Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll (February 8, 1789 – August 26, 1872) was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he wasSpeaker of the House, aUnited States representative fromConnecticut for four consecutive terms from 1825 to 1833, and was theU.S. Minister to the Russian Empire under PresidentJames K. Polk in the late 1840s.

Ingersoll was born inNew Haven, Connecticut, on February 8, 1789.^[1] He was the son of JudgeJonathan Ingersoll (1747–1823) and Grace (née Isaacs) Ingersoll (1772–1850). His father was a judge of the Supreme Court andLieutenant Governor of Connecticut up until his death in 1823.^[2]

His maternal grandfather, and namesake, was Ralph Isaacs Jr., a Yale educated merchant who was prominent in New Haven andBranford, and his paternal grandfather was Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll,^[2] chaplain for the Connecticut Troops during theFrench and Indian War who was the brother ofJared Ingersoll Sr., a British colonial official.^[3] His grand-uncle's son,Jared Ingersoll, served asAttorney General of Pennsylvania and was the father of fellow U.S. Representative,Charles Jared Ingersoll, and grandfather of his second cousin, authorEdward Ingersoll.^[4] His cousin, Ralph Isaacs III, was the father of Mary Esther Malbone Isaacs, who marriedChancellor andU.S. SenatorNathan Sanford in 1813.^[5]

He pursued classical studies, and was graduated fromYale College in 1808. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1810 and commenced practice in New Haven.^[1]

Ingersoll was a member of the State house of representatives from 1820 until 1825 and served as speaker during the last two years. He was elected as an Adams candidate to theNineteenth andTwentieth Congresses and reelected as anAnti-Jacksonian to theTwenty-first andTwenty-second Congresses, serving from March 4, 1825, until March 3, 1833. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1832.^[1]

He resumed the practice of law and was later appointed State's attorney for New Haven County in 1833.^[6] He declined the appointment asUnited States Senator tendered by GovernorHenry W. Edwards upon the death of SenatorNathan Smith in 1835.^[1]

On August 8, 1846, he was appointed byDemocratic PresidentJames K. Polk (the formerSpeaker of the House of Representatives)^[7] to serve as the sixteenthU.S. Minister to the Russian Empire.^[8] He presented his credentials in Russia on May 30, 1847, and served until he resigned and left his post on July 1, 1848.^[9] He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1848.^[10] He again engaged in the practice of law and wasMayors of New Haven in 1851.^[1]

In 1814, Ingersoll married Margaret Catharine EleanoraVan den Heuvel (1790–1878).^[11] Margaret was the daughter of Charlotte Augusta (née Apthorp) andJan Cornelis Van den Heuvel, the former governor of the Dutch province ofDemerara from 1765 to 1770 who later moved to New York.^[2] Her maternal grandfather was prominent New York landownerCharles Ward Apthorp and her siblings included younger sisters, Maria Eliza van den Heuvel, who marriedJohn Church Hamilton (son ofU.S. Treasury SecretaryAlexander Hamilton), and Susan Augusta Van den Heuvel, the mother ofCharlotte Augusta Gibbes, wife ofJohn Jacob Astor III, from her marriage to Thomas Stanyarne Gibbes II.^[2] Together, Ralph and Margaret were the parents of seven children:^[12]

• John Van den Heuvel Ingersoll (1815–1846), a Yale educated lawyer who edited a political paper in Ohio and served as secretary of the Indian Commission.^[13] He drowned during a fishing excursion onLake Erie.^[13]
• Ralph Apthorp Ingersoll^[14]
• Colin Macrae Ingersoll (1819–1903),^[15] who was also a member of Congress from Connecticut from 1851 to 1855.^[16] He married Julia Harriet Pratt, the daughter of U.S. RepresentativeZadock Pratt.^[12]
• Charles Roberts Ingersoll (1821–1903), who served asGovernor of Connecticut from 1873 to 1877. He married Virginia Gregory, the daughter of AdmiralFrancis Gregory.^[2]
• Grace Suzette Ingersoll (1823–1904)
• William Adrian Ingersoll (1825–1865), apaymaster with theU.S. Navy.
• Justine Henrietta Ingersoll (1827–1832), who died young.

Ingersoll died in New Haven on August 26, 1872, and was buried inGrove Street Cemetery.^[1]

• United States Congress."Ralph I. Ingersoll (id: I000020)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Ralph I. Ingersoll atFind a Grave
• The Inventory of the Ralph Ingersoll Collection #113 at theHoward Gotlieb Archival Research Center atBoston University.

• 1789 births
• 1872 deaths
• Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut
• Ingersoll family
• Toleration Party politicians
• National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut
• Ambassadors of the United States to the Russian Empire
• 19th-century American diplomats
• Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives
• Mayors of New Haven, Connecticut
• Connecticut lawyers
• Yale College alumni
• Burials at Grove Street Cemetery
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 19th-century United States representatives
• 19th-century members of the Connecticut General Assembly
• Members of the American Philosophical Society

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