Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

graduated from Yale College, studied
theology, and served in Presbyterian pastorates
at Newark, New Jersey, and
Ridgefield, Connecticut ; was chaplain of
Colonial troops in the French and Indian
War, and served at Lake Champlain. He
was a man of great ability. He married
Dorcas, daughter of Rev. Joseph Moss, of
Derby, Connecticut.
Their son, Jonathan Ingersoll, a graduate
of Yale College, was a lawyer, a man
of fine parts, residing in New Haven. He
made a notable public career ; was for
many years a member of the General Assembly,
and was elected to Congress, but
declined. From 1798 to 1801 he was on
the bench of the Superior Court, and in
181 1 succeeded Governor Smith on the
Supreme Court of Errors, serving until
1816. Subsequently returning to political
life, he was one of the most prominent fac-
tors in the overthrow of the Federalists.
In 1818 he was elected Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, and continued in office until the
adoption of the new State constitution.
He married Grace, daughter of Ralph
Isaacs, of Bradford, Connecticut.
Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, son of Judge
Jonathan and Grace (Isaacs) Ingersoll,
was born in New Haven, Connecticut,
February 9, 1789, and died August 26,
1872. He graduated from Yale College,
studied law, and engaged in practice in
New Haven, coming to be regarded as
one of the most accomplished lawyers of
his day. He early interested himself in
politics. A Federalist, like his father, his
views on the separation of church and
State, however, led him into the ranks of
the Tolerationists, and as a candidate of
that party he was elected to the General
Assembly from New Haven, previously a
Federalist stronghold, and came to the
leadership of his party in that body. In
1825 he was elected to Congress, and his
membership in that body covered a period
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
282
of eight years. During his first two
terms he supported the Adams administration,
but in the next two terms he was
allied with the National Republicans
under Henry Clay. During his Congressional
service, he was also mayor of New
Haven for one term. In 1834 he supported
Jackson for the presidency. He declined
an election to the United States Senate,
and also declined the gubernatorial nom-
ination several times. In 1846 President
Polk (with whom he had formed an intimate
friendship when both were in Congress),
without consulting him, appointed
him Minister to Russia. This honor he
accepted, and after two years' service in
St. Petersburg, he returned home and to
his profession, to which he devoted him-
self for twenty years with unabated energ}'
and success. He married Margaret
Catherine Eleanor Van den Heuval, a
woman of great force of character, of an
old Dutch family of New York.
Governor Charles Roberts Ingersoll,
son of Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, by
the marriage above referred to, was born
in New Haven, Connecticut, September
16, 182 1, and died in 1903. He was edu-
cated at the Hopkins Grammar School,
New Haven ; and Yale College, from
which he was graduated in 1840. For
two years he traveled with his uncle, Cap-
tain Voorhees Ingersoll, commander of the
United States frigate "Preble." Return-
ing home he entered Yale Law School,
from which he graduated in 1844. In the
following year he was admitted to the bar,
and entered upon practice in association
with his father, continuing for thirty
years, and eventually succeeding him.
A Democrat in politics, his public ca-
reer began in 1856, when he was elected
to the General Assembly, and he served
again in the same body of 1858, 1866 and
1 87 1, holding important committee as-
He declined a nomination for