LINCOLN LORE No. 179 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA September 12, 1932

coin's mother's birth and claimed that tention that at this time Nancy's LINCOLN LORE Nancy Hanks was the illegitimate mother was a widow and had married child of a Miss Lucy Banks, daughter again. 8ou.nnr Ot' l(snowm BT of JoThomas Lincoln, the pros­ It is admitted generally that the pective groom. Christian name of Abraham Lincoln's is called Lucy. grandmother was Lucy. There is still 2. Before Lucy could marry Henry Miss Lucy Shipley much confusion, however. about her Snarrow a certificate of her age had There is much evidence now :wail­ family name which has been called to be filed with the county clerk. It able to show that Lucy was a daugh­ both Shipley nnd Hanks before mar­ Joseph Hanks had been her father he ter of Robert Shipley instead of Jo­ riage, and both Hanks and Sparrow would have been expected to sign this seph Hanks, and that her alleged after marriage. certificate. This he did not do. father was probably her father-in­ Duly authorized public records and 3. Upon the marriage of Lucy to law. The Hankses lived not far from statements b~· members of connected Henry Sparrow, the court required a the Shipley colony in Virginia and the families ,... ;u be introduced in an at-­ bond to be signed and the signature of writer has been over some of the 1and tempt to clarify the problem of the Lucy's father, or some near relative, they owned. Later they moved to identification of this grandmother of would have been necessary. Although North Carolina. the president. The approach to the the f(lmily o! Joseph Hanks was liv­ On \VilHam Caldwell's commis~ que~tion can be made most satisfac­ ing not far away no member of this sioncrs' book for Lunenburg Gount.y, torily by working !rom the po!;itive1y family signed the marriage papers. Virginia, in 1750, the names of Robert known !acts back to the truditional There is one document which seems Mitchell, Richard Berry, and Robert evidence. to support the theory that Lucy was Shipley appear. ~Irs. Lucy Sparrow an irres;ponsible character but when It is said there were six Shipley The first. information about the ma­ viewed from the proper perspective a girls and four of them are accounted ternal grandmother of Abraham Lin­ different light is thrown on the pro­ for: Rachel, who married Richard coln to receive attention was sub­ ceedings. A Mercer Count)• ~rrnnd jury Berry; Ann, who married David Mc­ mitted by Dennis Hanks. He wrote: brought an indictment against her for Cord; Naomi, who married Robert "Her name (Lincoln's mother) was fornication. She was never brought to Mitchell; and Lucy, who married Nancy Sparrow. Her father's name trial, however, because her marriage James Hanks, and later Henry Spar­ was Henry Sparrow, her mother was to Henry Sparrow seemed to have re­ row. Some family notes supporting Lucy Sparrow, her (Lucy's) maiden moved the cause of the complaint. these connections follow: name was Hanks, si~ter to my mother. It is very likely that she was living with Sparrow as his common law wife, "Nancy Hanks' mother's namo be­ "You say why was Nancy called fore marriago was Shipley and she Hanks? All I can say is this, she wns not nn unusual occurrence in the wil­ derness. and action was brought to was a Virginian. There were, I think, deep in the stalk of the Hanks famil)•. •ix sisters in the Shipley family but I brin~ about a marriage contract. The Calling her Hanks is probably my only remember the »ames of the hus­ fault ... I think this is the way If you fact that she raised a family of eight children, two of them ministers, would bands of three: Richard Berry, and call her Hanks you make her a base­ Robert Mitchell, my grandfather, and born child which is not true." (Dennis not indicate her character was ns de­ 1 based as •orne authors have supposed. Mr. Hanks, Nancy's father." (Char­ Hanks to Herndon, 1866.) loti Hobart Vawter letter in 1895.) John Hanks 41Corroborated Dennis Except for this alleged misconduct on the part of Lucy, there would be ''I used to hear my grandmother on nil vital and essential points" about say that she was a second cousin to Lincoln's mother and neither one of no indication that the birth of Nancy Hanks wns irregular. Nancy Hank1:1. My grandmother was them ever changed their opinion about Jane Caldwell McCord. Her grand­ the regularity of the birth of Nancy Mrs. Lucy Hanks father was David McCord, whose wife Hanks, although they could not ex· All the members of t11e Sparrow was Ann Shipley. (R. C. Simpson of plain why her name was called Hanks. family now living in Mercer County Vincennes, Letter to editor of Lincoln Henry Sparrow and Lucy Honks claim that when Henry Sparro'" mar· Lore 1929.) were married by John Bailey in Mer­ ried Lucy Hanks she was a widow. "My mother was a Mitchell, a first cPr County, Kentucky, on April 30, The editor of Lincoln Lore is con­ cousin of President Lincoln's mother, 1790. Nancy Hanks at the time of this fident that when tho name of Lucy their mothers were Shipleys from marriage must have been about five Hanks was in~ribed on the certifi­ North Carolina... Nancy Hanks, Ab­ years of age. While there is a possi­ cate stating that she was of nge in raham Lincoln's mother, went to live bility that Lincoln's mother as a smnU 1790. it was signed Widow Lucy with Uncle and Aunt Richard Berry." child may have gone by the name of Hanks. (Sally Shipley Mitchell in Louisville Nancy Sparrow during the time she The confusion of Dennis Hanks Courier Journal, Jan. 5, 1881.) lived with her stepfather, Henry rested in the fact that Lucy wao a There is no evidence that even sug­ Sparrow, when she left this home, she sister-in-Jaw instead of an own sister gests that Nancy was the daughter of e-vidently used her real name, Nancy to the three Hanks girls. Miss Lucy Shipley before she married Hanks. Furthermore, m e m be r s of the James Hanks so that but one of the Miss Lucy B anks Hanks family have stated that the names introduced in thi~ monogrnph Denni:) Banks was indirectly re­ name of this son of Joseph Hanks, must be eliminated. There is no de­ sponsible for the second theory put who married Lucy, and died before pendable evidence to show that Lucy forth which, in the minds of early bio­ Joseph made his will, was James was ever a Miss Lucy Hanks. She was gmphcrR, contradicted his first state· Hanks. Nancy, it is claimed, was the first Miss Lucy Shipley, next, Mrs. ment. Il~ claimed that Lucy was one daughter of James and Lucy Hanks. Lucy Hanks, and then Mrs. Lucy of four daughters of Joseph Hanks. When Nancy Hanks mar r lc d Sparrow. This is the person who we Herndon ignored Dennis' earlier tes­ Thomas Lincoln, the legal procedure believe was the maternal grand­ timony about the regularity of Lin· necessary is in harmony with the eon- mother of Abraham Lincoln.