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

I would very much like the assertion that William's wife, Grace, was Grace BERWICK to be true, because Grace BERWICK has fabulous ancestry.  But the fact is that no one, to my knowledge, has proven she was.  If you have the proof, please share it!

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

1.  Charles Frederic Farlow.  1911.  Ballard Genealogy.  Charles H. Pope, Boston, MA (available as a facsimile reprint from New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston).  Appears to be a scholarly, reliable source.  Click here for excerpt. 

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 Edward Banks.  1930.  The Planters of the Commonwealth.  Houghton-Mifflin, Boston (1961, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD).  On p. 110:

MARY AND JOHN, Robert Sayres, Master, sailed from Southampton March 24, 1633/4, but the time of her arrival is not recorded...

The ship did not sail before the 26th (see next source).  Among those listed under this heading on p. 111, is:

Name	Age (if known)	Origin & Occupation (if known)	Destination (if known)
WILLIAM BALLARD			Salem

I don't know where he got the destination; it isn't in the original record (see next source).

4.  Anon.  1855.  "Passengers of the Mary and John, 1634." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9(Jul): 265-268.

p. 267	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...-[a list of 34 men] The 26th day of March... [a list of 22 men, including]  William Ballard...
p. 268	... These Proceedings were Copyed out of an Olde Book of Orders belonging to the Port of South'ton but now remaining at the Custom house in Portsmouth the 6th Day of December 1735-- pr Thomas Whitehouse.

In the contemporary calendar, the dates were 24 Mar 1633 and 26 Mar 1634, the new year having turned on 25 Mar.

5.  Joshua Coffin.  1852.  "Early Settlers of Essex and Old Norfolk." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 6(Apr): 205-214.  Consists of isolated genealogical facts gleaned from the public records of Essex and old Norfolk Cos.  On p. 207:

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

6.  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; see next source.

7.  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 have William BALLARD of Lynn (1603-1638)  mixed up with William BALLARD of Andover (c1616-1689).   King Philip's War was fought 1675-7, 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 in the A.&H.A. Co. was William of Lynn.

8.  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...

William BALLARD of Lynn is said to have descended from William BALLARD of Sanford Priors, Warwickshire (for source, see family group sheet of William BALLARD of Lynn), so it seems likely that William BALLARD of Andover is the one from Bradwell, Suffolk.  So far as I know, no one has turned up more than these two William BALLARDs this early in New England. 

9.  Clarence Almon Torrey.  1985.  New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD.  This 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.  It states on 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 now need to write the NEHGS to have these interpreted for me. 

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.  Regarding being made Freeman, see next source.

12.  Lucius R. Paige.  1849.  "List of Freemen." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 3(Jan): 89-96.  On p. 96:

May 2, 1638. William Ballard... C.R., Vol. I, p. 196.

The question is:  Is this William BALLARD of Lynn or William BALLARD of Andover?

13.  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.

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.

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.

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 in 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, who came on the Mary and John in 1634.

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 are known, I don't know on what basis a coat of arms could be attached to either one of them.

21.  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 probably was 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?