Nathaniel Ingersoll was about eleven years old at the death of his father.  His mother married John Knights, of Newbury, who became the head of her household, and continued to carry on the Townsend Bishop farm for several years.  Governor Endicott, the friend and neighbor of Richard Ingersoll, took Nathaniel, while still a lad, into his family.  In a deposition made in Court, June 24, 1701, Nathaniel Ingersoll says, “I went to live with Governor Endicott as his servant four years, on the Orchard Farm.”  At that time, the term “servant” had no derogatory sense connected with it.  It merely implied the relations between an employer and the employed, without the least tint of the feeling which we associate with the condition of servility.  Here was a youth, who, by his father’s will, was the owner of a valuable estate of seventy-five acres in the immediate neighborhood, voluntarily seeking the privilege of entering the service of his father’s friend, because he thereby would be better qualified, when old enough, to enter upon his own estate.  Governor Endicott’s political duties were not then regarded as requiring him to live in Boston; and his usual residence was at the Orchard Farm, where he was making improvements and conducting agricultural operations upon so large a scale that it was the best school of instruction anywhere to be found for a young person intending to make that his pursuit in life.  Young John Putnam, as has been stated, was there for the same purpose, under similar circumstances.

Having built a house and barn, and provided the necessary stock and materials, Nathaniel Ingersoll went upon his farm when about nineteen years of age.  Soon after, probably, he married Hannah Collins of Lynn, who, during their long lives, proved a worthy helpmeet.  His house was on a larger scale than was usual at that time.  One of its rooms is spoken of as very large; and the uses to which his establishment was put, from time to time, prove that it must have had capacious apartments.  Its site is shown on the map.  The road from Salem to Andover passed it, not at an angle as now, but by a curve.  The present parsonage of Danvers Centre stands on the lot.  But Ingersoll’s house was a little in the rear of the site occupied by the present parsonage.  It faced south.  In front was an open space, or lawn, called Ingersoll’s Common.  Here he lived nearly seventy years.  During that long period, his doors were ever open to hospitality and benevolence.  His house was the centre of good neighborhood and of all movements for the public welfare.  His latch-string was always out for friend or stranger.  In a military sense, and every other sense, it was the head-quarters of the village.  On his land, a few rods to the north-east, stood the block-house where watch was kept against Indian attacks.  There a sentinel was posted day and night, under his supervision.  The spot was central to the several farming settlements; and all meetings of every kind