1846 Mar 7

NE

On Sunday, the 1st inst.,[1] in Crossmaglen, age 48 years, Samuel Ball[2], Esq., only son of late Captain Ball[3], J. P. County Armagh. His family had been endeared to the people around for the kindness and condescension, and had long hereditary claims on their gratitude for the rare quality of being good landlords, on whose property in the important and undoubted truth was (time immemorial) practically recognized, “that property had its duties as well as its rights”. The lamented deceased inherited all the good qualities of his family in a preeminent degree, and was distinguished above and beyond all that went before him for sympathy towards the poor, and his anxiety to relieve their sufferings in every way in his power, in administering to whose necessities he seemed to place his highest delight. Innumerable are the acts of kindness and charity recorded of him, with grateful and affectionate recollection, by his poorer neighbours, and the universal sentiment of all -- of every class and persuasion -- from a long experience, is that a kinder or more benevolent heart never beat within human breast. His health had been for a considerable time declining, and having a strong presentment of approaching dissolution, a fortnight before his demise he prayed to be admitted publicly into the communion of the Catholic Church, of which he had been, as he himself stated, for many years a private but sincere and firm believer. Having made his profession of faith, received the last sacraments, and consolations of religion, which the Catholic Church so peculiarly affords to the dying Christian, he continued up to the moment of his death to prepare for his last end with a patience, piety, and devout resignation to the Divine Will that both excited the admiration, and astonished, as well as edified everyone who visited him in his last illness. His calm composure, under acute and severe sufferings, bespoke a conscience at peace with itself, its God, and the world, and cannot but afford long and lasting comfort to his sorrowing wife and friends under their affliction. The heartfelt regard in high respect universally entertained for him was amply testified by the immense assemblage that attended his funeral (notwithstanding the severity of the day), on Tuesday last, to the burial ground in Creggan, where his last remains were deposited amidst the tears, blessings and prayers of all. -- May he rest in peace!

Thanks to Kieran McConville for the image beneath: