Abraham Lincoln (1744 - 1786)

Born 13 May 1744 in Berks, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Bathsheba (Unknown) Lincoln — married after 9 Jun 1770 in Augusta, Virginia

Descendants

Died May 1786 at about age 41 in Nelson, Kentucky District, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Abraham Lincoln is an ancestor of a US President/Vice President Join: US Presidents Project Discuss: Presidents

Captain Abraham Lincoln served with Virginia Militia during the American Revolution.

Abraham Lincoln is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A070398.

Abraham Lincoln is Notable.

Abraham Lincoln born May 13, 1744 is the paternal grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham was the eldest son of John and Rebecca (Flowers) Morris Lincoln. He was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania.^[1][2][3] Sometime about 1768, he moved to the Shenandoah Valley in Augusta County, Virginia, his father appearing in an Augusta County Court record of persons to whom land was processioned during the years 1767 and 1768 .^[4] Abraham certainly was there by January 7, 1770, when he was named an executor of and also witnessed the Augusta County will of one Jacob Warren.^[5]

On June 9, 1770, Abraham Lincoln took out an Augusta County marriage license.^[6] Unfortunately, the bride is unnamed on the license, and her maiden name is the subject of conjecture, as discussed below.

Abraham Lincoln reportedly served in many judicial roles while in Augusta County. During the American Revolution, he served as a Captain in a company of militia, first in Augusta in 1777 and then in Rockingham in 1779.^[7]

From Augusta County, Abraham went to North Carolina, but he moved thence to Beargrass Fort, Kentucky about 1782^[8] and purchased land about 10 miles outside of Louisville near Long Run and Green River. It was there, while working in a clearing with his three sons - Thomas, Mordecai and John - that he was killed in an ambush by native Wabash Indians. His death occurred sometime between May 7, 1785 - the date of his land survey in Jefferson County, Kentucky - and October 14, 1788 - the date his will went to probate.^[9] The Indian who took his life was in turn shot and killed by Mordecai, the eldest son, who had run to the cabin and returned with his rifle.

In an 1848 letter from his grandson, President Lincoln, to Solomon Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, Abraham's death was reported to have occurred in 1784.^[10] However, the records cited by Waldo Lincoln, and described above, prove it to have occurred at least one and probably four years later.

While Abraham's bride was not mentioned in the 1770 marriage license, various genealogists pointed first at a woman named Ann Waren, relying on the fact that Abraham witnessed and was an executor of the will of Ann Warren's grandfather, Jacob Warren). That view represents mere assumption since Abraham was not a beneficiary of the will and since not only relatives, but friends also, were often witnesses to and/or executors of wills. Unfortunately, a published history of the Salter family of New Jersey claims yet another bride for Abraham - Mary Shipley.^[11]

The record does not prove that either Ann Waren or Mary Shipley was married to Abraham Lincoln. However, there is proof of the first name of his wife from at least 1780 until his death, and it may be that she was his bride in 1770. First, a deed recorded June 17, 1780 conveying Abraham's Rockingham County land lists the sellers as Abraham Lincoln and wife Bathsheba, and she herself signed the deed "Batsab Lincon" - Bathsheba (Herring) Lincoln. Second, Bathsheba appears on Kentucky tax lists dated 1792, 1795, and 1800,^[12] proving that she not only went to Kentucky with Abraham but there survived him by many years.

Bathsheba's maiden name is as yet unproven. On 13 October 1998, Paul H. Verduin - then General Secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic and a noted authority on President Lincoln's antecedents - pointed out two crucial items. In a letter of that date he noted that : (1) the name Herring has not been found on any document relating to Bathsheba; and (2) the "tale was invented in 1908, some 140 years after her marriage to President Lincoln's grandfather, by the daughter of one of the co-authors of the highly flawed study of the Lincoln genealogy which appeared at that time". Verduin wrote further that the daughter "visited Rockingham County that summer and enticed a story from a couple of individuals named Chrisman. The tale had never been heard before [1908], and there's absolutely no evidence for it. I've searched high and low, but haven't found the answer - and it may well be that none is available from any extant records."^[13]

Sources

1. ↑ Hoch., Bradley R., "The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania: A History and Guide", Penn State Univ. Press (2001)
2. ↑ Tarbell, Ida Minerva, "Abraham Lincoln and His Ancestors", Univ.of Nebraska Press (1951)
3. ↑ Wayland, John W., Edit., "Men of Mark and Representative Citizens of Harrisonburg and Rockingham", p. 414
4. ↑ Chalkley, Lyman, "Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia", vol. 2, p. 457
5. ↑ Chalkley, Lyman, vol. 3, p. 113
6. ↑ Chalkley, Lyman, vol. 2, p. 277
7. ↑ McAllister, J. T., “Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War : McAllister’s Data”, Hot Springs, VA (1913), pp. 183,230
8. ↑ History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (The Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, 1893) Vol. II, p.461
9. ↑ Lincoln, Waldo, "History of the Lincoln Family: An Account of the Descendants of Samuel Lincoln of Hingham Massachusetts 1637-1920", Worcester, MA (1923) pp. 461, 196-197
10. ↑ Basler, Roy P., Edit., "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln", (1953), vol. 1, pp. 455-56: Letter to Solomon Lincoln, March 6, 1848
11. ↑ Stillwell, John E., "Historical and Genealogical Miscellany. Early Settlers of New Jersey and Their Descendants", New York (1916), vol. IV, p. 197
12. ↑ Lincoln, Waldo, pp. 193-204 but esp. pp. 194,201
13. ↑ Verduin, Paul H., long-time General Secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic and noted authority on Lincoln's antecedents : 13 Oct 1998 Letter to Loretta A. Layman (copy available on request)

• DAR Patriot Index https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A070398
• Roberts, Gary Boyd; Ancestors of American Presidents, Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society (2009).
• Abraham Lincoln: A Paper Read Before the Royal Historical Society, London, June 16th, 1881 by Isaac Newton Arnold, (Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 10, Fergus Printing Co., Chicago, 1883) Page 8-9

• Wikipedia:Abraham_Lincoln_(captain)

• John Scofield Prall, Brøderbund Software, Inc., World Family Tree Vol. 1, Ed. 1, (Release date: November 29, 1995), "CD-ROM," Tree #4285, Date of Import: Jan 16, 1999. (1995), "Electronic," Date of Import: May 2, 1999.

• Daniel James Duplantis, Brøderbund Software, Inc., World Family Tree Vol. 1, Ed. 1, (Release date: November 29, 1995), "CD-ROM," Tree #1521, Date of Import: Jan 16, 1999. (1995), "Electronic," Date of Import: May 7, 1999.

• David C. Whitney, The American Presidents, (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 1967; LOC #67-20646).

• Clemens, William Montgomery. The Lincoln Family Magazine (New York, Jan. 1916) Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 5