Surname Saturday ~ Ingraham

INGRAHAM

I hesitated about putting my Ingraham lineage up on a Surname Saturday post because I am very confused about the original immigrant ancestor, Richard Ingraham.  But then, I rethought this and I’m hoping for a cousin connection to someone out there who can help me with the facts.  I have several very old sources that are contradictory on Richard Ingraham, and the newest information I know about him was published in the NEHGS NEXUS Volume XIV.  I foolishly tossed all my old volumes of the NEXUS and American Ancestors thinking they were now available on line.  However, only the first few volumes of NEXUS are in the online database.  Live and learn. 

There are records for a Richard Ingraham living in both Rehoboth and Northampton, Massachusetts at this time period.   He became a freeman in Massachusetts on 18 May 1831.  He was a surveyor of highways in Rehoboth in 1655.  In 1668 he signed a petition.  He donated two shillings to Harvard in 1673.  The American Genealogist, Volume 19, page 77, says “Richard Ingraham, who died in Northampton, Massachusetts in Aug 1683, the common progenitor and father of William and Henry of Boston, Jarret of Rehoboth, and John of Hadley”. 

There are several women who are supposed to be wives of Richard Ingraham, but I have not seen any proof of any marriage records or names.  There is a sketch of Richard Ingraham in the genealogy columns of the Boston Transcript 8 February 1944 which claims he was the son of Arthur Ingram of England and had a royal lineage.  Anyone who has worked with these Boston Transcript columns knows that they are good clues, but since they are unsourced advice sent in by readers they are not great sources of genealogy information.

I’ve had better luck finding information Richard’s children, including the two siblings from whom I descend, William and Abigail.  William Ingraham appears in the Boston records as marrying Mary Bairstow.  There is a deed dated 29 June 1706 in which William conveyed land to “my Nefew Obadiah Ingraham son to Jarratt Ingraham my brother”.  An earlier deed dated 17 May 1693 shows Wiliam purchasing land from his father Richard Ingraham.  These documents show that both William and Jared were sons of Richard Ingraham.  The Richard Ingraham of Northampton only mentions in his 1683 will his wife, Joan, and “son-in-law” Calleb Pumry.

William’s sister, Abigail, is also my ancestor.  She married Samuel Chesebrough in Rehoboth in 1655.  Both Abigail and William settled in Connecticut.  The Chesebrough line is well documented.  Abigail’s daughter, Elizabeth, married her cousin, William Ingraham (son of William and Mary above). 

A good source of information on both William Ingraham and his sister Abigail is the book Genealogy of the Descendants of William Chesebrough, Founder of Stonington, Connecticut, by Anna Chesebrough Widley, 1903.  There are good vital records for this family in the Connecticut records known as the Barbour Collection. Connecticut research is new for me, but I’ve found the Barbour collection on microfilm at many good genealogy libraries such as NEHGS, any Family History Library, the American Canadian Genealogical Society and other.  The Barbour Collection can also be found online.

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My INGRAHAM lineage:

Generation 1: Richard Ingraham, born about 1600,  According to the LDS Batch No. c028262, a Richard Ingram was baptized on 18 March 1600 in Fishtoft, Lincolnshire, son of John Ingram.  Seven children, and I am descended of two:

1.     Elizabeth, born 21 March 1628, m. Richard Bullock

2. Joanna, born about 1629, m. George Robinson

3.  William, see below

4.  Jared, born about 1631, m. Rebecca Searle

5. Abigail, see below

6. John, born about 1637, m. Elizabeth Gardner

7.   Henry, born about 1639, m1. Lydia Dowse, m2. Elizabeth Underwood

Line A.

Generation 2: William Ingraham, born 1629 in England, died 4 May 1721 in Stonington, Connecticut; married on 14 May 1656 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts to Mary Bairstow, daughter of William Bairstow and Anna Hubbard.  She was born 28 December 1641 in Dedham, Massachusetts and died 16 November 1708 in Scituate, Massachusetts. Two children.  He married again to Esther Unknown.

Generation 3: William Ingraham, born 27 January 1658 in Boston, died 16 January 1708 in Stonington, Connecticut; married in 1689 to Elizabeth Chesebrough, daughter of Samuel Chesebrough and Abigail Ingraham.  She was born 6 January 1669 in Stonington, died after 1708 probably in Stonington. Seven children.

Generation 4: Patience Ingraham, born 2 April 1706 in Stonington, died Oct 1770 in Groton, Connecticut; married on 8 September 1726 in Lebanon, Connecticut to Ebenezer Bill.  He was born 14 December 1695 in Groton, died 23 May 1788 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Ten children.

Generation 5: Asahel Bill, born 7 April 1748 in Lebanon, died 10 November 1814 in Billtown, Nova Scotia; married 18 June 1778 in Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia to Mary Rand, daughter of Caleb Rand and Mary Mayhew.  She was born in 1758 and died on 19 February 1845. Eleven children.

Generation 6: Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill m. Isabella Lyons

Generation 7: Professor Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 8: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

Line B.

Generation 2:  (There is no proof that Abigail Ingraham is the daughter of Richard Ingraham, since the records only list the sons of Richard Ingraham) Abigail Ingraham, died 18 April 1700 in Stonington, married on 3 November 1665 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts to Samuel Chesebrough, son of William Chesebrough and Ann Stevenson.  He was born about 1627 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and died 31 July 1673 in Stonington.  Seven children.

Generation 3: Elizabeth Chesebrough m. William Ingraham (see above)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo