30 Facts About William Ingles

William Ingles, spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia.

William Ingles participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions.

William Ingles was eventually promoted to colonel in the Virginia Regiment.

William's sons, Thomas and George, were held captive, although William was able to ransom his son Thomas in 1768.

William Ingles was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1729, to Thomas Inglis.

Historian John P Hale, a descendant, reports that William had two brothers, Matthew and John.

One source says that Matthew eventually became a sailor, never married and died at sea, while Matthew's nephew John William Ingles wrote that, after escaping from Indian captivity, he died at William Ingles Ferry.

William Ingles's father Thomas was a wealthy merchant who owned a large, importing wholesale business and traded abroad with his own ships.

William Ingles was born and raised in London and lived in Dublin between 1730 and 1740.

Thomas's brothers John and William Ingles came with him to Virginia.

William Ingles was pursued by Indians, but tripped and fell in the forest, and the Shawnee warriors ran past him without seeing him.

William Ingles then went back to Williamsburg to try to convince Governor Robert Dinwiddie to order an attack on the Shawnee.

The expedition was a total failure, but it provided valuable experience for William Ingles and launched his military career.

William's brother John Ingles is credited with shooting a scout from a tree, and then sounding the alarm that the fort was about to be attacked.

William Ingles was killed and his wife Mary and their children were taken prisoner.

William's brother Matthew Ingles fought hand-to-hand until his rifle broke, then with a frying pan handle, killing two of his attackers.

William Ingles was taken prisoner by the Shawnee, but years later was released or escaped.

William Ingles made several trips to Ohio to negotiate for the release of his sons George and Thomas, still in captivity among the Shawnee.

One source reports that William Ingles met a man named Baker who had been held captive by the Shawnee at Lower Shawneetown, and had known Thomas and his adoptive father.

William Ingles married Eleanore Grills in 1775 and settled in Burke's Garden, Virginia.

William Ingles was a county sheriff in 1773, and served as a judge for Fincastle County, Virginia, in 1777.

In 1760, William Ingles was at William Ingles Ferry when he was informed that a party of eight or ten Indians who had raided settlements in Bedford and Halifax were camped six miles away, with several women and children prisoners and horses loaded with stolen goods.

William Ingles assembled a group of sixteen or eighteen men and attacked the Indians' camp at dawn, killing seven of them, retrieving the goods and rescuing the captives.

William Ingles served in the Virginia Militia and commanded a unit of Virginia Rangers in 1763.

For many years William Ingles attempted to patent his claim to his lands along the New River, the Holston River in Burke's Garden, Virginia, and along the Bluestone River, but he had great difficulty obtaining ownership rights.

William Ingles did obtain patents for 1000 acres in Abbs Valley in 1774 and for 1000 acres on the Elkhorn Creek in 1780.

William Ingles was accused of being one of the leaders of a Tory plot.

William Ingles is buried in the Westview Cemetery, Radford, Virginia.

William Ingles Ferry was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, and the William Ingles Bottom Archeological Sites in 1978.

The original Ingles Ferry Tavern and a reconstruction of the Ingles home where William ingles died, with a stable and a family cemetery, can be seen at the Ingles Ferry historic Site in Pulaski County, Virginia.