Genetics & Genealogy
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genetics & genealogy Richard Hall has been researching family histories of notable people for over a decade and his own family Testing a Theory: history for over three decades. He has written several notable descendant Were Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee Related? articles for Mayflower Descendant and is the founder of FamousKin.com In January 1929, over a million . William Lee . and so justify us in and MayflowerKin.com. He can be Americans opened their copies of declaring whose son he was.”4 reached at [email protected]. Good Housekeeping magazine to an article by Rev. William E. Barton In support of Barton (1861–1930) entitled “Abraham Since 1929, Barton’s claim has been Lincoln Was a Lee.”1 The article accepted and repeated by others as if it referred to Barton as “the foremost were a proven fact. Some go even fur- living authority on Lincoln,” which ther than Barton by identifying which was probably true. Barton claimed son of Richard Lee was the father of that President Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln’s ancestor William Lee. General Robert E. Lee were cousins In her 1977 genealogy, A Weaving, through a common ancestor, Colonel Clara Funai reported that “several Richard Lee. Barton expanded his people in different parts of the United claim later that year in his book The States, who are descended from this Lineage of Lincoln, devoting an entire same William Lee, have written me chapter to the alleged relationship.2 that he is the son of Hancock Lee Barton’s Good Housekeeping article and his wife Mary Kendall Lee, and attempted to show that Lincoln was Hancock Lee is the son of Richard Lee, a descendant of Colonel Lee and his the emigrant. If this be the fact, we wife Anne Constable through Lincoln’s would not only be able to trace our ancestor William Lee (?–by 1717). family line back to England, but also to Barton claimed that William Lee was claim kinship with the renouned [sic] the grandson of Richard Lee through Robert E. Lee. What more could one an unknown son. The article displayed want!”5 In 1985, Mary Taylor Brewer a pedigree chart showing the descent stated in From Log Cabins to the White of President Lincoln and General Lee House that Lincoln’s ancestor William from Richard Lee; in Lincoln’s line, Lee was the grandson of Richard Lee Barton identified the son of Richard through Richard’s son William, but did Lee with a question mark.3 not cite any sources.6 Although Barton lacked any evidence linking William Lee to a son of Richard Refuting Barton Lee, he announced “It is my confident In 1930, a year after Barton’s article belief that the family of Lees from which appeared, historian Lyon Gardiner Abraham Lincoln was descended was Tyler published the first refutation of the same family from which Robert E. Barton’s theory. Tyler, son of President Lee was descended, both men being John Tyler and former president of the descendants of old Col. Richard Lee.” College of William and Mary, was also Barton made this claim even though the founder and editor of the William just a few lines earlier he had admit- and Mary Quarterly. Now a scholarly ted, “No record that as yet has been journal of early American history and discovered enables us to disentangle culture, the publication then focused 44 AmericanAncestors.org AmericanAncestors.org/american-ancestors-magazine • Do not reproduce without permission of NEHGS. heavily on Virginia genealogy. Tyler that Lincoln’s ancestor “William Lee society is open to any person who ridiculed the “absurdity of the Rev. was no relation to the aristocratic Lees can provide documentation to prove Barton’s claim of a descent of Abraham of Stratford Hall, or any of the other a descent from Col. Richard Lee and Lincoln from Colonel Richard Lee.” prominent Lee families of Virginia.”8 Anne Constable by connecting to a Tyler especially upbraided Barton for Christopher C. Child of NEHGS noted descendant in the most current edition including the pedigree chart showing that Barton “tried, without evidence, of The Lees of Virginia.) William Lee as a grandson of Richard to connect these Lee . families with Robert E. Lee’s descent from Richard Lee with “nothing but the wildest con- the forebears of Confederate General Lee and Anne Constable is listed in the jecture to sustain his view.”7 Robert E. Lee.”9 book. He was the son of Revolutionary Over a half century later, Lincoln War General Henry “Light-Horse scholar and researcher Paul H. General Lee’s patrilineal ancestry Harry” Lee and Anne Hill Carter, Verduin—often recognized as the com- In 1895, Edmund Jennings Lee grandson of Col. Henry Lee and Lucy piler of the most complete pedigree for published Lee of Virginia, 1642–1892, Grymes, and great-grandson of Henry Lincoln’s Hanks ancestors—affirmed considered by many to be the best Lee and Mary Bland. This first Henry genealogical source for descendants Lee was the son of Richard Lee and of the immigrant Col. Richard Lee. Letitia Corbin, and the grandson of the Reprinted several times, the book’s immigrant Richard Lee. editions since 1983 have included an additions and corrections section compiled by the Society of the Lees of Virginia.10 (Organized in 1921, the The chart (left) and magazine spread (below) are from William E. Barton’s January 1929 article in Good Housekeeping. Winter 2021 American Ancestors 45 AmericanAncestors.org/american-ancestors-magazine • Do not reproduce without permission of NEHGS. General Lee’s DNA The Lee DNA Genealogy Project of William Lee Virginia collected Y-DNA results from Dorothy ?Taylor Lee males with unbroken patrilineal lines back to their earliest proven Lee William Lee Charles Lee ancestor. Out of hundreds of Y-DNA tests submitted to the project while Clinton Lee was its coordinator—a Ann “Nanny” Lee Peter Lee John Lee William Lee period of over ten years—only three lines successfully connected to the Lucy Hanks Mark Lee Zachariah Lee Joseph Lee immigrant Col. Richard Lee.11 With the assistance of Clinton Lee, Y-DNA Nancy Hanks Harrison Taylor Lee James Lee George William Lee results for two of the descendants of Richard Lee were made available to test Abraham Lincoln James Singleton Lee William Henry Lee Benjamin Franklin Lee Barton’s claim. Both descendants were members of the Society of the Lees of DNA donor’s father John Robert Lee Jesse R. Lee Virginia. The first DNA donor was a patrilin- DNA donor DNA donor’s father DNA donor’s father eal descendant of Hancock Lee, son of Haplogroup R1b Colonel Lee. The second was a patrilin- DNA donor DNA donor eal descendant of Charles Carter Lee, Haplogroup R1b Haplogroup R1b brother of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Both descendants took a 43-marker Y-DNA test through Relative Genetics (now AncestryDNA). Their resulting haplo- types matched, with 42 of 43 markers an Lee daughter of my grandson Wm father of Ann (Lee) Hanks, was a doc- exact match. Their haplogroup was I1a. L e e .” 15 In 1769 Ann’s husband Joseph umented son of William and Dorothy, Hanks is listed in the final accounting the Y-DNA results presented in Fox’s President Lincoln’s Lee ancestry of the estate of her father William Lee, article could be compared with the For over a century, the parentage of who died in 1764: “To Joseph Hanks results of Richard Lee’s documented Abraham Lincoln’s mother Nancy for his Legacy bequeathed his Wife by patrilineal descendants to assess Hanks was a mystery; it was only Elizabeth Taylor Decd.”16 Barton’s claim. recently resolved through DNA evi- This documentary evidence sup- Two of the descents in Judy Fox’s dence.12 But even prior to this resolu- ports Abraham Lincoln’s descent article were from patrilineal descen- tion most historians and genealogists from William and Dorothy Lee, with dants of William and Dorothy’s son seemed to agree that Nancy Hanks was no indication of a connection to the Charles Lee. When the descendants the granddaughter of Joseph and Ann immigrant Richard Lee. As noted took a 37-marker Y-DNA test from “Nanny” (Lee) Hanks. This relationship earlier, Barton himself admitted, Family Tree DNA, their haplotypes was confirmed by Abraham Lincoln “[T]here is apparently no way of matched exactly. Their tests also himself in his June 1860 autobiograph- finding out . the name of the father revealed an unsuspected match to a ical notes, which included a mention of of that William Lee.” No supporting patrilineal descendant of William and his mother’s first cousin John Hanks.13 evidence has been found since Barton Dorothy’s son William Lee. However, John was the grandson of Joseph and made that statement. this third person’s 46-marker Y-DNA Ann (Lee) Hanks through their son test was administered by a different William Hanks and his wife Elizabeth President Lincoln’s DNA company, Relative Genetics. To verify Hall.14 In 2011, an article by Judy Kellar Fox the third match, one of the Charles Lee Ann (Lee) Hanks, grandmother of in the National Genealogical Society descendants took the same 46-marker Nancy Hanks, was the daughter of Quarterly opened the door to finally test from Relative Genetics. The result William Lee (and an unknown wife) resolving this issue.17 She presented was another perfect match, proving and granddaughter of William and Y-DNA evidence for three lines of that all three participants were descen- Dorothy (Taylor?) Lee. Ann (Lee) descent from William and Dorothy dants of brothers William and Charles Hanks is mentioned in the will of her (Taylor?) Lee through their sons Lee, sons of William and Dorothy Lee.