasants by inveighing on the equality of gentry and villeins, and was thrice imprisoned by an archbishop for preaching heresy. He was in jail at Maidstone when the peasants rose. One of their first efforts was to set him free. They escorted him to Blackheath, where he exhorted them, so it is said from the text, When Adam dalf and Eve span Who was thanne a gentilman! After the murder of Wat the Tyler, Ball fled, but was overtaken at Coventry and was executed at St. Albans July 15, 1381, in the presence, it is said, of the king. See Lollards ; Wat Tyler This priest used oftentimes to go and preach when the people in the villages were coming out from mass; and he would make them gather about him, and would say thus: "Good people, things go not well in England, nor will, till everything be in common and there no more be villeins and gentlemen. By what right are they whom we call lords greater folk than we? We be all come from one father and one mother, Adam and Eve, . . . but they are clothed in velvet and are warm in their furs, while we shiver in rags; they have wine, and spices, and fair bread; and we, oat cake and straw, and water to drink; they dwell in fair houses, and we have the pain and travail, the rain and the wind in the fields. Yet from our labor they keep their estate." And so the people would murmur one with the other in the fields, and in the ways as they met together, affirming that John Ball spoke truth.--Froissart. The peasants were dispersed and defeated, their leaders were tried, sentenced and hanged; but the solid fruits of victory rested with the insurgents of June, 1381. Once in the history of England only--once, perhaps, only in the history of the world--peasants and artizans attempted to effect a revolution by force. They nearly succeeded--at least they became for a short time the masters of the situation. The English laborer, for a century or more, became virtually free and constantly prosperous.--Thorold Rogers.
Ball THOMAS, an American sculptor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS, an American sculptor, born in Charlestown, Mass., June 3, 1819; studied in Italy; was engaged in painting in 1840-1852; adopted sculpture exclusively in 1851; resided in Florence, Italy, in 1865-1897, and afterward in Montclair, N. J. His best known works are the equestrian statue of Washington, in Boston; the Webster statue in Central Park, New York; the Washington Monument in Methuen, Mass.; and "Emancipation," in Washington, D. C. He published "My Three Score Years and Ten, an Autobiography" (1891); "History of American Sculpture" (1903). He died 'n Montclair, N. J., in 1911.
Ball SIR ROBERT STAWELL, an English astronomer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR ROBERT STAWELL, an English astronomer, born in Dublin, July 1, 1840; studied at Trinity College. He was, successively, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at the Royal Irish College of Science; Professor of Astronomy at Dublin; Lowdean Professor Astronomy at Cambridge; and Director of Cambridge Observatory, and Astronomer Royal for Ireland. His published works on mechanics and astronomy include "The Story of the Heavens"; "Starland" (1889); "The Earth's Beginnings" (1911); "Popular Guide to the He was knighted in 1886, and died in 1913. Heavens" (1915).
Ball . See Basket Ball
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See Basket Ball ; Baseball ; Football ; Cricket ; Lacrosse
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The historical entries here still stand: John Ball's 1381 rhyme and execution at St Albans are recorded much as Aiton's had them in 1910, and Sir Robert Ball, dead in 1913, remains best remembered for popular astronomy books like "Starland." What has moved is Thomas Ball's reputation. Collier's in 1921 listed his "Emancipation" in Washington as one of his best-known works without comment; the group, showing Lincoln standing over a kneeling freedman, has since become one of the most contested monuments in the United States, and its Boston replica was removed from Park Square in December 2020 after protests. The original still stands in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C., now with signage and periodic calls for its removal.
Written for this edition, 2026.