Henry Ingram, 1st Viscount of Irvine

Henry Ingram (1640-1666) was the first to hold the title Lord Ingram, and Viscount Irvine, in the Peerage of Scotland, which in English sources is usually written Viscount Irwin. The Viscountcy existed in four generations of his family before becoming extinct: the seat was at Temple Newsam near Leeds, in Yorkshire.

Temple Newsam House, seat of the Viscounts Irvine (from Morris's Country Seats, 1880).

Henry Ingram's father, Sir Arthur Ingram junior of Temple Newsam (died 1655), was son of the notable landowner and Member of Parliament Sir Arthur Ingram the elder (1565-1642).^[1] The elder Sir Arthur purchased Temple Newsam in 1622 and, through a destruction by fire in March 1635/6,^[2] rebuilt the mansion over the next 20 years, incorporating part of the house formerly belonging to the Earls and Dukes of Lennox in which Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, father of King James I, had been born in 1545.

The younger Sir Arthur was eldest son of the father's first marriage, to Susan (daughter of Richard Brown), who died in 1613. Sir Arthur (junr.) was the elder half-brother of Sir Thomas Ingram (1614-1672) (son of Alice Ferrers), who became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1664-1672. The elder Sir Arthur made a third marriage, to Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Greville of Milcote: Dame Mary lived down to 1661. The younger Arthur was Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1629-30, and inherited at his father's death in 1642. His first wife was Eleanor, daughter of Sir Henry Slingsby of Redhouse, Yorkshire, MP.^[3]

Henry Ingram, baptized at Whitkirk, Yorkshire in 1641, was the third of four sons (and three daughters) of Sir Arthur (junr.) by Eleanor, who died in 1647. Later in the same year Sir Arthur remarried to Katherine, second daughter of Thomas Fairfax, 1st Viscount Fairfax of Emley: she died in February 1666/7.^[4] Soon after Sir Arthur's death, 1655,^[5] the eldest son having died in infancy, the second son Thomas Ingram married Mary, daughter of Watkinson Payler of Thoralby and his wife, a sister of Katherine Fairfax. However Mary died almost immediately, and Thomas the son died in 1660, so that Henry became the heir to Sir Arthur at the age of 20, inheriting Temple Newsam and other estates.^[6]

On 23 May 1661 Henry was created a Peer of Scotland under the titles Viscount Irvine and Lord Ingram, by Patent, as hereditary titles limited to the male heirs of his body. On 7 June 1661 he married Lady Essex Montagu, daughter of Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester by his wife Essex Cheke, daughter of Sir Thomas Cheke of Pyrgo and Lady Essex Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick. There were three children, first Edward (born 1662), who became the 2nd Viscount (died 1688),^[7] second a daughter Essex Ingram (born January 1664/5) and last Arthur (born January 1665/6), who became the 3rd Viscount and was the progenitor of the later Viscounts.^[8]

The 1st Viscount made his will on 9 August 1666, asking to be buried at Whitkirk as near as possible to his father, and making ample provision for his widow, two sons and daughter and his principal servants. He made particular mention of his brother Arthur Ingram, whose line remained important in the immediate circle of the family in the next generations and was seated at Barrowby in Garforth, Yorkshire. His executors were Edward 2nd Earl of Manchester, Lord Henry Stapleton, bart., Henry Slingsby and George Townsend, to all of whom tutelage of the heir Edward was committed, and who all swore to administer at probate on 11 October 1666. Henry was buried at Whitkirk on 13 August 1666.^[9] His widow Essex, Viscountess Irvine, died in 1677.

There is a portrait of Henry Ingram, 1st Viscount Irwin, from the school of Peter Lely, in the collections at Temple Newsam,^[10] and a portrait of Essex Montagu, Viscountess Irwin, of the same.^[11]

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