In 1905 he temporarily filled the highest position in his service, that of lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, and on the retirement of Sir Charles Rivaz, on 6 March 1907, he was confirmed in that office. The seditious acts of revolutionists had then brought matters to a serious crisis. Famine and devastating plague had laid heavy hands on the peasantry. The vernacular press, used for the purpose by the leaders of revolution, had disseminated false news, which agitated their simple minds. Even the latest triumph of British enterprise in bringing three million acres under canal irrigation was turned against the government. The new irrigation colonies had over-taxed the administrative resources of their rulers, and mistakes had been made. The yeomen peasants were led to believe that these were the result of deliberate policy, and the first-fruits of breach of faith. Foremost among the instigators of the extreme agitation were Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh. Serious riots broke out in Lahore and Rawalpindi. With prompt vigour, Ibbetson repressed the disorders. He secured the authority of the supreme government for the deportation of the two ringleaders without trial under the regulation of 1818. He applied an ordinance hastily promulgated by the governor-general to the suppression of seditious meetings, and enforced the law against rioters. Troops were kept in readiness, and he employed his police with alert discrimination.
Meanwhile Ibbetson was under the shadow of a fatal malady, but he allowed no bodily infirmity to relax his activity. When at length an operation could not be avoided, he quietly proceeded to London in June 1907, and returned at the earliest moment to his post to disprove false rumours of enforced retirement and allegations of a want of confidence in his policy on the part of superior authority. But the progress of his malady was not to be stayed. He resigned his office on 21 Jan. 1908, and his departure from Lahore called forth public manifestations of sympathy and respect. He died in London on 21 Feb. following, and his body was cremated at Golder's Green. When the news of his death reached the Punjab a public subscription was raised, part of which was applied to a portrait executed by Mr. H. Olivier, which now hangs in the Lawrence Hall at Lahore; a memorial tablet bearing an inscription of just eulogy was also erected to his memory in Christ Church, Simla, at the expense of Lord Curzon.
He married on 2 Aug. 1870 Louisa Clarissa, daughter of Samuel Coulden of the Heralds' College. His widow survived him with two daughters, Ruth Laura and Margaret Lucy; the latter in 1899 married Mr. Evan Maconochie of the Indian civil service.
[Times, 22 Feb. 1908; Pioneer, 23 Feb. 1908; Statesman, Calcutta, 23 Feb. 1908; Administration Reports of the Punjab; Report on the Settlement of the Karnal District, 1883; Census Report of the Punjab, 1881; Outlines of Punjab Ethnography; Gazetteer of the Districts of the Punjab; Reports of Famine Commissions and on the Working of the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act.]
IBBETSON, HENRY JOHN SELWIN- [See Selwin-Ibbetson, Henry John, first Baron Rookwood (1820–1902), politician.]
IGNATIUS, FATHER. [See Lyne, Joseph Leycester (1837–1908), preacher.]
INCE, WILLIAM (1825–1910), regius professor of divinity at Oxford, born in St. James's parish, Clerkenwell, London, on 7 June 1825, was son of William Ince, sometime president of the Pharmaceutical Society of London, by his wife, Hannah Goodwin Dakin. Educated at King's College School, London, where he began a lifelong friendship with William Henry Smith, afterwards leader of the House of Commons, he was elected to a Hutchins' scholarship at Lincoln College, Oxford, on 10 Dec. 1842. He graduated B.A. with first-class honours in classics in Michaelmas term 1846; he proceeded M.A. on 26 April 1849; and D.D. on 7 May 1878. He was ordained deacon in 1850 and priest in 1852.
Early in 1847 he was elected to a Petrean fellowship in Exeter College, became tutor of the college in 1850, and sub-rector in 1857. He held all three posts till 1878. He was at once recognised as 'one of the ablest and most popular tutors of his day' (W. K. Stride's Exeter College, 1900, p. 181), his lectures on Aristotle's 'Ethics' and on logic being especially helpful. As sub-rector he earned the reputation of a tactful but firm disciplinarian. He was a constant preacher in the college chapel.
He served the university offices of junior proctor in 1856-7; of select preacher before the university, 1859, 1870, and 1875; of Oxford preacher at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1860-2; and of classical examiner, 1866-8. From 1871 till 1889 he was examining chaplain to J. F. Mackerness, bishop of Oxford, who was fellow of Exeter (1844-6).
On 6 April 1878 Ince was appointed
