Bidwell Lore – Dispossession of Stockbridge Mohican Land by the Ball Family, Final Installment

Welcome to Bidwell Lore number 127! This week we will finally finish the story of Isaac Ball and the dispossession of Mohican land around Stockbridge, written by Rick Wilcox. 

Dispossession of Stockbridge Mohican Land by the Ball Family 1772-1781, Final Installment
Isaac Ball (1744-1784)
Rick Wilcox 2022

After many weeks we have finally reached the end of the Isaac Ball Story. First, we will share a transcription of the last document filed for his estate in 1787, along with an image of the front side of the document.

At the same Court the within Acct is Received Examined & Ordered Recorded by Tim Edwards

Administrators Acct against the Estate of Isaac Ball May 3 1787 Recorded:

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That We Job Hart & Rachel Ball Ira Seymour & Ebenezer Toleman of Stockbridge Gentlemen within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are holden and stand firmly bound and obliged unto Timothy Edwards Judge of Probate of Wills, and granting Administration within the County of Berkshire in the full Sum of Three Hundred Pounds in Lawful Money of the said Commonwealth, to be paid unto the said Timothy Edwards or his Successors in the said Office or Assigns: To the true Payment whereof, we bind ourselves, and each of us, our, and each or our Heirs, Executors and Administrators, jointly and severally, for the whole and in the whole, firmly by these Presents. Sealed with our Seals. Dated the Fourth Day of May in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty four

THE CONDITION OF THIS PRESENT OBLIGATION IS SUCH That if the above-bounden Job Hart & Rachel Ball of Stockbridge who have this day taken upon them the office of Administration on Estate of Isaac Ball Esqr. of Stockbridge Dec’d to make or cause to be made a true and perfect Inventory of all and singular Goods, Chattels, Rights and Credits of the said Deceased, which have or shall come to the Hands, Possession or knowledge of them the said Job Hart or Rachel Ball or into the Hands and Possession of any other Person or Persons for them and the same so made do exhibit, or cause to be exhibited into the Registry of the Court of Probate for the said County of Berkshire at or before the first Tuesday of Nov’r next ensuing; and the same Goods, Chattels, Rights and Credits, and all other the Goods, Chattels, Rights and Credits of the said Deceased, at the Time of his Death, which at Time after shall come to the Hands and Possession of the said Job Hart  & Rachel Ball or into the Hands and Possessions of any other Person or Persons for them do well and truly administer according to Law: And further, do make or cause to be made a just and true Account of their said Administration upon Oath, at or before the first Tuesday of May which will be in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty five And all the Rest and Residue of the said Goods, Chattels, Rights and Credits, which shall be found remaining upon the said Administrators Accompt (the same first examined and allowed by the Judge or Judges for the Time being, of Probate of Wills and granting Administration within the County of Berkshire aforesaid) they shall deliver and pay unto such Person or Persons respectively, as the said Judge or Judges by his or their Decree or Sentence pursuant to law shall limit and appoint: And it shall appear that any last will and Testament was made by the said Deceased, the Executor or Executors therein named do exhibit the same into the Court of Probate for the said County of Berkshire making Request to have it allowed and approved accordingly; if the said Job Hart & Rachel Ball within bounden, being thereunto required, do render and Deliver the said Letter of Administration (Approbation of such Testament being first had and made) into said Court: Then the before-written Obligation to be void and none Effect, or else to abide and remain in full Force and Virtue.
Signed and Delivered in Presence of Philip Cook C Williams}
Job Hart Rachel Ball Ira Seymour Ebenezer Toleman

[obverse]
Bond of Admin’er on Estate of Isaac Ball
May 4. 1784
App’rs
Stephen Nash}
Nehemiah Ide}
Ellihu Migelles}
Recorded 4.2.87

Original Probate document for Isaac Ball date May 4, 1784

In the end, I was able to locate a will for Isaac Ball which said the following:

Berkshire Probate Court docket 1203 with a date of death 5-4-1784

  1. All debts should be paid
  2. To my wife the beloved Rachel, one house, two cows and ten sheep.
  3. The children should not be responsible for any of Isaac’s debt.
  4. Son Asa, Brome NY, ¼ part of number eighty-one, a plain lot so-called near Church Street and North Church Street containing 9 acres.
  5. Ebenezer one dollar and a deed of about 14 acres in the southern part of the home farm bordering the river.
  6. John to receive one dollar and release of debt.
  7. Rebecca wife of Lemuel Barnes one dollar heretofore given
  8. Sarah wife of Stephen Avery property in New York.

We shared many deeds throughout this series and from the Berkshire Middle Registry of Deeds you can see the following Pittsfield grantee deeds for Isaac Ball:

06-28-1773 Phineas Brown to Isaac Ball warranty deed Book 8, Page 1001
06-28-1773 Ezekiel Griswold [1] to Isaac Ball quit claim deed Book 10, page 496
01-13-1784 Stockbridge Indians to Isaac Ball warranty deed Book 16, page 118
01-13-1784 Samuel Hatch & Others to Isaac Ball warranty deed Book 16, page 119
06-30-1788 Heirs of Isaac Ball, Jonathan Ball, quit claim deed Book 25, Page 355


It is clear, after paging through hundreds of documents, that the colonial legal system provided protection for the English colonists and later for the American citizens regarding their purchases of Mohican land. The Mohicans, however, had to meet their debt obligations by the sale of land and in the end, they lost 23,040 acres of their homeland, most of it within a fifty-year period. Ironically, the Colonial Government gave them back their own land to create Indian Town, a town that was designed to be a sanctuary. Indian Town, which was meant to provide protection from an English economic system for which they were never able to find an entry point, was eventually lost to the tribe through the very Indian Proprietorship that was created to protect them.

Next week will begin a short series about Colonel Giles Jackson and his son Nathan.

1.  Griswold’s house still stands at the intersection of Mohawk Lake Road and West Dale Road.