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IU&WMM

Number 13

Fort Wayne, Indiana

December, 1939

THE LINCOLNS OF ENGLAND

ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FAMILY

Little was known about the Lincoln family of England until 1909, the centennial year of Abraham Lincoln's birth, when a controversy arose with respect to whether Lincoln's ancestry was of English or German origin.

Largely through the efforts of Mar- ion Dexter Learned of the University of Pennsylvania, the German origin myth was exploded and some actual work was begun to establish the Eng- lish line of the Lincolns. To this task J. Henry Lea and J. R. Hutchinson gave their scholarly attention. Years later Dr. W. E. Barton supplemented the Lea and Hutchinson discoveries with some further documents, but it is to these pioneer authors, Lea and Hutchinson, that we are under obliga- tion for the English history of the Lincolns.

The American Cycle There passed away in London, Eng- land, on March 5, 1890, a lad seven- teen years old named Abraham Lin- coln. His death completed a strange

genealogical cycle which started in England in 1637 when another youth of seventeen, Samuel Lincoln, mi- gated from England to America. Samuel Lincoln became the first Am- erican progenitor of President Lin- coln, and the youth Abraham Lincoln was the only grandson of his illus- trious forebear.

Samuel Lincoln established his home in Massachusetts, and his son Mordecai also remained in the Bay State throughout life. Members of the third generation, including Mordecai, Jr., began a typical American migra- tion as follows: Mordecai, born in Massachusetts, married in New Jersey, died in Pennsylvania; John, son of Mordecai, Jr., born in New Jersey, married in Pennsylvania, died in Vir- ginia; Abraham, son of John and the grandfather of the President, born in Pennsylvania, married in Virginia, died in Kentucky; Thomas, his son and the father of President Abraham, born in Virginia, married in Ken-

The Lincoln Kinsman

tucky, died in Illinois; Abraham, the President, born in Kentucky, married in Illinois, died in Washington, D. C.

Of the five generations which in- cluded the President, no one of the three most important events, birth, marriage, and death, occurred in the same state. In two more generations the cycle closed. Robert Lincoln, only son of the President to reach maturity, died back in New England not far from where the first Lincolns landed. Robert's only son, Abraham, died in England, the country where the Lin- colns originated.

In nine generations the Lincolns had crossed the Atlantic, settled in New England, established homes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Washing- ton, D. C., and back in New England, It was a strange coincidence indeed that the last male member of the fam- ily in the ninth generation should have died in England at the same age as the Samuel Lincoln who had left there nearly three centuries before.

Lincoln

One year after Abraham Lincoln was born, there was published in Eng- land a book entitled The History of Lincoln. Charles A. Dana's copy of the book is now in the Foundation Li- brary, and it contains an interesting story of the English town which un- doubtedly gave origin to the family name Lincoln.

The author, who writes anonymous- ly of Lincoln, admits that the early history of the town is wrapped in ob- scurity and that it was not until the Roman invasion that detailed evidence about the community could be ob- tained. The site of the town was chosen for its defensive location. On the east,

south, and west there was a large body of water, and on the north "a bold prominent brow." The primitive town was built by the Britons on this natural fortification some time pre- vious to the Christian era. The reduc- tion of Briton to a Roman colony dur- ing the life time of Christ, made these Druid free men, residing there, Ro- man bondsmen.

The town was first called by the British name Caer-holme (a town on a hill ) , although it was later changed by them to Lincoit. Ptolemy and An- tonious called it Lindum and Bede referred to it as Lindissi, Lindecol- linum and Lindecollina. The Saxons named it Lyndo-collyne. Now the capital of Lincolnshire is called Lin- coln.

The outstanding point of interest in modern Lincoln is its magnificent ca- thedral said by many authorities to be the finest in England. The foundation of the edifice was laid in 1088. For three hundred years it passed through a period of evolution until it reached its "acme" in the year 1400.

In the appendix to the book already mentioned, there is a "List of mem- bers returned to Parliament for the city of Lincoln." The list begins in 1298 and continues to the time of the publication of the book in 1808.

Of the great number of the members of Parliament who represented the city of Lincoln during these five cen- turies, only one man used the affix "de Lincoln." He was Henry Scoyle de Lincoln who was in Parliament in 1314 during the reign of Edward II. It is admitted generally, however, that it is to the town of Lincoln that the nativity of the Lincoln family must be traced.

The Lincoln Kinsman

One of the very first records of the Lincolns in England is found as early as 1290, when Adam, son of William de Lincoln of Great Yarmouth, and his wife received at London a grant of land in County Essex. It is very likely he was the progenitor of the Lincolns of Norfolk.

Hingbam

The first biographical attempt to associate the Lincolns of Hingham, Massachusetts, with the Lincolns of Hingham, England, was made by Solomon Lincoln, Jr. In his History of Hingham published in 1827, he used in the appendix to his book a "sketch of the Lincoln families." He observed that in Daniel Cushing's manuscripts there is a memorandum as follows: "1633 Nicholas Jacob with his wife and two children and their cousin Thomas Lincoln Weaver came from Old Hingham and settled in this Hingham."

Four years later Cushing made this note found in his manuscripts: "1637 John Tower and Samuel Lincoln came from old Hingham, and both settled at new Hingham."

By the will of Thomas Lincoln, it is evident that he was a brother of Samuel and that one other brother named Daniel also settled in Hing- ham, Massachusetts.

The Cushing manuscripts reveal that a Stephen Lincoln and his wife and son Stephen came from Wind- ham, England, and the same year an- other Thomas Lincoln came across the water.

With these American records avail- able, it was then left for later his- torians to confirm them with English documents. The first one of impor- tance was found in Chancery Lane in

London, where this notation referring to two ships about to start for Am- erica was found:

"These persons went to New Eng- land with William Andrewes of Ipswich Mr of the John and Dorothy of Ipswich and with William An- drewes his son Mr of the Rose of Yar- mouth.

"April the 8th 1637. Francis Lawes borne in Norwich in No'ff and there living Weauear aged . . . and Liddea his wife aged 49 yeares with one child Marey and 2 saruants. Samuell Lin- corne aged 18 yeares and Anne Smith aged 19 yeares and are desirous to passe for New England to inhabit."

This entry confirms that Samuel Lincoln started out from England with a man from his home county to whom he had apparently been bound out to learn the weaver's trade. That this was the same Samuel Lincoln who arrived in Hingham the same year cannot be doubted.

Hingham, England, was one of the centers of religious controversy in the seventeenth century, and from Nor- folk county in which it was located came one-third of the hundred passen- gers who arrived in America on the Mayflower. It was from Hingham and its neighboring towns that the Puritan element migrated to New England and largely made up the early population of the colonies of Pilgrims.

In 1634 there arose a controversy about the place which the Eucharist should occupy in the church service and concerning those eligible to par- take of the emblems. Reverend Robert Peck, the obscure rector of the Hing- ham church, rebelled against the edict from the church authorities and, with the support of his parishioners includ-

The Lincoln Kinsman

The Lincoln Kinsman

Published Monthly by

LlNCOLNIANA PUBLISHERS

Box 1110 — Fort Wayne, Ind.

EDITOR

Dr. Louis A. Warren,

Director, Lincoln National Life Foundation

BUSINESS MANAGER Maurice A. Cook	$2.00
	.25

SUBJECTS DISCUSSED IN FORMER ISSUES OF THE LINCOLN KINSMAN

1. The Colonial Lincolns, 2. The Unknown Hanks Ancestry, 3. The Herrings of Virginia, 4. Five Shipley Sisters, 5. The Todd Family, 6. Bush Family Documents, 7. Early 19th Cen- tury Lincolns, 8. Kentucky Archives, 9. Abra- ham Lincoln's Father, 10. Hon. Robert Todd Lincoln, 11. James Wright Sparrow, 12. Uncle Mordecai Lincoln, 13. Thomas (Tad) Lincoln, 14. The Tennessee Lincolns, 15. The Lincolns of Hingham, 16. The Richard Berry Family, 17. Southern Branch of Hankses.

ing members of the Lincoln family, took the sacred table from its recently acquired lofty position and brought it down again where it would be acces- sible to the people. For this he was excommunicated.

Peck called his people together and said, "There is no longer tarrying here. Let's swear fidelity to one an- other, and so resolve for New Eng- land." A majority of the people in the Hingham church agreed to this com- pact, so one of the most thriving New England colonies was established at Hingham in Massachusetts. Those who remained, a small minority, complained in a petition about the ca- lamity which had befallen the English community of Hingham.

The Reverend Robert Peck mi- grated to Hingham, Massachusetts, in

1638 and became a minister in the church at that place. He arrived on the ship "Diligent" of which John Martin was master. These are the names of those taking passage on the same ship: Robert Peck, Joseph Peck, Ed- ward Gilman, John Foulsham, Henry Chamberlin, Stephen Gates, George Knights, Thomas Cooper, Matthew Cushing, John Beal, Jr., Francis James, Philip James, James Buck, Stephen Payne, William Pitts, Edward Michell, John Sutton, Stephen Lin- coln, Samuel Parker, Thomas Lincoln, Jeremiah Moore, Henry Smith, Bo- zoan Allen, Matthew Hawke, William Ripley.

To return to the confirmation of the Cushing manuscripts, we find here in England that the same Thomas and Stephen Lincoln started out for New England in 1638, the year Cushing claims they arrived.

The major task which confronted historians after they learned that the Samuel Lincoln of new Hingham had come from old Hingham, was to dis- cover some specific record which would connect the English and Am- erican generations. Naturally the Hingham, England, records were searched, and here an entry was dis- covered that gave the date of the bap- tism of a child Samuel on August 24, 1622.

When Samuel Lincoln left England in 1637 he was obliged to give his age which he listed as eighteen. At the time of his death on May 26, 1690, his age was given as seventy-one. These two dates are in agreement and would accordingly make his birth date in 1619, three years earlier than the church record indicates.

The discrepancy in the date of Sam-

The Lincoln Kinsman

uel's birth has become still more dif- ficult to explain because there was a Daniel Lincoln, supposedly a brother, born on March 28, 1619, the same year Samuel was born if his reported age at embarking for America and at the time of his death were given cor- rectly.

Five Generations

Most Lincoln students have never- theless come to the conclusion that the Samuel Lincoln on the Hingham, England, register and the Samuel Lincoln noted by Gushing in his Hing- ham, Massachusetts, register are one and the same person. Working on this basis the English ancestry of Presi- dent Lincoln can be run back five generations. This is the way the an- cestral line would appear:

I Robert Lincoln — d. 1543

II Robert Lincoln — d. 1556

III Richard Lincoln— d. 1620

IV Edward Lincoln— d. 1640 V Samuel Lincoln — d. 1690

The same entry that records the birth of Samuel names his father as Edward Lincoln.

Edward was the oldest son of Rich- ard Lincoln. Edward, under the old English law of primogeniture, became the heir to his father's estate. His mother was Elizabeth Remching, old- est daughter of Richard Remching and Elizabeth, his wife, She died, however, when Edward was a small child. His father married again and a son Rich- ard was born to this second union. The wife soon passed away and a third marriage contract was consummated with a widow by the name of Mar- gery Dunham. If there were children by this third marriage it is not known.

After the death of his wife, Mar- gery, still another companion was

sought and wedded. The new wife's name was Anne Small, whose maiden name was Bird. The first child of the fourth marriage was a daughter, Ann, baptised in 1599. A daughter named Elizabeth, and a son named Henry were also born in 1602 and 1605, re- spectively. This last wife, who was many years younger than her hus- band, began to plan how she might acquire for herself and her own chil- dren the property which legally be- longed to Edward, the first born son and legal heir.

When Richard Lincoln made his will, the oldest son, Edward, was not mentioned and his wife Anne, with her three children became the only bene- ficiaries. Edward Lincoln says in the litigation over the will, "His father was much laboured by his latter wife to make a will for the advancement of her children," while he was "disin- herited by her meaness and procure- ment."

It is assured from the records re- lating to the property of Samuel Lin- coln's grandfather, Richard, that he died possessed of a very respectable estate. If the property had descended to the oldest son, Edward, as was cus- tomary, Samuel's father would have been very well-to-do and possibly there would not have been the incen- tive for Samuel to seek his own for- tunes in America.

Richard Lincoln's father, Robert, the great grandfather of Samuel, was also a resident of Hingham, England, where the family apparently had lived for several generations. He mar- ried Margaret Alberye, but died be- fore his oldest son Richard became of age. His will drawn on January 14, 1556, and proven on the 29th of the same month, gives us the names of two

The Lincoln Kinsman

sons, Richard and John, two daugh- ters, Katherine and Agnes, and also a posthumous child about whom no information has been gathered.

We are able to go back one more generation as the will of Robert's father, for whom he was named, is also extant. The senior Robert Lin- coln of Hingham, made his will on April 18, 1540, and the inheritance he left his son Robert, Jr., is referred to by Edward Lincoln, father of Samuel, as "the inheritance of Robert Lin- coln, father of the said Richard."

The church of St. Andrew at Hing- ham, Norfolk county, England, has be- come an European Lincoln shrine. In a niche in the wall of the church there was unveiled on October 15, 1919, a bust of Abraham Lincoln by Volk. Under the bust, engraved in stone, one may read this inscription :

In This Parish for Many Generations

LIVED THE LINCOLNS

Ancestors of the American

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

To Whom, Greatest of that Lineage,

Many Citizens of the United States

Have Erected this Memorial In the Hope That for All Ages Be- tween That Land and This Land and All Lands There Shall Be Malice Toward None With Charity For All

Swanton Morley

Adjacent to Hingham is the neigh- boring parish of Swanton Morley, and here there is a famous old edifice known as "The Church of All Saints." In this church as well as in Hingham there are the records of many Lin- coln families. During the period from 1557 to 1675 there are recorded over forty baptisms of children bearing the

name Lincoln. It seems that the Lin- colns here were reasonably prosper- ous.

Richard Lincoln, third in line of the President's English ancestry, lived in Swanton Morley for some years, and here he was living at the time of his death in 1620. In his will dated 1615 he left a bequest to the poor of Swanton Morley. He had been mar- ried four times and the children of his fourth marriage inherited his property, although his first son Ed- ward brought a suit in chancery against the legatees.

Nortvich

The second largest city in England in the seventeenth century was Nor- wich, the seat of the government of Norfolk County. Here also there is located an inspirational cathedral which carries with its ancient history a Lincoln family tradition. An old mural tablet discovered at Norwich indicates that as early as 1298 the Lincolns were making gifts to the Norwich church. This tablet states that Thomas de Lingcole (Lincoln) had presented to the church "a taper of wax, a lamp, and the rent of Cole- gate." This is said to be the oldest tablet in the cathedral.

There were several Lincoln clergy- men among the Norwich Lincolns, and one Sir John Lincoln in 1387 was left a modest legacy of one hun- dred shillings by Sir John Howard for religious services to be rendered. There were two different clergymen bearing the name Nicholas Lincoln, one serving as early as 1507 in Ormes- by and the other in 1537 in Caiston- next-to-the-Sea. Three brothers at Norwich in 1554, during the reign of Queen Mary, were condemned to

The Lincoln Kinsman

death for ''endeavoring to stir up in- surrection."

It is the commercial rather than the religious interest of Norwich which brings us into direct contact with the English ancestry of President Lincoln. Norwich was known for several cen- turies as the center of the weaving in- dustry in England. Although Lanca- shire and Yorkshire have now become the textile centers of the country, Norwich still has signs of its former prosperity.

The outstanding Norfolk antiquary, Walter Rye, believes that Samuel Lin- coln was born in Norwich and that a grievous mistake has been made about his birthplace. Mr. Rye, how- ever, has no documentary evidence to put forth to establish any paternity for Samuel other than Edward Lin- coln.

It has been noted that when Samuel started for America, he was apparent- ly living in Norwich with a man named Francis Lawes, to whom he had been bound out to learn the weaver's trade. Samuel's older brother Thomas, who migrated to Hingham, was also a weaver.

On January 19, 1863, President Lincoln wrote a letter to the "Work- ingmen of Manchester, England" in answer to a message which he had re- ceived from them. The Civil War had disrupted the exporting of cotton which brought much hardship to the English industrial centers. When Lin- coln wrote, "I know and deeply de- plore the suffering which the working- men at Manchester and in all Europe are called upon to endure in this crisis," he could not have known that his own first English progenitor, Sam- uel Lincoln, had been engaged as a

weaver's apprentice in that section of the country which was then its in- dustrial center.

English Records

The lists of names which follow from the registers at Hingham are all persons whose surnames are Lin- coln. There are some variations in the spelling but it is so unimportant that it is not noted. The name of the father follows after that of the son or daugh- ter.

REGISTERS OF HINGHAM, NOR- FOLK, 1600 TO 1645 Baptismal Records

1600, Mar. 15: Annes— Hugh. Sept. 20: Richard— Edward.

1601, Sept. 27: Robert— George. 1603, Feb. 19: Alice— Robert.

1605, Aug. 18: Judith— Hugh.

1606, Apr. 13: Sarah— Edward. Aug. 14: Anthonie — George. Nov. 2: William— Robert.

1607, Nov. 1: Mary— Richard. Dec. 20: Elizabeth— Richard.

1608, Nov. 13: Richard— Richard. Nov. 20: Abigail— Robert.

1610, Feb. 17: Elizabeth— Richard. May 20: John— Richard. Aug. 12: Anna — Robert.

1611, Mar. 15: John— Robert.

1612, June 14: Grace — Richard.

1613, July 31: Peter— Richard.

1614, June 12: Margaret — Robert. Oct. 2: Robert— Richard.

1615, Mar. 3: Margaret— Robert. Oct. 22: Ann— Richard. Nov. 19: Robert— Edward.

1617, Feb. 1: Katherine — Robert. July 26: Mary— Richard.

1618, May 30: Mary— Richard.

1619, Mar. 28: Daniel— Edward. May 2: Pieke— Richard.

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1620, Jan. 28: Adam— Richard. Aug. 27: Robert — Robert.

1621, Jan. 10: William— Richard.

1622, Feb. 16: Margaret— Richard. Aug. 24: Samuel — Edward.

1623, June 28: Robert— Robert.

1625, Dec. 11: Amye — Edward. Feb. 19: Ann— Robert.

1626, Apr. 9: Richard— Richard. 1628, Apr. 13: Richard— Robert.

1630, Aug. 1: George — Robert.

1631, May 26: Susan— William.

1633, May 27: John— John.

1634, Sept. 7: Bridget — Robert.

1635, Oct. 26: Robert— John.

1637, Mar. 4: Richard — Richard.

1638, Nov. 23: Dorothy— John.

1639, Nov. 17: Susan— Robert.

1640, Jan. 31 : Susan — John.

1641, Sept. 5: Daniel — Robert.

1642, (Whole year missing.)

1643, May 28 : Rebecca — Edward.

1644, Jan. 5: Mary — Edward.

1 645, Mar. 9 :— Richard— Pyke. Dec. 18: Mary — Richard.

Marriage Records

1601, Oct. 18: Robert — Anne Bore (?)

1603, Nov. 7: Robert— Annes Har- man.

1605, Oct. 20: Richard— Alice Howse.

1611, Nov. 2: Ann— William God- freye.

1618, Aug. 14: Alice— Thomas Bald- ing.

1625, Aug. 14: Richard — Frances

Reynolds.

1626, Jan. 23: Alice— James Bald-

inge. Sept. 14: William — Elizabeth Wellam.

1627, 1630, 1632,

1636, 1637,

1601, 1606, 1607, 1614,

1615, 1616, 1617, 1619, 1620,

1624,

1625,

1626, 1639,

1640, 1641, 1643,

1644, 1645,

Nov. 6 : Dorothy — Arthur Cog- man.

Jan. 30: William — Susan Wryghte.

Oct. 11: John — Alice Stavel- eye.

May 19: Edward — Mary Por- ter.

Aug. 31 : Elizabeth — John Woodcock.

October 18: Ann — Henry Barnewell.

Burial Records

June ? : William.

Dec. 7: John — Richard.

Jan. 21 : Elizabeth — Richard.

July 19: Alice.

Oct. 5: Robert — Richard.

July 15: Margaret — Robert.

Oct. 21 : Richard.

Feb. 23: John.

June 7 : Abigail — Robert.

Nov. 25: Robert— Robert.

Dec. 23: Richard.

Apr. 2: Robert.

May 3: Elizabeth, wife of

Richard. June 7: Margery. July 22: Edinye. Sept. 9: Amy, wife of Hugh. Sept. 21 : Hugh. June 17: Amy — Edward. July 11: Agnes. Feb. 11: Edward. Oct. 15: Richard. Oct. 28: Frances. Aug. 15: Richard. Apr. 15: Susan. July 12: Mary and Rebecca —

Edward. Dec. 28: Ann, wife of Robert. Mar. 27: Richard— Pyke.

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