It is interesting when you find your own relatives among the “First Mothers”! Ann (or Anna) was born between 1630 and 1635 in York County, Virginia. Her parents were Anne and William Thomas. But William may have been her stepfather. Sometime after 1650, Ann married a young widower, Thomas Ballard, who had at least one daughter, Jane. Ann and Thomas went on to have eight more children, Thomas, John, Lydia, Martha, Elizabeth, Matthew, Francis and William, between 1654 and 1674. Thomas was a county clerk during the first years of their marriage and by 1667, Thomas had served as a Burgess. He also served on the governor's council. An avid worker, he had also served in both the Virginia Militia and as a Vestryman of the Bruton Parish Church. He was a close colleague of Sir William Berkeley. This lead to his being a key figure in the Bacon Rebellion. Unfortunately, this drew in his wife, Ann. Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. was only in the colony a few years when he ushered in the second big rebellion of the Virginia colony. At one point, he managed to kidnap several of the wives of the governor’s council, of which Ann was one. Among the other women were Elizabeth Bacon, wife of Nathaniel Bacon, Sr, a cousin of the rebel, Angelica Bray, wife of Col. James Bray, and Alice Page, wife of Col. John Page. Bacon achieved this by having his men raid Middle Plantation (Williamsburg).They took the women to Jamestown where their position was being cannonaded from the town. Making the women all wear white aprons, they were set in front of the rebels as the rebels built fortifications in preparation for their attack. Men within the fort and town recognized their wives and pleaded with the governor to stop the cannons. Bacon may have won this round, but he lost the war, by dying of dysentery. Col. Thomas Ballard won back his wife, as did the other men. And he paid back the rebels. He was one of the judges who tried and executed twenty three rebels. Ann, unfortunately, died two years later, leaving small children and six older ones behind.
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