Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ingram, Arthur
INGRAM, Sir ARTHUR (d. 1642), courtier, was son of Hugh Ingram, a native of Thorp-on-the-Hill, Yorkshire, who made a fortune as a linendraper in London, by Anne, daughter of Richard Goldthorpe, haberdasher, lord mayor of and M.P. for York (Foster, Yorkshire Pedigrees, vol. i.) He became a successful merchant in Fenchurch Street, London, and acquired the manor of Temple Newsam, where he built a splendid mansion, and other estates in Yorkshire. In buying estates his practice was to pay half the purchase-money down, then, pretending to detect some flaw in the title, he would compel the seller to have recourse to a chancery suit. In this way he ruined many. Ingram was fond of lavish expenditure; often placed his purse at the service of the king, and thus rendered himself an acceptable person at court. In 1604 he was appointed comptroller of the customs of the port of London, and on 21 Oct. 1607 the office was conferred on him for life. He was chosen M.P. for Stafford on 1 Nov. 1609, for Romney, Kent, in 1614, for Appleby, Westmoreland, in 1620–1, and again for that borough, Old Sarum, and York in 1623–4, when he elected to serve for York, being re-elected in 1625, 1625–6, and 1627–8. In 1640 a Sir Arthur Ingram (possibly Ingram's eldest son, who had been knighted on 16 July 1621) was returned for New Windsor and Callington, Cornwall (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 178).
Ingram was himself knighted on 9 July 1613 (ib. p. 164). In March 1612 he was appointed one of the secretaries of the council of the north, and about the same time undertook to carry on the royal alum works in Yorkshire, paying the king an annual sum of 9,000l. (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, pp. 44, 336–7, 360). The speculation proved a loss. When occupied with the affairs of the northern council he lived principally in a large and splendidly furnished house on the north side of York Minister. In February 1614–15 he was sworn cofferer of the king's household, but was removed from the office in April following at the instigation of the courtiers, who objected to his plebeian birth. He was high sheriff of Yorkshire in 1620. At the instance of Sir John Bourchier, who pretended to have discovered in the alum accounts a deficiency of 50,000l., Ingram was arrested and brought up to London in October 1624 (Court and Times of James I, ii. 484), but he appears to have cleared himself to the satisfaction of the king. In 1640 he built the hospital which bears his name in Bootham, York. Charles I, who occupied Ingram's house during his long sojourn at York in 1642, would have made him a peer for a money consideration had he dared (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–1643, p. 41). Ingram must have died at York in 1642, for his will (registered in P. C. C. 107, Cambell) was proved in that year. He married, first, Susan, daughter of Richard Brown of London; secondly, Alice, daughter of Mr. Ferrers, citizen of London; and, thirdly, Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Grevile of Milcote, Warwickshire. He had issue by each marriage.
[Cartwright's Chapters in the Hist. of Yorkshire; Court and Times of James I; Davies's Walks through York; Earl of Strafford's Letters (Knowler), i. 6, 28, 29, 30; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18; Yorkshire Archæolog. and Topogr. Journal, vols. ii. v. vii. viii.]