Samuel Lincoln was progenitor of many notable United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political figures, including his great-great-great-great-grandson, President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 governor Enoch Lincoln

Enoch Lincoln

Enoch Lincoln was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and from Maine, son of Levi Lincoln and brother of Levi Lincoln . Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lincoln graduated from Harvard University in 1807.He studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of his profession in...

, and Levi Lincoln, Sr.

Levi Lincoln, Sr.

Levi Lincoln, Sr. was an American revolutionary and statesman who served as a Minuteman at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a state legislator in Massachusetts, a participant in Massachusetts' state constitutional convention, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, a U.S...

 and Levi Lincoln, Jr.

Levi Lincoln, Jr.

Levi Lincoln, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the 13th Governor of Massachusetts and represented the state in the U.S. Congress...

, both of whom served as Massachusetts Representatives, Governor

Governor of Massachusetts

The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...

 and Lieutenant Governor

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

The Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts is the first in the line to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor following the incapacitation of the Governor of Massachusetts...

. Because of Samuel Lincoln's descendants, his fortuitous arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

, and the fact that his ancestry is known for several generations, he is considered father of the most prominent branch of Lincolns in America.

Journey to America

Having grown up in meager circumstances due to a family squabble in which his wealthy grandfather disinherited his earlier children, Samuel Lincoln became an apprentice weaver under Francis Lawes of Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Samuel Lincoln's father Edward had abandoned his home at Swanton Morley

Swanton Morley

Swanton Morley is a picturesque village situated in the heart of Norfolk. It is a village steeped in history documented back to the Domesday Book...

 near Hingham after he was cut out of his father Richard's will, and relocated to some small acreage at Hingham. In 1637, Lincoln left England for the New World with Lawes' family, embarking on a ship named John & Dorothy. Although most accounts indicate that he was 15 years old at the time, it has been suggested that he misrepresented his age in order to be permitted to make the voyage.

Samuel sailed for the colony of Massachusetts, where his older brother Thomas – known in early records as "Thomas Lincoln the Weaver" to distinguish him from several other unrelated Thomas Lincolns – had already settled. Samuel's brother Thomas, who settled in 1635 in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he was granted a house lot by the town, later left at his decease a great deal of his property, including several house lots, to Samuel and to his nephews. (Although twice married, Samuel's brother Thomas had no children.)

Life and family in Massachusetts

Samuel Lincoln helped to build the Old Ship Church

Old Ship Church

The Old Ship Church was built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts in the United States. It is the oldest church in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States. It is the only remaining 17th century Puritan meetinghouse in America...

 in Hingham. He married Martha Lyford of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 around 1649, possibly the daughter of the Rev. John Lyford, and the couple had eleven children, three of whom died in their infancy, but another three of whom lived into their eighties. Lincoln's eldest son, born August 25, 1650, was also named Samuel. The emigrant Samuel Lincoln's fourth son was Mordecai Lincoln, who became a blacksmith, and who was the ancestor of Abraham Lincoln. Genealogists have noted the common and repeated use of certain Biblical names in the Lincoln family, particularly Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

, Samuel, Isaac

Isaac

Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...

, Jacob

Jacob

Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

, and Mordecai

Mordecai

Mordecai or Mordechai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He was the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin.-Biblical account:...

, a common practice among early Puritan settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

. Many later Lincoln descendants, including the original emigrant's son, were named Samuel in succeeding generations.

Interestingly, Samuel's mother also belonged to a family long associated with American government: the Gilmans of Exeter, New Hampshire

Exeter, New Hampshire

Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...

. Samuel's mother Bridget Gilman was the daughter of Edward Gilman of Hingham, Norfolk

Hingham, Norfolk

Hingham is a market town and civil parish in the Forehoe district in the heart of rural Norfolk, in England. The civil parish covers an area of and had a population of 2,078 in 944 households as of the 2001 census. Grand architecture surrounds the market place and village green...

, England, whose son Edward Gilman Jr. emigrated to Hingham, Massachusetts, later to Ipswich, Massachusetts

Ipswich, Massachusetts

Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...

 and finally to Exeter, where he and his family became prominent businessmen, elected officials and, later, ardent Revolutionary War patriots. Nicholas Gilman

Nicholas Gilman

Nicholas Gilman, Jr. was a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a signer of the U.S. Constitution, representing New Hampshire. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives during the first four...

, a signer of the U.S. Constitution, was a member of this family.

Commemoration

In 1937, the 300th anniversary of Samuel Lincoln's arrival in Massachusetts was commemorated with the dedication of a tablet at the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. President Abraham Lincoln is honored by a bust in the church of St. Andrews in Hingham, Norfolk, England, unveiled in a 1919 ceremony by then-American Ambassador

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom

The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service...

 John W. Davis

John W. Davis

John William Davis was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served as a United States Representative from West Virginia , then as Solicitor General of the United States and US Ambassador to the UK under President Woodrow Wilson...

. Samuel Lincoln's father Edward, who remained in Hingham, England, died on February 11, 1640, and was buried in the graveyard of St. Andrews Church.

Sources

• Waldo Lincoln, History of the Lincoln Family: An Account of the Descendants of Samuel Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, 1637–1920 (1923) ISBN 0788414895.
• Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1816–1830, Indiana University Press (2002) ISBN 0-87195-063-4.
• Genealogy of Samuel Lincoln.
• LINCOLN (Samuel), from George Lincoln, The History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, The Genealogies (1893).
• English church reaches out to Lincoln land; Building where president's ancestors once worshipped in need of major repairs.
• The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, James Henry Lea, John Robert Hutchinson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909