Added the dollar-value info.
The ball's finder, Lenny, wrote:
> Any ideas on who might have shot this darn thing. The civil war was close by.
I see you are a brand-new member of T-Net... so, welcome!
That ball's size and weight measurements indicate it is a Colonial era 9-Pounder caliber cannonball. Civil War era 9-pounder caliber Solid-Shot cannonballs weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces (or perhaps just a few ounces less, due to airbubbles being trapped inside the molten iron during the casting process). You say this ball weighs 8.6 pounds (8 pounds 9.5 ounces)... and being about 7 ounces lighter than the Civil War era specifications for a 9-Pounder Solid-Shot cannonball means yours must be from the Colonial era.
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns
You asked who might have fired that ball... and you mentioned that French and Spanish troops had been in the area. France did not manufacture any 9-Pounder caliber cannons, but Spain (and Britain, and the Americans) did. So, there is more than one possibility for who had that 9-Pounder cannonball in the area where it was found.
In a followup post, you asked what it is worth. The dollar-value of a relic comes from how much Relic-Collector interest there is in the type (and especially, the time-period) of a relic. Colonial era cannonballs are not as "popular" with collectors as Civil War ones are. So, that Colonial era cannonball would typically sell for about $75-$85 at a relic-show. But you might be able to get a bit more than that if a highly-interested collector wanted it.
