Frances Gibson Shepheard Ingram (1734-1807), Viscountes Ingram, was a wealthy heiress and landowner who was instrumental in the design of the landscape at

Temple Newsam Temple Newsam (historically Temple Newsham), is a Tudor- Jacobean house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The house is a Grade I listed building, one of nine Leeds Museums and Galleries sites and ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. Lady Ingram was the illegitimate daughter of the rich

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

merchant, Samuel Shepheard; her mother was called Gibson. Samuel left £40,000 in his will to Frances stating that she must not marry a peer, an Irishman or a Scotsman. She married Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount Irwin in 1758 after several years of legal dispute. At their seat in Yorkshire, Temple Newsam, Lady Ingram insisted that

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

redesign the parkland. She was an active gardener, supervising the planting in the grounds. For instance, surviving correspondence shows she helped her husband mark out where shrubs were to be planted along her gravel walk. Lady Ingram collected works of art, including Italian classical landscapes. She was painted as a shepherdess by Benjamin Wilson, reflecting her interest in pastoral landscape. She was also painted by Joshua Reynolds in a pensive mood, leaning on a book, a copy of which is at Temple Newsam. When Lord Ingram died in 1778, he left the Temple Newsam estate as well as eighty burgages in

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Sussex to Lady Ingram. A resolute Tory, Lady Ingram used the burgages to dominate local politics by appointing members to the constituency and telling them how to vote; as well as controlling the local land court. She was challenged by the Whig 11th Duke of Norfolk who began buying up burgages; but Lady Ingram used her local knowledge and her tenacity to triumph over the Duke in a House of Commons hearing that ruled in her favour over the election of 1790. In 1796, she remodelled the south wing at Temple Newsam; and in 1806 the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

visited her there giving her some Chinese wallpaper.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingram, Frances Gibson Shepheard 1734 births 1807 deaths