Please Note:  it has long been claimed and widely believed that our subject was the William BALLARD who immigrated in 1634 on the Mary & John (see below).  Anderson et al. in their book, The Great Migration (also see below), dispute that this immigrant is our subject.  I've begun to work on this question, but I'm far from resolving the issues.  The best course, at this point, is to be conservative and follow Anderson.

The identity of William's wife has not, to my knowledge, been proven.  Below are the two candidates most often put forward.  If you have found proof, please share the documentation.

Wife:  Grace BERWICK
Baptism:  12 Dec 1617, St. Mary le Port, Bristol, Gloucestershire 
Father:  Thomas BERWICK
Mother:  Anne BLOUNT

Wife:  Grace LOVEJOY
Baptism:  9 Apr 1620, Sonning Parish, Berkshire, England
Father:  William LOVEJOY

6.  John BALLARD, b. 17 Jan 1653 
7.  Hannah Ann BALLARD, b. 14 Aug 1655 
8.  Lydia BALLARD, b. 30 Apr 1657 
9.  Abigail BALLARD

A secondary source — claiming to have primary sources, but unwilling to share them — says William had a prior wife, named Sarah, and that she, not Grace, is the mother of the first five children.

1.  Clarence Almon Torrey.  1985.  New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD.

Torrey's work began as a handwritten manuscript compiled ca. 1927-1960 that was published in 1979 on seven reels of microfilm by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston.  Names and data were later extracted by Elizabeth P. Bentley and published in book form in 1985; however, the book did not include Torrey's bibliography and supporting documentation.  Torrey's manuscript is an index to mostly published extractions and secondary sources, making his work a tertiary source, albeit a highly respected one.
p. 38	BALLARD, William (1617/21-1689) & Grace [?BERWICK] (-1694); b 1641?, b 1653; Lynn/Andover
The brackets around [?BERWICK] indicate the source document was something other than a marriage record.   The marriage date is unknown, the "b" indicating that the following is the birth date of the first known child, as an approximate indicator of an earlier marriage date.  The placenames indicate the known residences of the husband, ending with his place of death.   Torrey erred in saying this William BALLARD was of Lynn.  William BALLARD of Lynn was a different William BALLARD (1602/3-1638).
I wrote to the NEHGS and got a photocopy of this page of Torrey's manuscript, which includes his sources, in the hopes of finding where Torrey got the idea that Grace might be Grace BERWICK.  Torrey's notations regarding his sources are abbreviated and cryptic.  I'm going to need to find someone who knows what these mean.

2.  Lucius Manluis Boltwood.  1848.  "Deaths in the town of Andover, Ms., from 1650 to 1700." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 2: 377-381.

p. 379	William Ballard Sen.	died July 10 1689
p. 380	Grace Ballard widow of William	died Apr  27 1694

3.  Charles Frederic Farlow.  1911.  Ballard Genealogy.  Charles H. Pope, Boston, MA (available as a facsimile reprint from NEHGS, Boston). Click here for excerpt. 

4.  Samuel G. Drake.  1860.  Result of Some Researches Among the British Archives for Information Relative to The Founders of New England: Made in the Years 1858, 1859 and 1860. Originally Collected for and Published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and Now Corrected and Enlarged.  Office of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston.  162 pp. (online copy at us.archive.org; boldface added by DGM):

p. 70

The names of such Passengers as took the Oathes of Supremacy, & Alleigeance to pass for New England in the Mary & John of London Robert Sayres master.   24th Mar 1633 William Trace John Marshe John Luff Henry Traske William Moudey Robert Sever Thomas Avery Henry Travers Thomas Sweete John Woodbridge Thomas West Thomas Savery Christopher Osgood Philip Fowler Richard Jacob Daniel Ladd Robert Kingsman John Bartlett Robert Coker William Savery John Anthony,   Left behind Stephen Jurden John Godfrey George Browne Nicholas Noyce Richard Browne Richard Reynolds Richard Littlehall William White Matthew Hewlett [Hercules] John Wheyler William Clarke Robert Neuman Adrian Vincent The 26th day of March. Nicholas Easton Richard Kent Abraham Mussey William Ballard Matthew Gillett William Franklin John Mussey

p. 71

Thomas Cole Thomas Parker James Noyce John Spencer William Spencer Henry Shorte William Hibbens Richard Kent Joseph Myles John Newman William Newbey Henry Lunt Joseph Pope Thomas Newman John Newman For which we gave certificate, together with five others wheh are said to be left behind to oversee the Chattle to pass in the Hercules vizt. The names of the Passengers in the Hercules of London, John Kiddey Mar: for New England— These six Passengers took their Oathes of Supremacy & Alleigeance the 24th of March and were left behind the Mary & John as intended to pass in ye Hercules—Vizt. John Anthoney Robert Early William Latcome Thomas Foster William Foster Matthew Hewlett | | | | | | Cert. the six first to Mt'er Sayers as intended Secondh to Mr Kiddey to pass in the Hercules— 16th April 1634       18 — Nathaniel Davyes George Kinge Thomas Rider William Elliott William Fifeilde Henry Phelps— These Proceedings were Copyed out of an Olde Book of Orders belonging to the Port of South'ton but no remaining at the Custom house in Portsmouth the 6th Day of Decemter 1735— pr THOMAS WHITEHOUSE.

.  Robert Charles Anderson; George F. Sanborn, Jr.; & Milinde Lutz Sanborn.  1999.  The Great Migration:  Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635.  7 vols.  New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston.

Volume I, A-B
p. lxii	Key to Titles... Drake's Founders Samuel G. Drake, Result of Some Researches Among the British Archives for Information Relative to the Founders of New England: Made in the Years 1858, 1859 and 1860 (Boston 1860)
pp. 146-151	WILLIAM BALLARD [of Lynn] ...
	An extensive section on WILLIAM BALLARD of Lynn, with which I have no quarrel.
p. 151	WILLIAM BALLARD [of Andover(?)] On 26 March 1634, William Ballard took the oath of supremacy to pass to New England on the Mary & John [Drake's Founders 70]. COMMENTS:  Savage proposed that this man settled at Lynn, and may have been the father of the WILLIAM BALLARD who came in the following year and also settled at Lynn.  The William Ballard of 1635 was most certainly the resident of Lynn, based on the names of the children, and there is no evidence for an elder generation there.
	I agree that the 1634 immigrant on the Mary & John was not the William BALLARD who settled at Lynn, nor is there any evidence, whatsoever, to suggest the 1634 immigrant was the father of William BALLARD of Lynn.
	The only other early William Ballard resided in Andover, and Savage muddled the Andover and Lynn families.  The earliest record of the William Ballard of Andover was on 25 March 1651 when he was made a freeman [EQC 1:218].  There is no reason to connect William Ballard of Andover with the passenger of 1634.
	I agree that Savage, like many others, has confused the William BALLARDs of Andover and Lynn.  As for the 1634 immigrant, it has not been proven that he isn't William of Andover, so I will continue to consider it as an open question in need of further research.  I definitely dispute that the earliest record of William was in 1651.  Please see the excerpt from Farlow's Ballard Genealogy and Abbott's Descendants of George Abbott where William is on a list as the 16th resident of Andover, placing him there in 1644.

.  Lemuel Abijah Abbott.  1906.  Descendants of George Abbott, of Rowley, Mass., of his Joint Descendants of George Abbot, Sr., of Andover, Mass... Self-published.  [T.R. Marvin & Son, Printers, Boston] (online at us.archive.org).  Includes the important listing of the first settlers of Andover, who include a William BALLARD who is surely our subject.

.  Anon.  1855.  "Passengers of the Mary and John, 1634." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9(Jul): 265-268.  Another transcription of the Mary & John manifest (see Drake 1860, above).

.  Charles Edward Banks.  1930.  The Planters of the Commonwealth.  Houghton-Mifflin, Boston (1961, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD):

Please note that these are not verbatim transcriptions of original records.  Banks compiled these entries from multiple sources, some of them secondary, which has led to errors.  In particular, neither the "Origin & Occupation" or "Destination" column appeared in the original.  Banks added these based on later records, which explains, for example, the error of giving the William BALLARD, here, a destination of Salem, which refers to William BALLARD of Lynn who immigrated in 1635 on the James and lived for a time at Salem.  So, Banks joins the ranks of the many who have mixed up the William BALLARDs of Lynn and Andover.   Whether the one, here, is William of Andover remains to be proven. Rev. John WOODBRIDGE on the list was the founder of Andover in 1641 when he brought a group of settlers with him from Newbury and Ipswich.
p. 110	MARY AND JOHN, Robert Sayres, Master, sailed from Southampton March 24, 1633/4, but the time of her arrival is not recorded.1 Name Origin & Occupation Destination William TRACEY     John MARSH     John LUFF     Henry TRASK     William MOODY   Mrs. Sarah MOODY   Joshua MOODY   Ipswich Robert SEAVER   Roxbury Thomas AVERY   Salem Henry TRAVERS   Newbury Thomas SWEET     Rev. John WOODBRIDGE of Stanton, county Wilts Ipswich Thomas WEST     Thomas SAVERY of Highworth, county Wilts Plymouth William SAVERY of Highworth, county Wilts Plymouth Christopher OSGOOD   Mrs. Margery OSGOOD of Marlborough, county Wilts Ipswich 1Drake: Founders of New England, 70-71.
p. 111	Name Origin & Occupation Destination Joseph MILES   Salem William NEWBY     Robert NEWMAN     Thomas NEWMAN   Mrs... NEWMAN   John NEWMAN   Ipswich William CLARKE     Nicholas EASTON   Mrs... EASTON   Ipswich Richard KENT   Mrs. Jane KENT   Mary KENT   Richard KENT   Ipswich William BALLARD   Salem Abraham MUSSEY     John MUSSEY     William FRANKLIN   Newbury Matthew GILLETT   Salem Thomas COLE   Mrs. Anna COLE   Salem Rev. Thomas PARKER   Newbury John SPENCER   Ipswich William SPENCER     Henry SHORT   Ipswich William HIBBENS   Mrs. Anne HIBBENS of Boston, county Lincoln Boston Henry LUNT   Newbury Joseph POPE   Salem
pp. 112- 113	Name Origin & Occupation Destination Philip FOWLER   Mrs. Mary FOWLER   Mary FOWLER   Samuel FOWLER   Hester FOWLER   Joseph FOWLER   Thomas FOWLER of Marlborough, county Wilts Ipswich Richard JACOB   Ipswich Daniel LADD   Salisbury Robert KINGMAN   Ipswich John BARTLETT     Robert COKER   Newbury Stephen JORDAN   Salisbury John GODFREY     Rev. James NOYES   Mrs. Sarah NOYES   Nicholas NOYES of Cholderton, county Wilts Newbury Richard BROWNE   Mrs. Edith BROWNE   George BROWNE   Ipswich Richard LITTLEHALE   Newbury Richard REYNOLDS     William WHITE     John WHEELER   Mrs. Anne WHEELER   David WHEELER   Anne WHEELER   Roger WHEELER [begin p. 113]   Elizabeth WHEELER   Mercey WHEELER of Salisbury, county Wilts Salisbury Adrian VINCENT

.  Joshua Coffin.  1852.  "Early Settlers of Essex and Old Norfolk." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 6(Apr): 205-214.
A simple list of the names of people found in the public records of Essex County (comprising part of old Norfolk Co.) with no indication what that record was.

p. 207

BALLARD... William, ae. 44 in 1662. Joseph, ae. 26 in 1671.

These two BALLARDs are the correct ages to be our subject and his eldest son.

.  George M. Bodge.  1889.  "Soldiers in King Philip's War."  New England Historical and Genealogical Register 43(Jul):  259-279.  On p. 261, among "items of credit" in the "Treasurer's book":

AT THE GARRISON AT CHELMSFORD... January 25, 1675-6... William Ballard  02 08 00

Surely this is not our subject, who would have been nearly 60 years old at the time.

.  Anon.  1902.  General Register of the Society of Colonial Wars, 1899-1902.  Publ. by Society, NY (online at GenealogyLibrary.com):

p. 545	A. & H. A. Co., Abbreviation for Member Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston.
p. 556	BALLARD, WILLIAM, 1603-1689. In King Philip's War in garrison at Chelmsford.  A. & H. A. Co., 1636.
Here we again have William BALLARD of Lynn (1603-1639)  mixed up with William BALLARD of Andover (c1616-1689).   King Philip's War was fought from 1675 onwards, at which time William BALLARD of Lynn was dead and William BALLARD of Andover was nearly 60 year old.  It seems far more likely to me that the garrisoned soldier was some other, younger William BALLARD.  The William BALLARD who was admitted to the A.&H.A. Co. was William of Lynn (see Lewis & Newhall 1865).

.  Alonzo Lewis & James R. Newhall.  1865.  History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts.  John L. Shorey, Publ., Boston, MA (online at GenealogyLibrary.com):

ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY... A list of the members from Lynn... 1638.  Ballard, William

.  Joseph Gardner Bartlett.  1907.  "Genealogical Research in England."  New England Historical and Genealogical Register 61(Jan):  64-69.

p. 68	The following extracts from the Domestic State Papers of the reign of Charles I., now preserved at the Public Record Office, London, England, give the locations in England, heretofore unknown, whence came several early colonists of New England...
p. 69	State Papers (Domestic Series), 1638, vol. cccc, Oct. 20, No. 67.  Certificate of Edward Duke, sheriff of Suffolk, of returns made to him of defaulters to the ship-money tax for 1637.  Among the defaulters were the following... Hundred of Lothingland, Bradwell, William Ballard, gone to New England...
Anderson (1999:149) has determined this is William BULLARD of Dedham, MA, not our subject.

10.  Frederick Adams Virkus, ed.  1942.  The Compendium of American Genealogy: the Standard Genealogical Encyclopedia of the First Families of America.  Vol. VII.  The Institute of American Genealogy, Chicago (1968, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD; Broderbund CD-200):

On page 820 is the lineage of Zoe T. (Hood) Tunicliff of Schenectady Co., NY.  The "Mehitable" below is "Mehitable Johnson," an ancestor six generations back from Zoe:

7-Mehitable (b 1686), m 1705 Hamborough Blount (b 1681; Wm.8, m. 1668, Elizabeth [d 1689], dau. Wm. Ballard, qv, m Grace, dau. of Thos. Berwick, of Eng.; Wm.9, of ancient royal lineage, to Andover, Mass., 1635; Francis10 [buried at St. Peters in Eng., ca. 1628], m Margaret, dau. of Wm. Hambury [1580-1630], of St. Phillips...

The Compendium is a collection of submitted pedigrees.  While undoubtedly a scholarly "cut above" unedited compilations (e.g., WorldConnect, the LDS Ancestral File, Broderbund World Family Trees, etc.), it is nontheless composed of undocumented pedigrees.

11.  Nelson Osgood Rhoades.  1912.  Colonial Famillies of the United States of America.  Grafton Press, NY (reprinted 1966ff, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD; Broderbund CD-189).

p. 62	The emigrant ancestor of this family was William BALLARD; b. in England circa 1617; d. July, 1689; was in Andover, Massachusetts, a husbandman, in 1644, freeman, 2d May, 1638; m. Grace (surname not given), who d. 27th April, 1694.
p. 63	ISSUE    I.  Joseph, of whom later.   II.  William.  III.  Sarah, m. 24th February, 1670, Henry HOLT.   IV.  Elizabeth, d. 11th July, 1689; m. 11th November, 1668, William BLUNT.    V.  John, b. 17 January, 1635   VI.  Hannah, b. 14th August, 1665; m. 20th September, 1681, John SPALDING. VIII.  Abigail.   IX.  Ann, m. Samuel BUTTERFIELD.

The date "1635" should be 1653; the date "1665" should be 1655.
The William BALLARD made freeman in 1638 was William BALLARD of Lynn, not our subject.

.  Holt Association of America.  1930.  The First Three Generations of Holts in America. Moore Printing Co., Newburgh, NY.
On p. 30:

...on the 24th and 26th of March, 1633-4, a long list of passengers took the oath of allegiance and sailed from the Thames on the Mary and John, Robert Sayres, master; among them was William Ballard.  While the proof is not absolute, the evidence is good that this was the William Ballard who, at the time about eighteen years of age, later married Grace, when, where, and last name unknown, and had a daughter Sarah, who became the wife of Henry Holt, the second son of Nicholas.  Thirty-eight names of the passengers of the Mary and John are on the list of the first settlers of Newbury, and among them is the name of William Ballard.  The husband of Grace and the father of Sarah was first at Newbury, and it is logical to assume that he, like so many of the early settlers of Newbury, had been a passenger on the Mary and John.  The ship arrived in Boston in May, 1634.

Documentation is needed for all of this.

14.  Louis Effingham De Forest.  1924.  Ballard and Allied Families. Self-published, New York, NY (available from Higginson Book Company).

15.  Melvin Gilbert Dodge.  1942.  Ballard Genealogy:  Israel Ballard (1748-1810) and Alice Fuller (his wife) (1751-1796). Utica, NY.  Manuscript presented to the LDS by Patricia M. Caldwell, Silver Springs, MD (available online at GenealogyLibrary.com):

The wife of William Ballard, as here appears, was named Grace Berwick. He died on July 10, 1689, and his widow on April 27, 1694, both in Andover.

DGM:  There is no proof that William's wife, Grace, was Grace BERWICK.  My impression is that Dodge is not a reliable source; that is, on the face of it, the work is neither rigorous nor scholarly.  It is probably most accurate in those lengthy sections that were lifted verbatim from Farlow and De Forest, without attribution (i.e., plagiarized).

16.  LDS.  Ancestral File (online).

Shows William BALLARD's wife as Grace BERWICK, that she was born 12 Dec 1617 in St. Mary le Port, Bristol, and that she died 27 Apr 1694 in Andover.  It gives their marriage date as 1656, which is much too late.

17.  According to Ed Ballard (email 22 Sep 1998):

William BALLARD was born 1617 in Bradwell, co. Suffolk, England, and William's wife was Grace Ann BERWICK, born 12 Dec 1617 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England.

DGM:  I'm afraid the William BALLARD of Bradwell has been shown to be William BULLARD of Dedham, MA (see Anderson et al. 1999:149), and the proof that Mrs. Grace BALLARD is Grace BERWICK has yet to be found.

18.  Mary-Agnes Brown-Groover.  1977.  "From Concord, Massachusetts, to the Wilderness:  the Brown Family Letters, 1792-1852." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 131(Jan): 28-39.  In a footnote on p. 39:

Thomas M. Ballard was descended from William Ballard of Lynn and Andover, Mass., born circa 1617, William lived in Lynn until 1650, when he removed to Andover.

I don't know what to make of this statement.  The writer appears to have rolled William BALLARD of Andover and William BALLARD of Lynn into one person.  What astonishes me is that a writer as late as 1977 could make such an error and, even more, that the editors at the NEHG Register didn't catch it.

19.  Anon.  1900.  The California Register.  Vol. I, No. 1.  California Genealogical Society, San Francisco, CA (online at GenealogyLibrary.com).
On p. 12, refering to Capt. Timothy PEARL (1723-1789), who married Dinah HOLT, a descendant of Henry HOLT...

The wife of Henry Holt was Sarah, daughter of William Ballard, who came with Nicholas Holt in the ship James, in 1635.

The William BALLARD who sailed on the James in 1635 is "William BALLARD of Lynn," who was not the father of Sarah BALLARD, wife of Henry HOLT.  The father of Sarah BALLARD, wife of Henry HOLT, is William BALLARD of Andover.

20.  John Matthews.  1991.  Complete American Armoury and Blue Book, combining 1903, 1907 and 1911-23 Editions.  Clearfield/Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD (Broderbund CD-368).  In Part IV, 1911-23 edition, on p. 10b:

BALLARD... William Ballard, b. England, 1603, d Andover, Mass., 1689... Arms -- Sable, a griffin segreant ermine armed and gorged with a crown or. Crest -- A demi-griffin, wing endorsed ermine, beaked and legged or. Motto -- Forti non ignavo...

Here, again, William BALLARD (1603-1638) of Lynn is being mixed up with William BALLARD (c1617-1689) of Andover.  As the parents of neither one have been identified, I don't know on what basis a coat of arms could be attached to either one of them.

23.  Email from Rob Michael (5 Mar 2003):  says William had a prior wife, Sarah, and that she is the mother of the first five children.

The maiden name of William BALLARD's wife, Grace, has long been controversial, for there is no direct, primary record proving what it was.  However, there is enough circumstantial evidence make a case that she may have been Grace BERWICK, daughter of Thomas BERWICK and Anne BLOUNT.

To begin with, all the parties were in the right place at the right time (Andover in the 1640s) and were the right ages with the right names.  In other words, we don't have to torture the data to make anything fit and nothing in the data disproves the connection.  There is no question that these families were in contact because William & Grace's daughter, Elizabeth, married Anne BLOUNT's nephew, William BLUNT, and William & Grace's great-grandson, Thomas ABBOTT, married Lydia BLUNT.  And we have to ask these questions:

• If Grace BERWICK didn't marry William BALLARD, whom did she marry?  There is no record of her marrying anyone else.
• What other "Grace" was there in Newberry or Andover for William to have married?