Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ingram, Thomas Dunbar

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1528962Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, Volume 2 — Ingram, Thomas Dunbar1912David James O'Donoghue

INGRAM, THOMAS DUNBAR (1826–1901), Irish historical writer and lawyer, born in Newry on 28 July 1826, was second son of William Ingram by his wife Elizabeth Cooke. John Kells Ingram [q. v. Suppl. II] was his elder brother. After a preliminary education in Newry, he was sent to Queen's College, Belfast, where he matriculated in 1849 and graduated B.A. and LL.B. in 1853. Proceeding to London in 1854, he entered London University and graduated LL.B. there in 1857. He entered Lincoln's Inn as a student on 24 Jan. 1854, obtained a law studentship in January 1855, and was called to the bar on 17 Nov. 1856. In 1864 he published 'Compensation to Land and House Owners, being a Treatise on the Law of Compensation for Interests in Lands, payable by Public Companies' (new edit. 1869). In 1866 he obtained the post of professor of jurisprudence in Hindu and Mohammedan law in Presidency College, Calcutta, and filled the chair till 1877. At the same time he practised in the high court of judicature. In 1871 he published 'Two Letters on some Recent Proceedings of the Indian Government.'

Leaving India in 1877, he settled in Dublin and devoted himself to historical research, chiefly on Irish themes, which he treated from a pronouncedly unionist point of view. The fruits of his Irish studies appeared in the volumes: 'A Critical Examination of Irish History' (2 vols. 1904); 'A History of the Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland' (1887) and 'Two Chapters of Irish History' (1888). There followed 'England and Rome, a History of the Relations between the Papacy and the English State Church from the Norman Conquest to the Revolution of 1688' (1892). Ingram's works on Irish history contain valuable material and are written with great earnestness and sincerity, but they fail in their purpose of controverting Lecky's conclusions respecting the corrupt means whereby the union of 1800 was brought about.

He died unmarried in Dublin on 30 Dec. 1901, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.

[Daily Express, Dublin, 31 Dec. 1901; Brit. Mus. Cat.; University Calendars; information from Mr. J. K. Ingram.]

D. J. O'D.