Abraham Lincoln received
several inquires during his
public career regarding his
ancestry. For the most part
he remained ambivalent
toward the question of
family history. The name
Lincoln had an old
and honored past in American
history. During the
Revolution, General Benjamin
Lincoln had accepted the
surrender of Lord Charles
Cornwallis at
Yorktown,
Virginia in 1781.
When questioned on his
possible kinship with the
Massachusetts Lincolns, the
sixteenth president could
not give an answer. No one
would have been more
surprised than
Lincoln, to find
out that the humble boy from
Kentucky was indeed
descended from an old and
well respected
New England family.
Lincoln’s ancestors
came from the town of
Hingham,
Massachusetts. The progenitors of the name came to
America in 1637, on
the ship John and Dorothy.
Samuel Lincoln, the
President’s direct ancestor,
arrived in
America with two of
his brothers from the small
village of
Hingham,
Norfolk,
England.
Samuel Lincoln (1619-May 26, 1690) married Mary Martha Lyford.
While still a teenager, he
left his ancestral home in
England for the
wilds of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. In 1629-1630,
the Puritans (English
Protestants who wanted to
purify the Church of England
from Roman Catholic
influences) had established
the
Massachusetts
colony on the cold and
forbidding coast of
New England.
The
Lincolns prospered
in their new home, and upon
his death in 1690, left his
family firmly established in
America. His son,
Mordecai Lincoln (Jan. 14, 1657-Nov. 28, 1727) was born in
Scituate,
Bristol,
Massachusetts. He
married Sarah Jones in
Hingham,
Massachusetts in
1684. Their son, Mordecai (April 24, 1686-May 12, 1736) of
Hingham, married
Hannah Salter in Freehold,
New Jersey in 1714.
Mordecai and Hannah
Salter Lincoln’s son John
(1711-1778) married Rebecca
Flowers on
June 5, 1743, in
Berks County,
Pennsylvania. By
this time the
Lincoln family had begun their frequent moves from one place to the other.
From
Massachusetts, to
New Jersey, to
Pennsylvania, the
family seemed to be driven
by the same obsession that
motivated so many
Americans—the desire to
settle new lands.
Abraham Lincoln (May 17,
1744-1786), the son of John
and Rebecca Flowers Lincoln,
was born in
Berks County,
Pennsylvania. This
Abraham became the
grandfather of President
Lincoln. The president’s
grandfather left
Berks
County for
Rockingham County,
Virginia. He
married Bersheba (sometimes
noted as Bathsheba) Herring.
In 1780, Bathsheba gave
birth to a son, Thomas (Jan.
20, 1780-Jan. 17, 1851.
In the 1780s, Abraham
moved to the
Kentucky frontier
to settle with his family.
Kentucky afforded a wonderful opportunity for beginning a new, hopefully more
prosperous life. By the mid
1780s the American
Revolution had ended, and
the frontier seemed a more
inviting place to rear a
family. However, Indian
attacks still occurred.
In one of his campaign
biographies,
Lincoln recounted
how Indians killed his
grandfather, Abraham, in
1781 or 1782, in what was
then
Jefferson County,
Kentucky.
Historians date the time of
his death to 1786.
Thomas Lincoln married
Nancy Hanks on
June 12, 1806, in
Washington County,
Kentucky. On
February 12, 1809, Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to a son. The
couple named the boy
Abraham.
In the President’s
official biography he states
that was born in Hardin (now
LaRue) County. The young
Lincoln endured a
life of hard work, and
little creature comforts.
Given the circumstances of
his early life, it is not
difficult to understand his
lack of knowledge regarding
his ancestry.
The hardy folk who
settled the frontier areas
of
America struggled
to survive, and make a new
life for themselves and for
their families. The past
was just that—past. The
pioneers had left their
former homes to build new
ones in a new land. Family
trees, and the desire for
elaborate lineages came
later.
Lincoln’s lack of
notable family connections
frustrated his wife, Mary
Todd. After all she was a
Todd of Lexington. She had
attended a finishing school,
and her family connections
were, in her estimation,
impeccable.
Mary Todd Lincoln felt
that she had to “polish” her
rough-hewn husband to make
him more acceptable in
society. There is no doubt
that she did improve his
dress, and manners, but she
could not change her
husband’s personality. He
remained a product of the
frontier.
Lincoln related to
the common man, and they
related to him. His
humility, genuine kindness,
and love of his country,
came from his formative
years in
Kentucky, and in
Indiana.
Abraham Lincoln’s
genealogy is still under
investigation. Genealogists
and historians are still
searching for more
information the
Lincoln family.
Lincoln’s maternal
relatives, the Hanks family
will be studied in future
articles.
Remember! Mark your
calendar for
Saturday, June 3, 2006, for the bicentennial celebration of the
marriage of Thomas Lincoln
and Nancy Hanks. Come and
celebrate the beginning of
the Lincoln Legacy at
Lincoln
Homestead
Park