Richard Ingoldsby (British Army officer, died 1759)

Richard Ingoldsby was a brigadier-general of the British Army.

Biography

He was the son of Thomas Ingoldsby, who was high sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1720 and Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1727 to 1734. His mother was Anne, daughter of Hugh Limbrey of Tangier Park, Hampshire. Sir Richard Ingoldsby the regicide was his great-grandfather, and Lieutenant-General Richard Ingoldsby was a distant cousin.

Ingoldsby was appointed ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards on 28 August 1708, became lieutenant and captain 24 May 1711, and captain and lieutenant-colonel 11 January 1715. He was second major of his regiment in Flanders, and was appointed a brigadier of foot by the Duke of Cumberland. The night before the Battle of Fontenoy (11 May 1745) he was stationed on the British right, with the 12th (Duroure's) and 13th (Pulteney's) regiments of foot, the 43rd Highlanders, and the Hanoverian regiment of Zastrow. They were ordered to take a French redoubt or masked battery called the Fort d'Eu, a vital point; cavalry support was promised. Ingoldsby advanced to the attack, but met with such a warm reception from the French light troops in the adjacent wood that he fell back and sent to ask for artillery. Further delays and blunders followed; the cavalry never came, and when Cumberland's last advance was made, Ingoldsby was wounded and Fort d'Eu remained untaken, so that the Guards, on gaining the crest of the French position, were exposed to a reverse fire from it. Ingoldsby was afterwards brought before a court-martial or council of war, as it was called, at Lessines, of which Lord Dunmore, commanding the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards, was president, was found guilty of not having obeyed the Duke of Cumberland's orders, and was sentenced "to be suspended from pay and duty during his highness's pleasure". The duke then named three months to allow Ingoldsby time to dispose of his company and retire, which he did. The king refused to allow him to dispose of the regimental majority, which on 20 November 1745 was given to Colonel John Laforey. A letter from Ingoldsby appealing piteously to the Duke of Cumberland is in the British Museum.

Ingoldsby appears to have retained the title of brigadier-general after leaving the army. He died in Lower Grosvenor Street, London, on 16 December 1759, and was buried at the family seat, Hartwell, Buckinghamshire. His widow, named in the burial register Catherine, died on 28 January 1789, and was buried in the same place.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chichester, Henry Manners (1892). "Ingoldsby, Richard (d.1712)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 29. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 11-12.