From an up-coming book
“Mount Lucas, A Quite Hamlet”
THE LUCAS/BALL CONNECTION
Elizabeth Lucas heiress and daughter of John Lucas and Elizabeth Wakeley married Benjamin Manly Ball son of Edward and Ann Ball of Dublin. Benjamin was educated in Trinity collage and was called to the bar in 1886, he was also a member of Kings County Grand Jury and a Magistrate. They had one daughter Deborah Elizabeth who never married and after her parents deaths in the early 1900s Deborah inherited the Mount Lucas estate, Deborah lived in Mount Lucas House with her aunt Eleanor Lucas until 1922 when they moved following an attack on the house during the troubles.
A Witnesses Account
A witness to this attack Ann Smyth {Birmingham} who worked in the house as a cook said that “the attackers entered the house threatened the staff and locked them in a room before taking Deborah and Eleanor out of the house the attackers then set fire to a large room at the rear of the house which was used for entertaining {this part of the house was later demolished} when the staff escaped from the burning house they found Miss Ball tied to a tree naked and her head had been shaved .
