Richard Ingoldesby - Life

Life

Ingoldesby served the Prince of Orange during the Glorious Revolution as a field officer. He played a role in the Irish campaign by besieging the Jacobite stronghold at Carrickfergus. Ingoldesby, in September 1690, became a captain of a company being sent to New York to restore the royal crown following Leisler's Rebellion. Ingoldesby did this by removing Jacob Leisler from his assumed position as lieutenant governor of New York, and forced Leisler to surrender New York City. Following a brief skirmish in March 1691, Leisler was tried and convicted for both murder and treason, and was hanged that May on orders from Governor Henry Sloughter. This provoked some distaste by the pro-Leislerian followers.

The New York Council proceeded to select Ingoldesby as the commander-in-chief of the colony until a successor for Sloughter, who died not long after the Leisler trial, could be appointed. However, Benjamin Fletcher received the position instead.

Fletcher was dispatched to a company in Albany, New York, but low payment and supplies prompted him to return to England in 1696 for seven years (instead of his one year furlough). Through political intrigue, he attempted to get promoted, and was acquainted with William Dockwra, one of several East Jersey proprietors. Ingoldesby was backed by Dockwra to become the first royal governor of New Jersey, but Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury became governor instead and Ingoldesby became the lieutenant. Cornbury refused to grant any power to Ingoldesby at all during his period of governorship. Instead, Ingoldesby became part of the New Jersey Council.

Following the death of John Lovelace on 6 May 1709, he became the acting governor of both New Jersey and New York. However, due to the efforts of the proprietors that he opposed, Ingoldesby’s governorship became an object of suspicion.

In part of the Glorious Enterprise, a joint invasion of Canada by American and British forces, Ingoldesby urged the Assembly to raise New Jersey's quota of 200 men, a move which was unpopular with the Assembly's Quaker minority. However, he later twisted his role and tried to remove the Quakers from holding office positions by defeating the bill, whereupon he ordered that all Quakers were excluded from all public offices. Ultimately, he was persuaded to raise and equip the men, but since the British failed to provide any support, the mission was unsuccessful. Realizing that he would never become the appointed governor of New Jersey, Ingoldesby instead tried to divert much of the money that was to go to Lovelace to himself.

His commission for governorship was revoked by October 1709, but the news only reached him in April 1710. He died in New York on 1 March 1719.