Richard Ingersoll "Ferryman"

Richard Ingersoll, also recorded as Inkersall and Ingerson, was a North River ferryman associated with Salem. He was born 10 March 1587 and died 21 July 1644, according to the supplied life dates. He and his wife Anne had children including George, Joanna, John, Sarah, Alice, Bathsheba, and Nathaniel. His 1644 will and inventory document a household with land, livestock, farm equipment, and a town house.

Richard Ingersoll, known as “Ferryman,” was born 10 March 1587 and died 21 July 1644, according to the supplied life dates. His surname also appears as Inkersall and Ingerson. He was a ferryman and kept the ferry at North River. His wife was Anne, identified in the supplied notes as Anne (Langely).

A family account places Richard, Anne, and children George, Joanna, John, Sarah, and Alice aboard the “2nd Mayflower” in 1629. It states that the vessel departed Gravesend, London, in March 1629, arrived at Plymouth on 15 May 1629, and was commanded by Capt. William Pierce. This migration account is presented in the supplied material as a family claim and should be treated accordingly.

In Salem’s 1636 land-grant list, Richard appeared in the section for “non-freemen.” The supplied commentary states that, in Salem, this showed that he was not a member of the church. The 1637 Salem land grant listed him with a family of nine. Commentary in the supplied material notes that seven children were then living, while the eldest daughter, Alice, was already married and would have been included in her husband’s household. It raises the possibility of an otherwise unrecorded child who died before 1644, or of another relative or servant living with the family; neither explanation is established.

Richard’s surviving records also connect him with farming. In September 1640, he took grand juryman Lawrence Leech to the mill to show that the grists were “much short of weight.” Court material further reports that Richard’s cattle, together with cattle belonging to about a dozen other men, were found offensive in the common cornfields, and that he paid the court’s fine. Later depositions by his sons George, John, and Nathaniel concerning events in the 1640s included George’s statement that he had lived “apartner” with his father on a farm hired from Mr. Chickering, who had bought it from Townsend Bishop. The supplied commentary suggests that shared ownership of some farm implements in Richard’s inventory may reflect a cooperative family enterprise, but this is an interpretation rather than a direct statement from the inventory.

Richard made his will on 21 July 1644, and it was proved on 2 January 1645. He left his wife Anne all his lands, goods, and chattels except for specified gifts. George Ingersoll received six acres of meadow in the great meadow. Nathaniel Ingersoll, identified as the youngest son, received a parcel of ground with a little frame that Richard had bought from John P[ease?]. If Nathaniel died without lawful issue, the land was to be shared equally by John Ingersoll, Richard Pettingell, and William Haines. Bathsheba, identified as the youngest daughter, received two cows. Alice Walcott was to receive Richard’s house in town, with ten acres of upland and meadow, after Anne’s death.

The will material identifies Richard Pettingell as Richard’s son-in-law and husband of Joanna, and William Haines, also called Hines, as his son-in-law and husband of Sarah. Sarah was later said to have married Joseph Houlton. The supplied notes conflict regarding Alice’s husband: one identifies her as the wife of Josiah Walcot, while another refers to her as Alice Walcott and says she had married William Walcott. These differing identifications cannot be reconciled from the supplied material.

An inventory was taken on 4 October 1644. It included seven cows valued at £34, two young steers at £4, a bull at £7, a pair of oxen at £14, and two horses, a mare, and a young colt valued at £25. It also included a moose-skin suit. The notes report the farm’s value as £7, but give its size differently in separate passages, as either fifty acres or eighty acres.

After Richard’s death, Anne married John Knight Sr. of Newbury. A later dispute concerned the farm Richard had left to her. In testimony, Richard Pettingell stated that Anne had reserved the farm to herself before marrying John Knight and had verbally given it to her son John. He also testified about a disagreement over timber at Frost Fish River. According to the supplied account, John Knight later joined Anne in conveying the farm to her sons John and Nathaniel Ingerson. Anne was said to have died in 1677.

Among papers attributed to Richard was a recipe intended to make a bald man’s hair grow, using dried fireflies, red worms, black snails, and honey bees mixed with milk or water. A separate claim states that Richard built a Salem house later associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables. The supplied material offers this only as a claim and does not provide supporting evidence.

Historical context

Richard’s Salem records show a household engaged in both ferrying and agriculture. His estate included livestock, horses, land, a town house, and farm equipment, while court records place him in local disputes over milling and cattle in common cornfields. His will reflects the transfer of land and household property among his widow, children, and sons-in-law.

Sources & research

Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers, before 1692, published 1862, Boston, Mass.; original data: J. Savage.

Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–33, comments on Richard Ingersoll.

E. I. Hist. Coll. 1:12.

Essex Quarterly Court Records, EQC 1:20.

Essex Quarterly Court Records, EQC 1:49, 56.

Essex Court Files XIV: 28–32.

Salem Quarterly Court Records, will abstract copied by Joshua Coffin.

Great Migration Begins, by Rick D. Ingersoll.