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The Ingersolls of Lewisham & David Ingersoll, 1742-1796I had always been told that we were related in some way to the Ingersolls, and that this was a definite feather in the family cap, but as a child I had only associated the name with wristwatches. Once I began to research the family history, however, I discovered the real relationship. I was searching the 1901 census, looking for my grandfather, Charles Frank Murray. I knew his father, Charles Frederick Murray, had died on 19th June 1892 at the Queen's Arms Tavern, Court Hill, Lewisham, and wasn't sure where the family was living, or whether his mother had re-married. I knew his birthdate and place of birth (21st January 1884, 20 Canterbury Rd., Deptford) and the names of some of his siblings. So he was not too difficult to find. I was surprised however to find that his mother was now Harriet Eliza Inkersole (45, born Rotherhithe - her birth certificate says Hammersmith, though the family did later move to Rotherhithe), his step father Frederick R. Inkersole (46 born Lewisham), and that there were two new step sisters, Emma (6) and Louisa (4). I was disappointed that the name was not exactly Ingersoll, but also pleased that what might have been family rumour was at least partly true. Harriet is a washerwoman and Frederick a gardener, their address is 27 Holbeach Rd., Catford and the family of eight is occupying 4 rooms. The Murray children are Charles F., 17, Butcher (born Walworth); Catherine, 15; Margaret, 11; Joseph, 9. Next I turned to the 1881 census on FamilySearch to see if I could find out more about this Frederick R. and drew a total blank on any Frederick Inkersole of the right age born in the right place. There was however a Frederick R. Ingersoll (22, Gardener, born Lewisham) who fitted both categories, living with his mother Frances (62, Nurse, born Lewisham), and presumably his sister Frances (30, born Eltham) and her husband Thomas Norris (28, Batmaker, born Deptford). Meanwhile FreeBMD had an Emma and a Louisa Ingersoll born in the right place (Lewisham) and at the right time (1894 and 1896). Research at the Family Records Centre found a death certificate for Harriet Eliza Ingersoll, (26th Janaury 1914, Lewisham Union Infirmary), wife of Frederick Ingersoll, gravedigger, the informant being her son, C. F. Murray of 4 Engleheart Rd., Catford. The 1901 census seems to be an aberration: perhaps the enumerator was from north of the River Thames where the name Inkersole is more common, and wrote down what he thought he heard. One thing I have not been able to find is a marriage certificate for Harriet and Frederick. Perhaps they did not get married. Harriet is one of the main beneficiaries under the will of her father-in-law Charles Henry Murray, perhaps she thought that a re-marriage might deprive her children of what little inheritance they had. At about this time I was transcribing my mother's life story and came across the following paragraph which now made more sense: An incident that amuses me even now when I think of it, happened when I was very small, about 5 or 6, I would think (1921/22). We were visiting relations, one of Dad's stepsisters in the Lewisham/Catford area. The grown-ups were all talking family matters when I heard them saying that the Wreck of Lewisham belonged to our family and that we would go to see it. I had visions of a big boat - wrecked of course. But when we got to the river it was so tiny (called the river Quaggie I believe) I wondered where it could be. Well I remember being very disappointed at there being no wreck. Ages afterwards of course I realized it was Lewisham Recreation Ground the grown-ups had been talking about. That being in the family didn't impress me one bit. How we lost it I do not know - but we did. The step sister must be Emma or Louisa Ingersoll - now married one assumes. As the Murrays were not landowners in Lewisham, the Ingersolls must have been. The trail seemed worth pursuing. The next step was to get Frederick's birth certificate. His year of birth was about two years earlier than either of the censuses had said, 26th August 1857, Belmont Cottage, Lee, Kent. His father is Kemsey Ingersoll, a farrier and his mother Fanny Ingersoll, formerly Divall. At this stage I should point out that the name Divall was already very familiar to me. My great great great grandmother was Susannah Divall born in Lewisham about 1820/21. Perhaps there was another family connection here. Kemsey and Fanny's marriage certificate proved this: like Susannah, Fanny's father was John Divall, licensed victualler; more likely than not - how many John Divalls were licensed victuallers in Lewisham Village in 1815-1820? - they were sisters. The IGI records the christening of Susannah, but doesn't mention a Frances unfortunately, and nor do the original Lewisham parish records. It is possible that one of Susannah's sisters became known by the name Fanny in the family, as that was the name of their Grubb grandmother. Kemsey's father is given as Frederick Henry Ingersoll (Gent.) on his marriage certificate. On the IGI a Kinsey Ingersoll (an obvious mis-reading of this unusual name) is recorded as being born on 13 September 1820 and christened on 4th October 1820 at Old Church, St Pancras to a Frederick Ingersoll and Mary. A general search on the name Ingersoll brought up several other children from this marriage: though Frederick seems to have been Frederick Horton Ingersoll, and not Frederick Henry. Perhaps Kemsey on his marriage certificate got his father's second name confused with his elder brother's. On 22nd July 1814 a Frederick Horton Ingersoll applied to the Vicar General's Office for a licence to marry Mary Harriot Guyer, in St Mary, Lambeth. They are both of the parish, and over twenty-one.
Enter David IngersollFamilyhistoryonline reveals that a Frederick Horton Ingersoll was baptised in Suffolk, Hopton Parish on the 27th March 1797. His parents were David and Francis. According to the Norfolk Chronicle of June 21st 1783 a David Ingersoll Esq., of the East Norfolk militia, had married Miss Ryley, daughter of the late Philip Kempsy Ryley Esq. on the preceding Tuesday in Thetford. The link to the eastern counties and the Lewisham Ingersolls comes in her ancestry: a Frances Rebecca Ryley was the daughter of Philip Kemsey Ryley and Frances Spratt, christened in St Gregory, Norwich on 7th October 1761. Philip Kemsey Ryley and Frances Spratt had married on 20 December 1760 in St Peter Mancroft, Norwich.The names Ryley and Kemsey appeared as forenames through many subsequent generations. But what about the David [Horton] Ingersoll who married Frances Rebecca Ryley? If we are to believe the IGI he was born in Great Barrington, Berkshire, Massachusetts on the 26th September 1742, the son of David Ingersoll and Submit Horton. There is a burial record found on Familyhistoryonline for a David Ingersoll, aged 57, in the parish of Hopton, Suffolk, 18 November 1796, (born therefore around 1740). Followed up in the original register it reads: Following the IGI and the dedicated US Ingersoll website, our Ingersolls originated in Derbyshire and formed one of the first families to settle in the United States. John Ingersoll, born: Sep 1626, Derby, Derbyshire, England, died: 3 Sep 1684, Westfield, Hampden Co, MA. His great grandson David decided to to return to England: "A Genealogy of the Ingersoll Family in America", by Lillian D. Avery, page 511. David Ingersoll [our David's father] was an extremely colorful character. I find it interesting to note that the authors of the two published Ingersoll genealogies (The Ingersolls of New Hampshire, 1904, Lt. Chas S. Ripley and A Genealogy of the Ingersoll Family, 1926, Lillian Drake Avery) state that David Ingersoll in 1755 "was by order of the General Court removed from his offices of Justice of the Peace and Capt. of the Militia and thereafter disqualified from holding any office of honor or profit under the Government". This datum was taken from the History of Great Barrington, 1882, Charles J. Taylor. The first part of it is confirmed by original court records. But good old David was at that time only beginning his career as a land-grabber. The largest deals took place long after his first set-back. By the time he was 63 he had become so affluent that he joined the Church of England, and deeded land for the "elegant" church which was build in Great Barrington. One of the human-interest angles which I found surprising in this picture is the fact that the son William (only child of wife Lydia) married a cousin, Lydia Ingersoll, and became extremely prosperous indeed. Yet, when David died, the court appointed as administrator, 22 April 1773, David Jr., described as a prominent Tory lawyer. As the storm clouds of the Revolution rolled onward, this son David Jr. became very unpopular with the rebels, and finally fled the town, but was captured and put in jail at Litchfield, CT. Eventually he sailed for England never to return. His younger brothers Deodat and Oliver also ran afoul of the Patriots and had a rough time, though they did not leave the courntry and eventually were able to live in peace. But David's estate was in limbo until 1782, and not finally settled until 1794 when William, son of Lydia and the richest of the lot, who had remained in Lee as Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, and leader of the revolutionists, took over and sold at auction his father's remaining properties. A Genealogy of the Ingersoll Family in America 1629-1925. Page 140 - 141 David Ingersoll, Esq. was born at Great Barrington, Sept. 26, 1742, and died 1796 in England. He was educated at Yale College, graduating 1761, and was admitted to the bar in Berkshire, April, 1765. There is some reason for supposing that he lived for a time in Sheffield, but he was residing in Great Barrington and engaged in the practice of the law here as early as 1768. Mr. Ingersoll was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1767 and in 1770 represented the towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, and Egremont in the General Court. He was prominent in town affairs and from the time of the settlement of the Rev. Gideon Bostwick an active supporter of the Episcopal Church. Before the Revolution he had attained some prominence as a lawyer and a public man, and when the troubles between Great Britain and the colonies assumed a serious aspect, he adhered to the British cause. In the spring of 1774 he was one of the "addressers of Gov. Hutchinson, which, with other causes, rendered him exceedingly unpopular with the patriots. At the time of the suppression of the King's Court, in the general uprising of the people, Aug. 1774, he was seized by the Litchfield county men, carried to Connecticut and imprisoned. He was not, however, long kept in confinement, as he appears to have been in Boston on the 2d of Sept. following, when he mortgaged his homestead (perhaps for the purpose of raising funds with which to leave the country), and soon after sailed for England, where he died in 1796. During his residence in Great Barrington, though not then married, he owned and occupied the house in which the Misses Kellogg (now deceased) lately resided. He was one of the number proscribed and banished by an act of the General Court in 1778, and his homestead which is said to have been confiscated, was afterward taken on execution obtained against him by his creditors. He married in England in 1783, Frances Rebecca Riley, who survived him less than three months. [7 months actually]. Children: The descendants of David Ingersoll (1742-1796) in England.The ancestry of this David Ingersoll can be traced on the Ingersoll website. He is also on the Sprague database as David Horton Ingersoll. Here also can be found recorded his marriage to Frances Rebecca Ryley in England, and the names of their two sons: Philip Riley Ingersoll and Frederick Horton Ingersoll. Further details of his family are included on the IGI. Philip Kemsey Ryley married Frances Spratt 20 Dec 1760 St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, Norfolk (IGI) Frances Rebecca Ryley. Christened 7 Oct 1761, St Gregory, Norwich, Norfolk. Parents: Philip Kemsey Ryley and Frances. (IGI) Married 1783 David Ingersoll (IGI) Died 1796 (Ingersoll database). Children of David Ingersoll and Frances: Children of Philip Ryley Ingersoll and Ann:
Continued as a descendants list 2. Mary Kempsey Ingersoll. Born about 1788. Mentioned in Intestacy documents, Deeds of Guardianship after deaths of David and Frances. 3. Frederick Horton Ingersoll. Born about 1790. Father: David Ingersoll. Mother: Frances Rebecca Riley (IGI) Baptism: 27 March 1797 Hopton, Suffolk. Parents David and Francis (Familyhistoryonline) The children appear to have been christened between the deaths of their parents in 1796/97. Married 1:Mary Harriett Guyer, 1814. Married 2: Grace Bassett, Camberwell, 4 Sep 1852 (Full age: ie well over 60! Widower, Gentleman. Father on certificate is David Ingersoll, Gentleman.) Children of Frederick Horton Ingersoll and Mary Harriett: |
