An American Family History

Hannah Collins Ingersoll was born in 1636 in Lynn, Essex County,  Massachusetts. Her parents were Henry and Ann Collins.

She married Deacon Nathaniel Ingersoll on March 25, 1657. Nathaniel was the son of Richard Ingersoll and Ann Langley. He was born in Salem about 1632. He was a child when his father died and he was sent to live on the “Orchard Farm of Governor Endicott” to learn how to farm the land his father had left him.

Nathaniel was a tavern keeper. In 1673 he was allowed to sell “bear and syder by the quart for the tyme whyle the farmers are building of their meeting house and on Lord’s days afterwards.”

In 1675 he was a Lieutenant in the attack on the Narragansetts in the Great Swamp fight.

The Ingersolls' daughter’s name is not known, but she was possibly the Sarah Ingersoll who made a deposition in the witchcraft cases of 1692. The first hearings in the witch trials were held at the Ingersoll tavern on March 1, 1692. Nathaniel was an accuser in at least seven cases. They adopted Benjamin Hutchinson when he was an infant. Benjamin testified against Mary Estey during her trial for witchcraft.

Church meetings were held at the Ingersoll home. Near their home was a block house where a watch was kept for Indian raids.

Nathaniel died in 1719. The bulk of his property went to his adopted son Benjamin Hutchinson.

Nathaniel2 Ingersoll (Richard1), born 1632 at Salem, after his father died, went to live on the "Orchard Farm of Gov. Endicott, that he might the better learn to carry on the farm left him by his father." At an early age he married Hannah Collins of Lynn, and built on a spot a little to the north of the present church and immediately west of the parsonage at the Centre.

At his house or mansion, as it was called, were held the parish and church meetings, and he was allowed in 1673 to sell "bear and syder by the quart for the tyme whyle the farmers are building of their meeting house and on Lord's days afterwards." As only men in good standing were given such a license, this privilege alone vouches for his position in the community.

On the 22d of March, 1689, he was admitted a freeman and on the 24th of the following November the church records declare "that Brother Nathaniel Ingersoll was chosen by a general vote of the Brethren to officiate in the place of a Deacon for a time."

Near by the home of Nathaniel Ingersoll stood the block house, where a watch was kept in the years when Indian raids were feared. We find him one of Nicholas Paige's men on the campaign made in 1675, against the Narragansetts, and that he bore the title of Lieut. shows again his ability as a leader. He seems to have been equally valiant at the time of the witchcraft delusion fighting an unseen foe.

It was at his tavern that the first hearings in the witch trials were held, March 1, 1692, and he seems to have been an accuser in at least seven cases.

Deacon Ingersoll died in 1719, leaving the bulk of his property, after his wife's decease, to his adopted son Benjamin Hutchinson, subject to payment of several legacies, one of them being a gift to the church of fifty shillings, to purchase some silver cups "for the more adorning of the Lord's table." He had given land to the church, and also a tract to the inhabitants of Salem village in 1694, as "A Training Place forever," and the town of Danvers in the summer of 1894 set a huge boulder on the green and dedicated it, June 30th, with a suitable inscription, and with public ceremonies, to the memory of the patriotic donor, and the valiant men who, during two hundred years had "gone hence to protect their homes and to serve their country."
Child: Sarah Ingersoll who made deposition in the witchcraft cases in 1692, she being bout thirty years of age. She died early.

Nathaniel Ingersoll was granted the first license to keep an ordinary at Salem Village. Soon after the parish was set off from Salem, and the parent town had given the "Farmers" liberty to establish a church of their own, in 1673, according to the Salem town records. "Nathaniel Ingersoll is allowed to sell beer and syder by the quart for the tyme whyle the farmers are a building of their meeting house and on Lord's days afterward."

Mr. Ingersoll was the leading man in the parish, a large landowner, a deacon of the Village church and a Captain of the troop in that section, and through whose generosity the present training field at Danvers Highlands became the property of the community. He was son of Richard Ingersoll, and was born in Salem 1632. He built a house near the site of the present First church parsonage, where the Court, in June, 1677, granted him a license upon approbation of the Selectmen of Salem, to establish an ordinary and upon notice from the "the inhabetance of the farmes" that they had "made choyce of nathanell Ingerson for to keepe a hous of entertainment for strangers and others by seling beere and sider and lickers and provision."

This was considered an especially convenient location, as the meeting house was nearby and in those days the tavern and the meeting house were on very friendly terms. It was not uncommon for licenses to be granted upon condition that the ordinary should be kept near the house of worship—quite different from the present laws forbidding the sale of liquor within a certain distance from the church. "Those who know of the old-time meeting house can fully comprehend the desire of the colonists to have a tavern near at hand, especially during the winter services. Through autumn rains, the winter frosts and snows and fierce northeasters, the poorly built meeting house stood constantly growing more damp, more icy, more deadly, with each succeeding week. Women cowered, shivering, half-frozen, over the feeble heat of a metal foot stove as the long session dragged on and the few coals became ashes. Men stamped their feet and swung their arms in vain attempt to warm the blood. Gladly and eagerly did all troop from the gloomy meetinghouse to the cheerful tavern to thaw out before the afternoon service and to warm up before the ride or walk home in the late afternoon. It was a scandal in many a town that godly church members partook too freely of tavern cheer at the nooning; the only wonder is that the entire congregation did not succumb in a body to the potent flip and toddy of the tavern keeper."

Dea. Ingersoll continued to serve the people of that vicinity until 1708, when his adopted son, Benjamin Hutchinson, was granted by the Court of Sessions license

"to keep a public house of entertainment at the house of Deacon Ingersoll at ye Village where said Ingersoll now liveth."

Hutchinson was licensed each year until 1712.

from Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, Volume 8