The Ballou family of New England traces its origin to Maturin Ballou, who settled in Providence , Rhode Island , some time prior to 1646. He was one of thirty-five so-called “quarter-rights men” who received twenty-five acres of land a piece early in 1646, and in turn signed a pledge of  “Obeydience to the Authority of King, & Parliament ... and to all Such wholesome Lawes, & Orders, that are or Shall be made, by the Major consent of this Towne of Providence." Maturin Ballou and his future father-in-law Robert Pike were in the first group of these quarter-rights men. Although Maturin Ballou was a relatively early settler at Providence , he was not – as later generations of Ballous sometimes implied – among the founders of the colony.

Maturin Ballou was not a prominent citizen of Providence. He did eventually become a freeman [18 May 1658] of the town and a land owner, but only in the smallest possible way. He never held public office or featured prominently in town affairs; he appears in the records of the colony only in lists of inhabitants or in connection with the buying and selling of small parcels of land. After acquiring his quarter-share, Maturin Ballou was able to increase his property somewhat: he purchased a house lot in 1650, three acres in 1657, six acres in 1661, and a share of some newly acquired land “on the East Side of the Seven mile line” in 1665. He and his wife Hannah Pike lived quietly on their small homestead and eventually had six children, of whom three lived to have families of their own. The dates of his birth, marriage, arrival in Providence , and death are all unrecorded.

It has been estimated that he was born about 1615 in England. That he married Hannah Pike in Rhode Island about 1646. That he passed away in Rhode Island about 1661.

This was the unremarkable origin of a family that grew over the next several centuries into a numerous and prominent one, distinguished particularly in the history of the state of Rhode Island and of the Universalist Church in America. The family history and genealogy published in 1888 lists over 8000 descendants, and laments many more who could not be traced.

On the first page of the family history and genealogy, compiled in the 1880s by Maturin ’s great-great-great-grandson Adin Ballou, the founder of the family is described as “a co-proprietor of the Providence Plantations in the Colony of Rhode Island.” This description is not absolutely incorrect – as a shareholder in the fellowship, he was a part owner or “co-proprietor” of the town – but it is misleading. The implication is that he was a co-founder of the colony, rather than one immigrant among many, admitted to full citizenship over twenty years after the first settlement, and then only when the requirements were lowered. Similarly, the Genealogy quotes the colonial records as saying, “At a Meeting at Warwick, May 18th, 1658, Robert Pyke and Maturin Ballue were admitted freemen.” Actually, the names of Ballou and Pike appear in a list of twenty-eight persons entered as freemen at this meeting, three days after the town meeting at which all inhabitants of Providence had been made freemen.