People of the Revolutionary War | The Founding Fathers - An Overview | Jared Ingersoll
Jared Ingersoll (1749-1822) - Pennsylvania
Image: Courtesy of National Archives, Records of Exposition, Anniversary,
and Memorial Commissions
The son of Jared Ingersoll, Sr., a British colonial official and later
prominent Loyalist, Ingersoll was born at New Haven, CT, in 1749. He
received an excellent education and graduated from Yale in 1766. He
then oversaw the financial affairs of his father, who had relocated
from New Haven to Philadelphia. Later, the youth joined him, took up
the study of law, and won admittance to the Pennsylvania bar.
In the midst of the Revolutionary fervor,
which neither father nor son shared, in 1773, on the advice of the
elder Ingersoll, Jared, Jr., sailed to London and studied law at the
Middle Temple. Completing his work in 1776, he made a 2-year tour of
the Continent, during which time for some reason he shed his Loyalist
sympathies.
Returning to Philadelphia and entering the
legal profession, Ingersoll attended to the clients of one of the
city's leading lawyers and a family friend, Joseph Reed, who was then
occupied with the affairs of the Supreme Executive Council of
Pennsylvania. In 1781 Ingersoll married Elizabeth Pettit (Petit). The
year before, he had entered politics by winning election to the Continental
Congress (1780-81).
Although Ingersoll missed no sessions at the Constitutional
Convention, had long favored revision of the Articles
of Confederation, and as a lawyer was used to debate, he seldom
spoke during the proceedings.
Subsequently, Ingersoll held a variety of
public positions: member of the Philadelphia common council (1789);
attorney general of Pennsylvania (1790-99 and 1811-17); Philadelphia
city solicitor (1798-1801); U.S. District Attorney for Pennsylvania
(1800-01); and presiding judge of the Philadelphia District Court
(1821-22). Meantime, in 1812, he had been the Federalist
Vice-Presidential candidate, but failed to win election.
While pursuing his public activities,
Ingersoll attained distinction in his legal practice. For many years,
he handled the affairs of Stephen Girard, one of the nation's leading
businessmen. In 1791 Ingersoll began to practice before the U.S.
Supreme Court and took part in some memorable cases. Although in both
Chisholm v. Georgia (1792) and Hylton v. United States (1796) he
represented the losing side, his arguments helped to clarify difficult
constitutional issues. He also represented fellow-signer William
Blount, a senator, when he was threatened with impeachment in the late
1790s.
Ingersoll's long career ended in 1822, when
he died less than a week after his 73d birthday. Survived by three
children, he was buried in the cemetery of Philadelphia's First
Presbyterian Church.
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