Thomas Ingersoll

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Thomas Ingersoll (1749 – 1812) was an early settler in Upper Canada, later Ontario. He is best known as the father of Laura Secord, who warned the British of an impending American attack on Upper Canada during the War of 1812.

He was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, later moving to Great Barrington. In 1775, he married Elizabeth Dewey. He served as a lieutenant in the American militia from 1777 to 1781 and continued to serve in the militia after the American Revolution, reaching the rank of major. After the death of his first wife in 1784, he married Mercy Smith, the widow of Josiah Smith. In 1789, he married Sarah Whiting, the widow of John Backus, after the death of his second wife.

Ingersoll immigrated to Upper Canada after hearing about the availability of land there for new settlers. In 1793, he obtained a land grant of 66,000 acres (267 km²) in Oxford County from Governor John Graves Simcoe. He named the new settlement Oxford-on-the-Thames. Ingersoll was named a justice of the peace for the county. In 1806, he left the settlement at Oxford-on-the-Thames and settled on the Credit River near Port Credit. He died there in 1812.

His son Charles renamed Oxford-on-the-Thames "Ingersoll" in his honour.