F. Elrington Ball

Francis Elrington Ball, known as F. Elrington Ball (1863–1928), was an Irish author and legal historian, best known for his work The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921 (1926).

Life

A younger son of John Thomas Ball (1815 to 1898), the Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1875 to 1880, and his wife Catherine Elrington, Ball was unsuccessful in seeking election (as a Unionist) to Parliament at the United Kingdom general election, 1900 in South Dublin. His father had represented Dublin University in Parliament from 1868 to 1875.

The Four Courts on fire during the Civil War

Ball is, however, best known for his scholarship, particularly for his work on Swift, the local history of Dublin and on the history of the judiciary in Ireland from 1221 to 1921. The destruction of the Four Courts in 1922, during the Irish Civil War, and of the public records and legal archives it contained (especially those of the Irish Public Records Office) made Ball's prior research into the history of the Irish judiciary up to 1921 particularly valuable to later scholars. The review published in the Irish Law Times & Solicitors' Journal described it as "a truly marvellous condensation of judicial history involving the exhaustive study of a long period, the earlier part of which was hitherto obscure." The same review characterised Ball as "a writer of great care and accuracy, whose work is always characterised by minute and diligent research."

Ball was also a governor of the Blue Coat School, Oxmantown, Dublin.

References

• vi, 208, 211, 275.