Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ingoldsby, Richard (d.1685)
INGOLDSBY, Sir RICHARD (d. 1685), regicide, was the second son of Sir Richard Ingoldsby of Lenthenborough, Buckinghamshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Oliver Cromwell of Hinchinbrook, Huntingdonshire. He was educated at Thame grammar school (Croke, History of the Family of Croke, 1823, p. 616; Wood, Fasti, sub ann. 1649). At the outbreak of the civil war he held a captain's commission in Hampden's regiment, and in 1645 was colonel of a regiment of foot in the ‘New Model’ (Peacock, Army Lists, pp. 46, 105). He was detached by Fairfax in May 1645 to relieve Taunton, and was therefore not present at Naseby, but took part in the storming of Bridgwater and Bristol, and in Fairfax's campaign in the west (Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, pp. 19, 77, 107, 126). In the quarrel between the parliament and the army in 1647 Ingoldsby, whose regiment garrisoned Oxford, took part with the army. The regiment was ordered to be disbanded at two o'clock on 14 June 1647, and 3,500l. sent to pay it off. The money was recalled by a subsequent vote, but had already reached Oxford, and was forcibly seized by the soldiers, who attacked and routed its escort (Wood, Annals, ii. 508; Rushworth, vi. 493, 499). The regiment was also one of the first to petition against the treaty at Newport, and to demand the punishment of the king (ib. vii. 1311; The Moderate, 31 Oct.–7 Nov. 1648). Ingoldsby himself was appointed one of the king's judges, and signed the death-warrant, but does not appear to have been present at any of the previous sittings of the court (Nalson, Trial of Charles I, 1684). At the Restoration he asserted that his signature had been extorted by force, ‘Cromwell taking his hand in his and, putting the pen between his fingers, with his own hand writ Richard Ingoldsby, he making all the resistance he could’ (Clarendon, Rebellion, xvi. 225). But the name is remarkably clearly written, shows no sign of any constraint, and is attested by Ingoldsby's family seal.
Ingoldsby's regiment, which was deeply imbued with the principles of the levellers, broke out into mutiny in September 1649, made New College their headquarters, and confined their colonel in one of the Oxford inns; but he was released by the courage of Captain Wagstaffe, with whose aid he quickly suppressed the revolt (The Moderate, 11 18 Sept. 1649; Proceedings of the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society, November 1884).
On 4 Oct. 1647 Ingoldsby was elected M.P. for Wendover, and represented Buckinghamshire in the parliaments of 1654 and 1656 (Old Parl. Hist. xx. 497, xxi. 4; Return of Members of Parliament, i. 485). He was chosen one of the council of state in November 1652, and was summoned to Cromwell's House of Lords in December 1657 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651–2, p. 505). In the ‘Second Narrative of the late Parliament’ (1658) he is described as ‘a gentleman of courage and valour, but not very famous for any great exploits, unless for beating the honest innkeeper of Aylesbury in White-hall,’ ‘no great friend to the sectaries,’ and, according to common report, ‘can neither pray nor preach’ (Harleian Miscellany, iii. 482, ed. Park).
In 1659, when the officers of the army began to agitate against Richard Cromwell, Ingoldsby vigorously supported the new Protector, who was his own kinsman. ‘Here is Dick Ingoldsby, who can neither pray nor preach, and yet I will trust him before ye all,’ said the Protector; ‘which imprudent and irreligious words,’ writes Ludlow, ‘were soon published to his great prejudice’ (Memoirs, ed. 1751, p. 241). On the fall of Richard Cromwell, Ingoldsby lost his command and, seeing the Restoration at hand, entered into negotiation with the agents of Charles II (Baker, Chronicle, ed. Phillips, pp. 657, 660; Clarendon State Papers, iii. 489, 650). The Earl of Northampton, in representing Ingoldsby's merits to the king, states that his conversion was free and unconditional. ‘He would never listen to any discourse of reward, but still declared that your pardon and forgiveness of his former errors was all that he aimed at, and that his whole life should be spent in studying to deserve it’ (Carte, Original Letters, ii. 333). As he was a regicide, the king refused to promise him indemnity, and left him to earn a pardon by signal services (Clarendon, Rebellion, xvi. 226). Accordingly, in the struggle between the parliament and the army Ingoldsby energetically backed the former. Monck appointed him to command Colonel Rich's regiment (February 1660), and sent him to suppress Lambert's intended rising (18 April 1660). On 22 April he met Lambert's forces near Daventry, arrested him as he endeavoured to fly, and brought him in triumph to London (Kennett, Register, pp. 68, 120; Clarendon, Rebellion, xvi. 148). Ingoldsby was thanked by the House of Commons 26 April 1660 (Commons' Journals, viii. 2), and was not only spared the punishment which befell the rest of the regicides, but was created a knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles II, 20 April 1661 (Kennett, Register, p. 411).
In the four parliaments of Charles II, Ingoldsby represented Aylesbury. He died in 1685, and was buried in Hartwell Church, Buckinghamshire, on 16 Sept. 1685. He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir George Croke of Waterstock, Oxfordshire, and widow of Thomas Lee of Hartwell (Croke, p. 605; Noble, House of Cromwell, ii. 190).
Sir Richard Ingoldsby is sometimes confused with his younger brother, Henry Ingoldsby (1622–1701), who commanded a regiment in Ireland under Cromwell and Ireton, represented the counties of Kerry, Limerick, and Clare in the parliaments of 1654, 1656, and 1659, and had the singular fortune to be created a baronet both by the Protector (31 March 1658) and by Charles II (30 Aug. 1660) (ib., ii. 184; Life of Anthony Wood, ed. 1848, p. 51).
[Croke's Hist. of the Family of Croke, 1823; Noble's House of Cromwell, ed. 1787, ii. 181; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss; a pedigree is also given in the Genealogist, July 1886.]