BALLE, Thomas (1671-1749), of Mamhead, nr. Chudleigh, Devon.

The Balles, who had been settled in Devonshire since the thirteenth century, bought Mamhead in the time of Elizabeth I, when they rebuilt the manor house.J. Prince, Devon Worthies (1810), p. 33; Lysons, Mag. Brit. Devon, ii. 327. In 1734 Balle was returned as a Whig for Exeter after a contest, voting with the Government on the Spanish convention and the place bill. In 1741 the corporation refused to support his re-election on the ground that he had ‘by his declared sentiments, as well as practice, shown himself to be a zealous promoter of the destruction’ of the ‘liberties of the kingdom and the present constitution both in Church and State’.Trans. Dev. Assoc. lxii. 213. He died, the last of his family, in 1749 (buried 11 June).