Arthur Ingram
Encyclopedia
Sir Arthur Ingram was an English investor, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 between 1624 and 1642. Responsible for the construction, purchase and sale of many manor houses and estates in Yorkshire, the Ingram family are most associated with Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam is a Tudor-Jacobean house with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

 which became the seat of the wealthy family for over 300 years.

Biography

Ingram was born at Thorpe-on-the-Hill (near Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

) some time between 1565 and 1570. The second son of Hugh Ingram of Rothwell and Ann Goldthorpe of York, he came from a poor working-class background to become the most extensive landowner in Yorkshire and one of the richest men in the country at the time.
He became a linen draper in London and married Anne, the daughter of a wealthy haberdasher, Richard Goldthorpe
Richard Goldthorpe
Richard Goldthorpe was an English haberdasher, investor, real estate developer and politician from Yorkshire. In 1560 his estate was valued at £2460, considerable wealth at the time. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord Mayor of York. His daughter, Anne, was married to Sir Arthur...

, formerly Lord Mayor of York and the MP for the city.

He was an influential man, and obtained the Controllership of the Customs for the port of London
Port of London
The Port of London lies along the banks of the River Thames from London, England to the North Sea. Once the largest port in the world, it is currently the United Kingdom's second largest port, after Grimsby & Immingham...

 from 1601. He worked extensively as an investment consultant and trade advisor and later moved into real estate. He was responsible for the sale of Castleford Mills in 1607 and Castleford Manor in 1610.

In 1612, Ingram was appointed as Secretary of the Council of the North
Council of the North
The Council of the North was an administrative body originally set up in 1484 by king Richard III of England, the third and last Yorkist monarch to hold the Crown of England; its intention was to improve government control and economic prosperity, to benefit the entire area of Northern England...

 and was knighted by James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 in 1613. In 1615 he became Cofferer of the Household
Cofferer of the Household
The Cofferer of the Household was formerly an office in the English and British Royal Household.The holder had special charge over other officers of the household and was an officer of state and a member of the Privy Council and the Board of Green Cloth....

. However, he was soon blackballed from court because of his working-class background and shrewd business practices. He moved back to Yorkshire and became highly active in real estate development.

In 1619 he built a new mansion on the site of the former Archbishop's Palace in York. In 1621 he acquired from the Crown the ruinous Sheriff Hutton Castle
Sheriff Hutton Castle
Sheriff Hutton Castle is a quadrangular castle in the village of Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, England.-History:The original motte and bailey castle, the remains of which can be seen to the south of the churchyard. was built by Bertram de Bulmer, Sheriff of York during the reign of King Stephen...

 in the Forest of Galtres
Forest of Galtres
The royal Forest of Galtres was established by the Norman kings of England in North Yorkshire, to the north of the county town of York, extending right to its very walls.. The main settlement within the royal forest was the market village of Easingwold, but in 1316 the forest comprised 60 villages...

, north of York; he employed its cut stone in building Sheriff Hutton Park nearby. In 1622 he purchased the manor house at Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam is a Tudor-Jacobean house with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

 and estate from the Duke of Lennox
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox was the son of John Stewart, 5th Lord of Aubigny who was the younger brother of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox...

 (who had been granted it by King James I) for £12,000.Temple Newsam is a Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

-Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...

 house with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...

 and lies to the east of Leeds, just south of Halton Moor
Halton Moor
Halton Moor is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, located around three miles east of Leeds city centre and is close to the A63. It is situated between Killingbeck to the north, Temple Newsam to the south, Osmondthorpe to the west and Halton and Colton to the east.The area is mainly...

, Halton
Halton, Leeds
Halton is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between Cross Gates to the north, Halton Moor to the west, Colton to the east and Whitkirk to the South. Temple Newsam lies directly south of the estate.-History:...

, Whitkirk
Whitkirk
Whitkirk is a suburb of east Leeds, situated between Cross Gates to the north, Austhorpe to the east, Killingbeck to the west, Colton to the south-east and Halton to the south-west...

 and Colton
Colton, Leeds
Colton is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between Cross Gates to the north, Halton and Halton Moor to the west, Whitkirk to the north-west and Austhorpe to the north-east...

. As Ingram became more prosperous, his power and ties increased.

Ingram served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire
High Sheriff of Yorkshire
The High Sheriff of Yorkshire was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. A list of the sheriffs from the Norman conquest onwards can be found below...

 in 1620 and became the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for York
City of York (UK Parliament constituency)
The City of York was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 in 1624 and served four terms until 1629 when King Charles I dispensed with parliament.

In 1636, Ingram purchased the Manor of Knottingley
Knottingley
Knottingley is a town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the A1 road. It has a population of 13,503....

 for £4,000, and in 1637 he bought Knottingley Mills from Francis Tyndall as well as the manor of Bentley
Bentley, South Yorkshire
Bentley is a village in South Yorkshire, England two miles north of the town of Doncaster.The village was once owned by Edmund Hastings of Plumtree, Nottinghamshire, who had inherited it from his wife Copley's Sprotborough family...

 from York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 barrister John Levett for £4,000. Sometime in late 1638 or early 1639 he is documented as having paid the painter George Geldorp
George Geldorp
George Geldorp was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Cologne.-Biography:The son of Gortzius Geldorp, he was trained and active as a painter in Cologne before being admitted Master in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1610. Two years later his first wife Margriet Parmentiers died in Antwerp...

 to paint his portrait. In the late 1630s he also built Ingram House
Ingram House
Ingram House is a historic building in the district of Bootham, York, England. It was built as an almshouse for ten poor widows between 1630 and 1640 by real estate developer and politician Sir Arthur Ingram and was originally known as Ingram's Hospital. It was damaged during the Siege of York and...

 in Bootham
Bootham
Bootham is a district near the centre of the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is just outside Bootham Bar, one of the ancient gateways through the city walls of York...

.

In April 1640, Ingram was elected MP for Windsor
Windsor (UK Parliament constituency)
Windsor is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In its modern form, it elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 for the Short Parliament
Short Parliament
The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

 and in November 1640, he became the MP for Callington
Callington (UK Parliament constituency)
Callington was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1585 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.-History:...

 for the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

. He erected a new manor house at Hill Top, Knottingley shortly before his death in August 1642.

Ingram was survived by three sons; the oldest, William, studied at Cambridge University and became a divine.His flamboyant grandson Henry joined the court in exile of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 and was rewarded with the title of Viscount of Irvine
Viscount of Irvine
Viscount of Irvine was a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created on 23 May 1661 for Henry Ingram, of Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, and Hoar Cross Hall, Staffordshire. He was made Lord Ingram at the same time, also in Peerage of Scotland. The third Viscount was Member of Parliament for...

 after the Restoration
Restoration (1660)
The term Restoration in reference to the year 1660 refers to the restoration of Charles II to his realms across the British Empire at that time.-England:...

.
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