abbot of Croyland, and author of the history of that abbey, was born in London about A.D. 1030. He received the first part of his education at Westminster; and when he visited his father, who belonged to the court of Edward the Confessor, he was so fortunate as to engage the attention of Queen Editha. That amiable and learned princess took a pleasure in examining our young scholar on his progress in grammar, and in disputing with him in logic; nor did she ever dismiss him without some present as a mark of her approbation. From Westminster he went to Oxford, where he applied to the study of rhetoric, and of the Aristotelian philosophy, in which he made greater proficiency than many of his contemporaries. When he was about 21 years of age, he was introduced to William duke of Normandy (who visited the court of England, A.D. 1051), and made himself Ingulphus, so agreeable to that prince, that he appointed him his secretary, and carried him with him into his own dominions. In a little time he became the prime favourite of his prince, and the dispenser of all prerogatives, humbling some, and exalting others, at his pleasure; in which difficult station, he confessed, he did not behave with a proper degree of modesty and prudence. This excited the envy and hatred of many of the courtiers; to avoid the effects of which, he obtained leave from the duke to go in pilgrimage to the Holy Land. With a company of 30 horsemen, he joined Sigfrid duke of Mentz, who, with many German nobles, bishops, clergy, and others, was preparing for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they were all united, they formed a company of no fewer than 7000 pilgrims. In their way they spent some time at Constantinople, performing their devotions in the several churches. In their passage through Lycia, they were attacked by a tribe of Arabs, who killed and wounded many of them, and plundered them of a prodigious mass of money. Those who escaped from this disaster, at length reached Jerusalem, visited all the holy places, and bedewed the ruins of many churches with their tears, giving money for their reparation. They intended to have bathed in Jordan; but being prevented by the roving Arabs, they embarked on board a Genoese fleet at Joppa, and landed at Brundusium, from whence they travelled through Apulia to Rome. Having gone through a long course of devotions in this city, at the several places distinguished for sanctity, they separated, and every one made the best of his way into his own country. When Ingulph and his company reached Normandy, they were reduced to 20 half-starved wretches, without money, clothes, or horses: A faithful picture of the disastrous journeys into the Holy Land, so common in those times. Ingulph was now so much disgusted with the world, that he resolved to forsake it, and became a monk in the abbey of Fontenelle in Normandy; in which, after some years, he was advanced to the office of prior. When his old master was preparing for his expedition into England, A.D. 1066, he was sent by his abbot, with 100 marks in money, and 12 young men, nobly mounted and completely armed, as a present from their abbey. Ingulph having found a favourable opportunity, presented his men and money to his prince, who received him very graciously; some part of the former affection for him reviving in his bosom. In consequence of this he raised him to the government of the rich abbey of Croyland in Lincolnshire, A.D. 1076, in which he spent the last 34 years of his life, governing that society with great prudence, and protecting their possessions from the rapacity of the neighbouring barons by the favour of his royal master. The lovers of English history and antiquities are much indebted to this learned abbot, for his excellent history of the abbey of Croyland, from its foundation, A.D. 664, to A.D. 1091, into which he hath introduced much of the general history of the kingdom, with a variety of curious anecdotes that are nowhere else to be found. Ingulph died of the gout, at his abbey, A.D. 1109, in the 79th year of his age.