Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll

Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll (February 8, 1789 – August 26, 1872) was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he was Speaker of the House, a United States representative from Connecticut for four consecutive terms from 1825 to 1833, and was the U.S. Minister to the Russian Empire under President James K. Polk in the late 1840s. Early life Ingersoll was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on February 8, 1789. He was the son of Judge Jonathan Ingersoll (1747–1823) and Grace (née Isaacs) Ingersoll (1772–1850). His father was a judge of the Supreme Court and Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut up until his death in 1823. His maternal grandfather, and namesake, was Ralph Isaacs, Jr., a Yale educated merchant who was prominent in New Haven and Branford, and his paternal grandfather was Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll, chaplain for the Connecticut Troops during the French and Indian War who was the brother of Jared Ingersoll Sr., a British colonial official. His grand-uncle's son, Jared Ingersoll, served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania and was the father of fellow U.S. Representative, Charles Jared Ingersoll, and grandfather of his second cousin, author Edward Ingersoll. His cousin, Ralph Isaacs III, was the father of Mary Esther Malbone Isaacs, who married Chancellor and U.S. Senator Nathan Sanford in 1813. He pursued classical studies, and was graduated from Yale College in 1808. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1810 and commenced practice in New Haven.