Ingersoll, Sr., Charles J.

Born: 1782-10-03 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Died: 1862-05-14 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Charles Ingersoll received academic training and studied law. He earned admittance to the Pennsylvania bar in 1802 and started a practice in Philadelphia. In 1804, Ingersoll married Mary Wilcocks, with whom he had eight children. Ingersoll won election, as a Democratic-Republican, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1813 to 1815. During his term, he earned appointment as U.S. district attorney for Pennsylvania, a post he held until 1829. He served as a member of the State improvement convention in 1825 and won election to the State House of Representatives in 1830. Ingersoll served in the State constitutional convention in 1837 and earned appointment to secretary of the legation to Prussia in 1837. He ran unsuccessfully in 1837 to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Congress and again in 1838. Ingersoll won election, as a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1841 and reelection for the three following Congresses. He served until 1849, and served alongside Abraham Lincoln during the Thirtieth Congress. He earned appointment to minister to France in 1847, but did not gain confirmation by the Senate.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1267-68; Gravestone, Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA; Thaddeus Russell, "Ingersoll, Charles Jared," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 11:647.