INGOLDSBY, Henry (1623-1701), of Clenagh, Bunratty Barony, co. Clare.

Henry Ingoldsby was a younger brother of the Buckinghamshire colonel and regicide, Richard Ingoldsby*, and a first cousin of Oliver Cromwell*. The details of his early life are uncertain, but by the age of 21 he had become an officer in his brother’s regiment in the earl of Essex’s army, taking part in its ill-fated march into Cornwall in the summer of 1644.22SP28/253B, f. 31; Wanklyn, New Model Army, 46. Ingoldsby remained in post when the regiment joined the New Model in April 1645, fought at the siege of Sherborne Castle in Dorset in August, and was wounded during the assault on Bristol in September.23SP28/253B, f. 31; Abbott, Writings and Speeches, i. 376. He may have been with the regiment when it took part in the siege of Oxford in the early summer of 1646, but by the spring of 1647 he had volunteered to serve in Ireland, and tried to recruit officers and men from the regiment to follow him across the Irish Sea. Faced with strong opposition from within his own regiment, Ingoldsby seems to have been forced to shelve his plan, and no more is heard of him for the next two years. His return to active service during the 1649 invasion of Ireland may have been encouraged by his family links with Oliver Cromwell. Ingoldsby’s rapid promotion in the next year certainly suggests he had powerful patrons: by October 1649 he had been appointed lieutenant-colonel in Peter Stubbers’ foot regiment, and in June 1650 he was made colonel of a new regiment of dragoons, formed from loose companies already based in Ireland.24SP28/63, f. 10; Firth and Davies, Regimental Hist. ii. 623-4.

During the last years of the Irish war, Ingoldsby proved himself an efficient, and ruthless, military commander. In 1650 his dragoons were garrisoned in co. Limerick, to restrict the movement of the Irish Catholic forces in the City of Limerick, and he also commanded a mixed unit of horse, foot and dragoons in co-operation with Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*) and the Irish regicide, Sir Hardress Waller*, in their attempts to subdue co. Kerry.25HMC 8th Rep., 601-2; HMC Portland, i. 525. In July 1650 Ingoldsby, with a ‘small party’, defeated an Irish force outside Limerick, killing 900 men.26Merc. Politicus, no. 8 (25 July-1 Aug. 1650), 128. During 1651 his regiment was involved in the siege of Limerick, winning fame in skirmishes with the defenders, and suffering the ravages of plague.27Merc. Politicus, no. 62 97-14 Aug. 1651), 985; SP28/82, f. 13. Ingoldsby’s greatest coup came in June 1652, when he led 500 men from Limerick into co. Galway and defeated 3,000 Irish under Colonel Richard Grace near Loughrea.28Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 218, 221; Bodl. Tanner 53, f. 78v; Bodl. Firth c.5, f. 44v; Merc. Politicus, no. 109 (1-8 July 1652), 1717. It was probably in recognition of this victory - which had destroyed the last effective Irish army outside Ulster - that Ingoldsby was appointed governor of Limerick.29HMC Egmont, i. 515. Ingoldsby was to prove an uncompromising governor. In August 1652 the parliamentary commissioners hastened to approve, in retrospect, Ingoldsby’s activities. He had already ‘turned out’ a number of Irish families from the city, and planned to evict more, ‘in order to the better security and future planting of the place with English’; and had made arrangements to transport ex-soldiers to the continent – a scheme which he zealously pursued in the following months.30Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 250-1; ii. 308-9, 335. In later years he took a close interest in the transplantation of the remaining Irish families into Connaught.31Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 590. The beneficiaries of the removal of the native Irish included Ingoldsby himself. In 1652 he took over the estate of Lord Bourke of Brittas near Limerick, and occupied Sir Dominic White’s house in the city.32Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 251. In 1655 he was granted 3,500 acres of forfeited lands, including extensive estates in southern co. Clare, and these were confirmed by the government in 1657.33Abbott, Writings and Speeches, iii. 630-1.

From the mid-1650s, Ingoldsby was careful to develop his local connections with Limerick and the surrounding area. He was resident in the city throughout the 1650s; his brother, George, married into a leading Limerick family, and acquired property in the city and its liberties; and when the corporation was re-established in 1656, Ingoldsby was the first mayor, and subsequent incumbents were his associates.34Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 251; Civil Survey, iv. 428; 14th Rep. of Dep. Keeper of Public Recs.of Ire. (Dublin, 1882), appx. ii. 51; Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland, 65. During this period he also drew into a close alliance with the Old Protestant landowning community, largely through his links with Sir Hardress Waller. In August 1653 Ingoldsby married Waller’s daughter, Anne.35HMC Egmont, i. 556; cf. CB. He soon became involved with the extended Waller clan, including another son-in-law, Maurice Fenton*, who was a cousin of Ingoldsby’s former comrade-in-arms, Lord Broghill: in 1658 both Fenton and Ingoldsby were granted baronetcies, to prevent jealousies within the Waller household.36TSP, vii. 56-7. In 1659 Ingoldsby became a feoffee for the Fenton inheritance, alongside Broghill’s brother, the 2nd earl of Cork (Sir Richard Boyle*).37Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 15 Feb. 1659. The fruits of Ingoldsby’s personal interest in the city of Limerick, and his political alliance with Waller, can be seen in the parliamentary elections of the 1650s: in 1654, 1656 and 1659 both men were returned for the counties of Kerry, Limerick and Clare, while Sir Hardress’s son, Walter Waller, sat for the boroughs of Limerick and Kilmallock in 1656, and after his premature death was succeeded as MP in 1659 by Henry’s younger brother, George Ingoldsby.38TSP, ii. 445; C219/45, unfol.

An analysis of Henry Ingoldsby’s parliamentary career is complicated by the difficulty in distinguishing his activities from those of his elder brother, Richard, who sat for Buckinghamshire. A ‘Colonel Ingoldsby’ was appointed to five committees in 1654, but it is probable that this was Richard rather than Henry, who may have remained in Limerick throughout this period.39CJ vii. 366b, 370a, 370b, 375b, 386a. In 1656-7, it is clear that Henry did not travel to Westminster. Just after his election, orders were sent to Ingoldsby and others instructing them to arrest all suspicious Irishmen, in response to warnings of possible insurrection and foreign invasion.40Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 623, 631. The state of emergency kept Ingoldsby in Limerick over the next few months: he was excused his absence at the call of the House on 31 December; and in February and March 1657 he sent reports to Henry Cromwell*, detailing his efforts to repair the fortifications at Limerick.41Burton’s Diary, i. 288; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 207, 240-2. In his absence, Ingoldsby’s brother seems to have intervened in cases that he knew to be of importance to him, notably the committee to settle lands on Sir Hardress Waller and his heirs (17 Mar. 1657), and the bill for the settlement of Irish lands (22 May).42CJ vii. 505b, 537b. Like his brother, Henry Ingoldsby was already considered a supporter of the Cromwellian protectorate – a view more than justified by his later conduct.43Narrative of the Late Parliament (1657), 13 (E.935.5).

During the second sitting of the Parliament, in January and February 1658, Richard Ingoldsby sat in the Other House and Henry at last crossed to England to take his seat in the Commons. His brief intervention in proceedings is revealing. On 3 February he acted as teller alongside his brother-in-law, Walter Waller, opposing a motion which would have put discussion of the status of the Other House into a grand committee.44CJ vii. 591b. Such a move would have delayed a decision, and given more time to the commonwealthsmen who were intent on wrecking the new constitution. In opposing the grand committee, Ingoldsby made plain his support for the protectorate. Similar issues dogged the 1659 Parliament. Ingoldsby travelled to England in February 1659 carrying secret instructions from the lord lieutenant, Henry Cromwell to the lord protector.45Henry Cromwell Corresp. 444. Soon after his arrival in London, Ingoldsby was in contact with Secretary John Thurloe*, but he played little part in the business of the Commons, and was named to only one committee: that for Irish affairs, appointed on 1 April.46Henry Cromwell Corresp. 471; CJ vii. 623a. His one recorded contribution to debate clearly reveals his political allegiances. On 11 March, as the discussion on the right of Scottish MPs to sit at Westminster threatened to continue into the evening, a motion to bring in candles was rejected, and the leading commonwealthsman, Sir Henry Vane, II called for an adjournment as ‘we are not able to hold out sitting thus into the dark’. Ingoldsby’s sarcastic aside - that ‘he might be spared’ – caused offence among some MPs, who rightly saw it as an insult to Vane.47Burton’s Diary, iv. 139.

Ingoldsby’s support of the protectorate may have been strengthened by his strong religious beliefs. Ingoldsby was a friend of the Independent minister in Limerick, Claudius Gilbert, who dedicated his Sovereign Antidote Against Sinful Errors to him.48C. Gilbert, A Sovereign Antidote Against Sinful Errors (1658) (E.939.4); Cal. Baxter Corresp. i. 351. Ingoldsby’s Independency no doubt coloured his view of the growing influence of Quakers in the Limerick garrison, which he came to see as posing a threat to the government at least as dangerous as that from the native Irish. In March 1657 he wrote to Henry Cromwell to defend himself against charges of harshness against the Quakers, whom he described as ‘those wild yet subtle and designing generation of people’. He had given the sect leave to meet quietly, but banned large gatherings which he saw as a threat ‘to the security of the place’, and had cashiered all Quaker soldiers to prevent the spread of such beliefs within the garrison.49Henry Cromwell Corresp. 123-4, 240-2; St J.D. Seymour, The Puritans in Ireland, 1647-1661 (Oxford, 1921), 134. Later complaints by Quakers accused Ingoldsby of denying them recourse to justice, and passing orders banishing from the city any inhabitant who received one of their number as a guest.50CSP Ire. 1669-70, p. 375. Such moves were consistent with the religious policies of Henry Cromwell, who had moved against Quakers and Anabaptists in the army.

The collapse of the protectorate in May 1659 was a personal disaster for Ingoldsby, whose financial, political and religious future depended on the survival of his cousins’ government. Richard Ingoldsby tried to support the protectorate in England, and Henry, on his departure for Ireland, blustered that he would ‘withstand the government to the wearing out of his old shoes’, and joined Waller in an attempt to organize resistance to the restored Rump.51Ludlow, Mems. ii. 69-71; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 19. Such bravado was short-lived, however. Both brothers were stripped of their commands, and in July 1659 Henry’s regiment was reassigned to the more reliable Colonel Robert Barrow.52CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 12. Henry Ingoldsby’s open opposition to the republican regime soon brought him to the attention of royalist agents, who were hopeful that he might join them in return for the confirmation of his estates.53Mordaunt Letter-Bk. 96. But Ingoldsby (who had returned to England) was more influenced by the increasing ambitions of John Lambert’s* military clique than the promises of the royalists. When he did act, on 28 December, it was to seize Windsor Castle for Parliament.54CJ vii.798a-b; CCSP, iv. 500, 509, 555; Whitelocke, Diary, 555-6. In the same month Sir Hardress Waller and other Irish officers captured Dublin and refused the notional commander-in-chief, Edmund Ludlowe II*, permission to land.55CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 695. A direct connection between the two events is difficult to establish, but there can be little doubt that Ingoldsby supported the actions of his colleagues in Dublin. Indeed, he may have helped co-ordinate a similar revolt in Limerick: on 20 December the mayor, William Hartwell, informed him that the well-affected officers had evicted Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson and the ‘Anabaptist officers’ and had declared for Parliament.56HMC Portland, i. 688.

In the event, Ingoldsby’s attachment to the Old Protestant interest and to his own survival proved to be far stronger than his family tie with Sir Hardress Waller. In February 1660 Ingoldsby, back in Dublin, refused to join Waller’s desperate counter-rebellion; instead, he wrote to Speaker Lenthall, assuring him of the loyalty of the Irish officers to Parliament.57Bodl. Carte 67, f. 312. Waller, abandoned by his son-in-law, was arrested and imprisoned. Ingoldsby was elected as representative for the borough of Kells (co. Meath) in the general Convention that met in Dublin in March, and in the same period he served as poll money commissioner for co. Limerick co. Clare, Limerick and Kells.58Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 188, 190; Irish Census, 1659, 623-4.

After the Restoration, Ingoldsby’s career was not hampered by his close connection with two regicides, or his blood-ties with the House of Cromwell. In July 1660 he petitioned the king, defending himself against the charges of one Captain Purdon, that he had opposed the return of the king.59CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 122. In April 1661 he was granted a pardon through the intercession of the earl of Orrery (formerly Lord Broghill), and he was returned as MP for co. Clare in the Irish Parliament.60CJI, i. 589; CSP Ire. 1660-2, p. 318. In August, Ingoldsby was created baronet for the second time.61CB. By the end of 1661 his financial position had also become much more secure: he had received a royal order allowing him and his brother, Richard, beneficial terms in the land settlement, and in 1662 both men were confirmed in their Clare and Limerick estates.62CSP Ire. 1660-2, pp. 288-9, 418, 514-5; CCSP, v. 86. In 1664 they were also awarded money due to them from Sir Hardress Waller, presumably part of Lady Ingoldsby’s marriage portion.63CSP Ire. 1669-70, p. 507.

Having received commissions in the royal army in Ireland, and other favours, Ingoldsby became associated with the duke of Ormond’s government, a process which culminated in his appointment to the Irish privy council, probably in 1674.64HMC Ormonde, o.s. i. 336; ii. 197, 201, 204, 258, 355-7, 342. In his capacity as councillor, Ingoldsby had turned his back on another former ally, providing Ormond with information against the earl of Orrery.65HMC Ormonde, n.s. v. 168. Disloyalty seems to have become something of a habit. In 1679, Ingoldsby was drawn into the accusations against Ormond which formed the Irish part of the Popish Plot, accusing his former patron of putting ‘greater confidence in the Papists than the Protestants’; and as a result lost his place on the privy council.66HMC Ormonde, n.s. v. 168, 218-9, 223, 226, 483-4. It was only after the arrival of William III in 1690 that he was rehabilitated.67CB; J. Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland (3 vols. 1773), appx. ii. 25. Ingoldsby died in March 1701, and was buried at St Bride’s, Dublin. In his will, he ordered that his widow’s jointure rights were to be honoured, and provided for the payment of his debts from the sale of his London house, in Golden Square. His executors were his nephew, Brigadier Richard Ingoldsby, his son-in-law, Sir Francis Blundell, and his brothers-in-law, James Waller and Henry Cadogan.68PROB11/460/349. His eldest son, George, predeceased him; his second son, Sir William Ingoldsby, who succeeded to the estate, died without male heirs in 1726, when the baronetcy became extinct.69CB.