INGERSOLL, Joel: 1764 - 1810
Tile ordered and paid for by M.B. Ingersoll, Regina, North West Territories, August 1888
Joel Ingersoll was born in Bedford, Westchester County, New York. In America since 1629, three branches of the family are recorded at the time of the American Revolution: descendants of Richard Ingersoll in Salem, Massachusetts; John Ingersoll in Westfield, Massachusetts; and John Ingersoll in Huntington, Long Island. Joel Ingersoll was born into the fourth generation of the Huntington, Long Island branch.(1)
Joel married Sarah Lockwood in 1784. They had five children: Nancy born in 1787; Elizabeth born in 1789; Isaac born in 1795; Susan who married and had one child; and Phoebe who died in infancy. In a 1790 census, they are recorded living in Dutchess County, New York. The family moved to Fredericksburgh about 1800 where Joel was a farmer and lumber merchant.
Joel’s son, Isaac, (1795-1865), just five years old at the time of the move, later met and married Mary Casey (1800 -1885) of Adolphustown, the daughter of Willet Casey, one of the original settlers. Isaac and Mary had nine children. Their son, Marshall Bidwell Ingersoll born in 1839, sponsored this tile for his paternal grandfather, Joel Ingersoll, and also the tile for his maternal grandfather, Willet Casey (Tile # 32). Marshall lived in Regina, then part of the North West Territories, at the time the tiles for St. Alban’s were being ordered. He died in Regina in 1898, but is buried in St. Alban’s Cemetery.
This tile for Joel Ingersoll, in the first consignment of thirty-three tiles ordered from Stoke-on-Trent, was installed in 1889. Reverend Forneri, who oversaw the tile project, was adamant that all tiles must be in memory of proven Loyalists. He turned down at least one sponsorship when it was found to be for a gentleman who had married a Loyalist but had actually fought with the rebels. After the Reverend’s tenure, this criterion was relaxed to allow tiles for a few local church supporters in order to complete the frieze of sixty-four tiles before production at the Stoke-on-Trent foundry ceased. In spite of Reverend Forneri’s vigilance, it seems that Joel Ingersoll, in 1780, at the age of sixteen, served in the 5th Regiment, Connecticut Line of the Continental Army.(2) Neutrality was not an option during the revolution and soldiers were often conscripted to fill quotas, so it is difficult to know Joel’s true sentiments. Life was difficult for Loyalist sympathizers in America after the war, and many of the so-called late Loyalists, those who did not arrive in time to be eligible for the designation of U.E., moved to Canada to escape persistent persecution.
Certainly the Ingersoll families were politically divided. Thomas, father of Laura Ingersoll Secord, was a fifth generation Massachusetts Ingersoll. He fought with the Continental forces but disillusioned after the war, immigrated to Canada. His daughter, Laura Secord, became a Canadian heroine for her role in saving Canada during the War of 1812.(3)
Joel Ingersoll died in Fredericksburgh, April 1, 1810, ten years after immigrating to Canada.
1. Lillian Drake Avery, ed., A Genealogy of The Ingersoll Family in America (New York: The Grafton Press, 1926).
2. Connecticut in Revolution (p. 203), cited in: Lillian Drake Avery, ed., A Genealogy of The Ingersoll Family in America (New York: The Grafton Press, 1926).
3. Richard Ripley, UE; personal email communication from Stratford, Ontario; 14 June 2010.