author
Edward Ballard
1804–1870
A Maine clergyman and local historian, he wrote with a strong sense of place and a deep interest in the region’s early church and colonial past. His books helped preserve stories, names, and documents that might otherwise have faded from view.
1 Audiobook
The Popham Colony : a discussion of its historical claims, with a bibliography of the subject
by William Frederick Poole, Edward Ballard, Frederic Kidder
About the author
Edward Ballard was a 19th-century writer and Episcopal clergyman whose work is closely tied to Maine history. Library and catalog records identify him as born in 1804 and dying in 1870, and his books show a lasting interest in the state’s religious beginnings, colonial settlement, and coastal geography.
His best-known works include The Early History of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Maine (1859), Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration (published under his direction in 1863), and Geographical Names on the Coast of Maine (1871). Taken together, these books suggest a careful, documentary-minded author who valued local memory and historical detail.
Ballard’s writing is especially appealing for readers who enjoy early American history at a regional scale. Rather than chasing grand theories, he focused on churches, settlements, commemorations, and place-names—subjects that give a vivid sense of how Maine understood its own past in the 19th century.