William Ingles (1729 – September, 1782), also spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia. He participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions. He was eventually promoted to colonel in the Virginia Regiment. His wife, Mary Draper Ingles, was captured by Shawnee warriors and held captive for months before escaping and walking several hundred miles to her settlement. William's sons, Thomas and George, were also held captive, although William was able to ransom his son Thomas in 1768. William Ingles established Ingles Ferry in southwestern Virginia.Hale, John P., Trans-Allegheny Pioneers (West Virginia and Ohio): Historical Sketches of the First White Settlers West of the Alleghenies, 1748 and After (1886), Heritage Books, reprint, 2009.
Birth, family and early life
William Ingles was born in Dublin, Ireland (some sources say London, England) in 1729, to Thomas Inglis.Reuben Gold Thwaites, Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds. Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774: Compiled from the Draper Manuscripts in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society and Published at the Charge of the Wisconsin Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905. Historian John P. Hale, a descendant, reports that William had two brothers, Matthew and John. John was killed by Indians at Fort Vause in 1756. One source says that Matthew eventually became a sailor, never married and died at sea,Chalkley, L., Lockwood, M. S., Chalkley, L., Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia: extracted from the original court records of Augusta County, 1745-1800. Vol. 2. Rosslyn, VA: The Commonwealth Printing Co. while Matthew's nephew John Ingles wrote that, after escaping from Indian captivity, he died at Ingles Ferry.
William's father Thomas was a wealthy merchant who owned a large, importing wholesale business and traded abroad with his own ships. He was born and raised in London and lived in Dublin between 1730 and 1740.Connelley, William Elsey., Coulter, Ellis Merton. History of Kentucky, American Historical Society, 1922. Records show that Thomas and his sons were apparently imprisoned after a political dispute, but by the fall of 1744 all of them had crossed the Atlantic and journeyed to Augusta County, Virginia. Thomas's brothers John and William came with him to Virginia."About the Ingles Family", Virginia History Exchange
In November, 1746, "Thomas English" and "William English" are listed as members of a road construction crew in Augusta County, on the road "from the Ridge above Tobias Bright’s that parts the waters of New River from the branches of Roan Oak to the lower ford of Catabo Creek."Nathaniel Mason Pawlett, Ann Brush Miller, Kenneth Madison Clark, and Thomas Llewellyn Samuel, Augusta County Road Orders, 1745-1769, Virginia Transportation Research Council, Virginia Department of Transportation and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, June 1998 In 1749, William Ingles went to Burke's Garden to build a house with his uncle, John Ingles. On 16 March 1750, Ingles' home was visited by Dr. Thomas Walker at the very start of Walker's trip west into what is now Kentucky. Walker wrote in his journal: "16th March 1750. We kept up...to William Englishes (Ingles). He lives on a small Branch and was not much hurt by the Fresh (spring floods).""Doctor Thomas Walker's Journal 1750," in Lewis Preston, Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, vol. 1, Abingdon, Virginia, 1929: 8-26. In March, 1753, Thomas Ingles and his son William were listed in the Augusta County court records as workers on a road construction crew.Chalkley, L., Lockwood, M. S., Chalkley, L. Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia: extracted from the original court records of Augusta County, 1745-1800. Vol. 1. Rosslyn, VA: The Commonwealth Printing Co.
Draper's Meadow massacre, 1755
William Ingles was among the founders of Draper's Meadow (present day Blacksburg, Virginia) in 1748. The Ingles and the Draper families established the settlement with Colonel James Patton.Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756)", Part II, The Smithfield Review, Volume 19, 2015. William built and operated Ingles Mill, one of the first mills in western Virginia, at Draper's Meadow in 1750, when he was only 21 years old."Montgomery County Reconnaissance Level Survey", Vol. 1, July 1986, Historic Sites Survey: Virginia Division of Historic Landmarks. He married Mary Draper in 1750, and their two sons Thomas and George were born in 1751 and 1753. In February, 1754, William purchased 255 acres from James Patton.Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756)", Part I, The Smithfield Review, Volume 18, 2014.
On 30 July (or 8 July, according to John P. Hale and Letitia Preston FloydFloyd, Letitia Preston, "Memoirs of Letitia Preston Floyd, written Feb. 22, 1843 to her son Benjamin Rush Floyd", transcribed from the original by Jim Glanville and Ryan Mays; in Smithfield Review, vol. 20, 2016.) 1755, Shawnee warriors attacked Drapers Meadow, killing Eleanor Draper and her granddaughter, as well as Colonel James Patton and another neighbor, Caspar Barger. Shawnee warriors captured Mary as well as her two sons, Betty Draper, and a neighbor, Henry Leonard. William Ingles and John Draper were harvesting wheat in the fields until they saw the smoke from the burning cabins, but they arrived too late to help.Thrapp, Dan L. Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography. A.H. Clark Company, 1988. William was pursued by Indians, but tripped and fell in the forest, and the Shawnee warriors ran past him without seeing him.
Sandy Creek Expedition, 1756
William and John Ingles traveled to Williamsburg to try and persuade the government to launch an attack on Shawnee villages in southern Ohio, where they believed that Mary Draper Ingles was being held prisoner. They returned unsuccessful in late November, when they learned that Mary had escaped and had walked 500 to 600 miles, crossing numerous rivers, creeks, and the Appalachian Mountains to return home. William Ingles then went back to Williamsburg to try to convince Governor Robert Dinwiddie to order an attack on the Shawnee.Johnston, David Emmons. A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory, Huntington, WV: Standard Ptg. & Publishing Company, 1906. Dinwiddie and Colonel George Washington, then commander of the Virginia Regiment, used information provided by Mary Ingles to plan an attack on Lower Shawneetown, a community where Mary Ingles was held captive for about two weeks. It was hoped that this would intimidate the Shawnee and prevent further attacks on English settlements.Pendleton, William Cecil. History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia: 1748-1920, W. C. Hill Printing Company, 1920; pp 443-447.
In February, 1756, William Ingles joined a force of 220 militia and 130 Cherokee warriors as a lieutenant on the Sandy Creek Expedition to attack Lower Shawneetown in Ohio. On 13 March they were forced to turn back due to bad weather and lack of food. The expedition was a total failure, but it provided valuable experience for William and launched his military career.
Attack on Fort Vause, 1756
William and Mary left their homestead in Draper's Meadow and moved to Fort Vause in June 1756, but Mary persuaded her husband to move again, this time to Robert Ewing's Fort near the Peaks of Otter, close to present day Montvale, Virginia.Pete Payette, "Robert Ewing's Fort," in North American Forts, Southwestern Virginia, American Forts Network, 2009Bernard Fisher, "Colonial Fort Marker," Historical Marker Database, May 30, 2011 On 25 June, the same day that William and Mary left Fort Vause, 25 French soldiers and 205 Miami, Ottawa and Shawnee warriors under the command of François-Marie Picoté de Belestre attacked the fort. 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. He was killed and his wife Mary and their children were taken prisoner.Joseph A. Waddell, "Indian Wars in Augusta County," in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 2, Philip Alexander Bruce, William Glover Stanard, editors. Virginia Historical Society, 1894 William's brother Matthew Ingles fought hand-to-hand until his rifle broke, then with a frying pan handle, killing two of his attackers. He was taken prisoner by the Shawnee, but years later was released or escaped. He died at Ingles Ferry, "a few months after his return."Hale, John P. Trans-Allegheny Pioneers (West Virginia and Ohio): Historical Sketches of the First White Settlers West of the Alleghenies, 1748 and After. 1886, reprinted 2002.
Rescue of Thomas Ingles
William and Mary lived briefly in Bedford County, Virginia, before moving to a site on the New River where in 1756, William purchased 900 acres of land that had been part of the German Schwarzenau Brethren community known as Dunkard's Bottom, Virginia.Bernard Fisher, "Dunkard's Bottom" Historical Marker near Dublin, Virginia, in Pulaski County. Historical Marker database, April 5 2011 He and Mary established a farm and assisted in the construction of a small fort there, probably no more than a blockhouse, which was later named Fort Frederick.Lawrence J. Fleenor, Jr. "Ford, Fort and Bridge at the Wilderness Trail Crossing of the New River: Fort Frederick / Dunkard's Bottom." Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, November 13, 2014 They had four more children: Mary, Susanna (b. 1759), Rhoda (b. 1762), and John (1766-1836). In 1773 they sold their Draper's Meadow property to William Preston.
William made several trips to Ohio to negotiate for the release of his sons George and Thomas, still in captivity among the Shawnee."Thomas Ingles," Bluestone National Park Service, US National Park Service, February 8, 2021 George's whereabouts were never determined, and he is believed to have died in captivity.Ian K. Steele, Setting All the Captives Free: Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in Allegheny Country, Vol. 71 of McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series; McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2013. One source reports that William 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 hired Baker to find Thomas (now living on the upper Scioto River) and bring him back to Ingles Ferry. Baker was able to pay a ransom of $150 and bring Thomas back to Bedford County, but Thomas ran away and returned to his Shawnee family. In 1768, William Ingles and Baker traveled together to Lower Shawneetown and persuaded Thomas, now 17, to return with them to Virginia. After thirteen years among the Shawnee, Thomas had become fully acculturated and spoke only Shawnee, so William sent him for several years of "rehabilitation" and education under Dr. Thomas Walker at Castle Hill, Virginia.
Thomas Ingles later served as a lieutenant under Colonel William Christian in Lord Dunmore's War (1773-1774) against the Shawnee.Woods, Edgar. Albemarle County in Virginia: Giving Some Account of what it was by Nature, of what it was Made by Man, and of Some of the Men who Made it. Michie Company, printers, 1901. He married Eleanore Grills in 1775 and settled in Burke's Garden, Virginia. In 1782, his wife and three children were kidnapped by Indians. Thomas came to rescue them and in the ensuing altercation, the two older children were killed. Eleanore was tomahawked but survived. Thomas rescued her and their youngest daughter. Manuscript held at the Boone County Public Library.
Ingles Ferry