BENJAMIN INGHAM
Benjamin Ingham, born in Ossett, England, on 24 October 1784, was one of the most skilled wine entrepreneurs of his time. He arrived in Palermo in 1806[1] as a 22-year-old textile dealer with the British troops in the midst of the Napoleonic wars between Great Britain and France.
In Marsala, he met the Woodhouse family who had a “Marsala” wine trading business and recognised the “lucrative” potential of the wine industry.
With the help of J. Lee Brown (and later of R. Stephens) he established a business, bought a small property from fellow Englishman G. Wood, not far from the Woodhouse winery, and in 1812, having realised that the “Marsala” production process needed perfecting, he started building “a large, modern plant” for the production of “Marsala” wine.
Thanks to his agricultural and wine innovations and to his own fleet of merchant vessels he was able to export “Marsala” wine to markets in Europe, North and South America, and Australia. If Woodhouse discovered “Marsala” wine, Ingham was the main figure behind the expansion of its exports.
In 1837, he diffused among vine growers a ten-point booklet with tips and good viticulture and winemaking practices – “Brief instructions for harvesting with the purpose of improving wine quality” – and circular letters read out by criers with drums.
Ingham paid many vineyard owners in advance to allow them to grow and care for their vines in exchange for the promise of their crops after harvest.
“Mr Ingham … had his residential home built (within the winery), … The duchess (his wife the duchess of Santa Rosolia) didn’t enjoy staying at the Baglio, the smells … the workers shouting, the noise of the hammers … the rolling of the barrels … just outside her home …” and in 1840 she insisted on him buying the 18th century Villa Spanò, in Rakalia, overlooking the Stagnone lagoon. In 1851, he left the helm of the Marsala company to his nephew Joseph Whitaker and moved to Palermo where he built Palazzo Ingham (today the Grand Hotel et Des Palmes). He died suddenly on4 March 1861at the age of 77 leaving no direct heirs. His estate went to his nephew Joseph Whitaker and Benjamin Ingham Jr. Benjamin Ingham is credited with giving industrial character to the production of “Marsala” wine and introducing specific technical criteria and good viticulture and winemaking practices.