Lincoln's European Ancestry

L~N COLN LORE Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation --- • ------- Dr. Louis A. Warren, Editor. Published each week by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana. No. 423 FORT WAYNE, INDIANA May 17, 1937 LINCOLN'S EUROPEAN ANCESTRY The coronation of King Georre has After the death of his wife, Mar lived for several ~terations. He mar raised the question o! Abraham Lin gery, still another companion ,,~as ried Margaret Alberye, but died before coln's European ancestry and the ori· sought and wedded. The new wife's his oldest son Richard becnme of age. gin of the pawmal line of the family. name was Anne Small, whoso maiden His will dra\\'1\ on January 14, 1556, The ftrst American progenitor of the name was Bird. The first child of and proven on the 29th o! the same month gives us the names of two sons, President was named Samuel Lincoln the fourth marriage was a daughter, Richard and John, two daughters, and his identity has been positively Ann, baptised in 1599, a daughwr Katherine and agnes, and also a post named Elizabeth and a son named established. hutnous chjld about whom no informa· Henry were also born in 1602 and It can now be al!lrmed that Samuel tion has been gathered. The widow 1605, respectively. This last wife, who Lincoln came to America as a youth later married Roger Wright and sur waa many years youn~rer than her hus from Norfolk County, England. Al vived her second husband. band, began to plan how she might though at the time of the removal be acquire !or herself and her own cbil We are able to go back one moro was apparently living at Norwich, be generation aa the will o! Robart's dt·en the property which legally b&- was bern at Hingham, also in Norfolk father, for whom ha wllS named, is County. also extant. The senior Robert Lin There is still aome confusion about coln of Hingham, made his will ou FIVE G&~ERATIONS OF &~GLISH the exact date of Samuel Lincoln's April 18, 1540, and the inheritance he LINCOLNS birth and his age at the time he mi left his son Robert, junior, is rclcr.. grated to America. There is little I Robert Lincoln-d. 15•3 red to by Edward Lincoln, father of Samuel as "the inheritance of Robert doubt but what he is the same Samuel II Robert Lincoln-d. 1556 Lincoln, father of the said Richard." Lincoln who is cnwred on the records Ul Richard Lincoln-d. 1620 of Hingham, England as having been The earliest English ancestor of 1V Edward Lincoln-d. 1640 baptized on August 24, 1622. His death Abraham Lincoln, the President, who record is preserved at Hingham, Mas V Samuel Lincoln-d. 1690 has been definitely identified with the sachusetts as of May 26, 1690. Wheth family is the Robert Lincoln of Hing er or not his baptismal rit4ls were de ham, who ntade his will in 1540. The layed a few months after his birth and longed to Edward, the first born son last member of the American fanti1y whether or not he was seventy--one at and legal heir. bearing the name of Lincoln was also the time o! his death iB not positively Robert who died in Vermont in 1926. known. Probably he waa bom in 1619. When Richard Lincoln made his will, t.be oldest son, Edward was not men Samuel Lincoln was baptized in tho Samuel Lincoln was the sixth son tioned and his wife Ann, with bet· Ilingham Parish church us noWd i11 and the seventh child of Edward Lin three children became the only bcne record. There also, hi s grandfather, coln, gentleman, of Hingham County, ticinrics. E dward Lincoln suys in the Richard Lincoln was buried in ''lhc Norfolk, England. Two older broth litigation over the will, " His father middle isle" of the church. The prom ers, Thomas, the weaver and Daniel, was much laboured by his latter wi!e inence of his burial place puts him in the husbandman, proceeded Samuel to to make a will !or the advancement of the class knowtl as "the gentry" or America, where they settled at a town her children," while he was ,.disin~ gentlemen. nan1ed after their old En~rlisb com heriwd by her meaness and pt'OC\In>o munity, Hingham. The church of St. Andrew at Hing ment." ham, Norfolk county, England has b& Samuel Lincoln's father, Edward, eome a European Lincoln shrine. In was the oldest son of Richard Lincoln, It is a8$urcd from the records re lating to the property of Samuel Lin a niche in the wall o! the church there which under the old English law o! was unveiled on October 15, 1919, u primogeniture made him the heir to coln's grandfather, Richard that he died possessed of a very respectable bust of Abraham Lincoln by Volk. Un his father's estate. His mother was estate. If the property bad des-ded der the bust, engraved in atono one Elizabeth Remching, oldest daughwr may read this inscription: o! Richard Rcmching and Elizabet11, to the oldest son, Edward as was cus his vrife. She died, however, when tomary, Samuel's father would have "In this pa.rish for many generatioiL~ Samucl was a small child. His father been very well-to-do and possibly there lived the Lineolna, t\ncestors of Abra· DULrried again and a son Richard was would not have been the incentive !or ham Lincoln, to whom, greatest or that bern to this second union. The wife Samuel to seck his own fortunes in lineage, many c.it.izens of the United soon passed away and a third mar America. States have erected this memorial, in riage contrnct was consumated with a Richard Lincoln's !ather, Robert, the hope that Cor all ages between that "~dow by the name of Margery Dun and the great grandfather o! Samuel land and this land and Cor aU lands, ham. I! there were children by this was also a resident of Hingham, Eng there shall be malice toward none with third marriage it is not known. land where the family apparent!)• had c.harity for all." .

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