well written. When the Conservatives went out of office in 1880, Ball's public career came to an end, and at 65 his health was starting to fail. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1885, Ball was too infirm to accept any office in the new Government. After 1890, he rarely left home. Works Ball wrote two books, one on the Church of Ireland, the other on the Irish legislative system. Family Ball married Catherine Elrington, daughter of Rev. Charles Richard Elrington, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Dublin and his wife Letitia Babington, and granddaughter of Thomas Elrington, Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, in 1852; she died in 1887. They had three sons, Charles, Thomas, and the best-known of their children, F. Elrington Ball, who was an author and legal historian, and is still remembered for his definitive work The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 and for his 6-volume History of the Parishes of Dublin. References Oxford Dictionary of National Biography External links 1815 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Irish people Politicians from County Dublin People from Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Attorneys-General for Ireland Irish barristers Irish Conservative Party MPs Lord chancellors of Ireland Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Solicitors-General for Ireland UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dublin University