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

This person is an ancestor of President Abraham Lincoln. 16th US President

Biography

Thomas Lincoln was born in Virginia.

Thomas Lincoln has Appalachian roots.

Thomas Lincoln was born on 6 Jan 1778 in Rockingham County, Virginia, USA. He was the son of Abraham Lincoln and Bathsheba Unknown ( Bathsheba Herring). His father, Captain Abraham Lincoln, was 33 and his mother, Bathsheba Herring, was 36 at the time of his birth.

Thomas Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln & Bathsheba Herring, was born on 20 January 1780.^[1]

Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Elizabeth Hanks on 12 June 1806, in Springfield, Washington, Kentucky, United States. Nancy Elizabeth Hanks-Lincoln had been born on 5 February 1784. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 3 daughters. ^{[2] [3]}

Son, Abraham Lincoln, (future President) was born on 12 February 1809. He was the only living son of Captain Abraham Lincoln and Bathsheba (unknown). He became President of the United States in 1854 at the age of 45. He was residing in Springfield, Illinois at that time and they had three children, the eldest of whom was 11 years of age. Abraham Lincoln, President's wife was born and raised in Kentucky.

Nancy Elizabeth Hanks-Lincoln died on 5 October 1818.

On 2 December 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush, widow of Daniel Johnson, in Hardin, Kentucky, United States.^[4]

Sarah Bush-Johnson-Lincoln was born on 13 December 1788 and died on 12 April 1869.

He lived in Macon, Illinois, United States in 1830 and Coles, Illinois, United States for about 10 years.

Thomas predeceased Sarah on 17 January 1851 in Cole County, Illinois, where he had lived for twenty years.

He died on 17 January 1851, in Goosenest Prairie, Coles, Illinois, United States, at the age of 73, and was buried in Pleasant Grove Township, Coles, Illinois, United States.

North American Histories

Research Notes

• Second marriage location for Thomas Lincoln and Elizabeth Hanks. Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks on 23 September 1806 in Rockingham, Virginia, United States.^[5]

Thomas, a son of Captain Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln, Thomas very probably did NOT have Herring as middle name.

In 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 concerning Bathsheba Lincoln's maiden name. In a letter dated 13 October 1998, Verduin 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."^[6]

The ancestry of Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks has always been somewhat of a mystery. For over a century, historians and genealogists have repeatedly made claims that they have finally solved the mystery of Lincoln's mother, and that everyone before them was wrong. They claim to be able to "prove the truth!" All of these theories regarding Nancy’s ancestry have been “documented” mainly through circumstantial evidence and oral traditions. There are very few primary documents remaining. The one thing that can be proven about Nancy’s origins is that no one can prove the truth, at least not yet.^[7]

[The following information has been disproved, and its inclusion only adds confusion:]

"Nancy HANKS daughter of James Hanks (1760-1793) and Mary Shipley. James Hanks was the son of Joseph Hanks and Nancy Anna Lee (1728-1808). Nancy Anna Lee was the daughter of William Lee, Jr. (1704-1764) and Anne.

[Delete entire paragraph? What of the following discussions of various theories?]

Tradition, also unproven, says that James Hanks was killed by Indians and Lucy married Henry Sparrow and remained in North Carolina. Tradition also says that, as a small child, Nancy Hanks went to Kentucky with her Aunt Naomi Shipley Mitchell (wife of Robert Mitchell). ^[8]

A widely accepted premise, again unproven, is as follows. Joseph Hanks, who had a daughter Nancy, also had a son James who married Lucy Shipley and had a daughter named Nancy. Lucy was widowed at an early age and later married Henry Sparrow.

Lucy Shipley reportedly was in turn the youngest child of Robert Shipley and Sarah Rachel Dorcey. It is said that, after her husband James Hanks died, she and their daughter Nancy Hanks lived with his parents, Joseph Hanks and Ann Lee; further, that she moved with them to Kentucky and later married Henry Sparrow while Nancy went to live with her mother's sister and her husband [?] Berry.^[9]

Baber presents various theories and traditions concerning the birth of Nancy Hanks in a number of different Virginia counties but proves none of them.^[10]

Child's theory is that Lincoln's grandmother was Lucy Shipley who married James Hanks, a son of Joseph, and had a legitimate child, Nancy. However, that Joseph had a son James is purely circumstantial and is based on interaction between Lucy and the Shipley family. Child believes James died about 1785 making Lucy a young widow and accounting for the lack of records.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ Birth: "North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000"
   Book Title: Samuel Moody Grubbs, a descendant of the Boone Family
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61157 #490957 (accessed 22 February 2025)
   Thomas Lincoln born on 20 Jan 1780, son of Abraham Lincoln & Bathsheba Herring.
2. ↑ http://lincolnmythsandrumors.house-of-lynn.com/LincolnHanksMarriageBond.html : Lincoln-Hanks Marriage Bond
3. ↑ Marriage:"Kentucky, County Marriages, 1786-1965"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 005771981; FHL microfilm: 000241382; Image number: 382
   FamilySearch Record: QKJS-83TD (accessed 22 February 2025)
   FamilySearch Image: 3QSQ-G93Y-HDF5
   Name: Thomas Lincoln; Marriage Date: 1806; Marriage Place: Washington, Kentucky, United States; Vis Status: VISIBLE; System Of Record: SLS.
4. ↑ Marriage:"Kentucky, County Marriages, 1786-1965"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 007718254; FHL microfilm: 000390257; Image number: 366
   FamilySearch Record: Q284-TWVN (accessed 22 February 2025)
   FamilySearch Image: 3Q9M-C9B8-BS4R-K
   Name: Thomas Lincoln; Unknown Place: Hardin; Marriage Date: 2 Dec 1819; Marriage Date (Original): 02 Dec 1819; Marriage Place: Hardin, Kentucky, United States; System Of Record: SLS.
5. ↑ Marriage:"Virginia, County Marriage Records, 1771-1989"
   citing Digital film/folder number: 007724904_001_M98G-9T1; Image number: 201
   FamilySearch Record: 6ZWD-Q1V2 (accessed 22 February 2025)
   FamilySearch Image: 3Q9M-C9B2-S3VN-M
   Name: Thomas Lincoln; Marriage Date: 23 Sep 1806; Marriage Place: Rockingham, Virginia, United States; Record Nbr: 23; System Of Record: SLS.
6. ↑ 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 upon request)
7. ↑ http://famouskin.com/articles/lincoln_hanks_debate.php
8. ↑ http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/r/William-D-Park/FILE/0043page.html
9. ↑ http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/n/Stephanie-L-Manley/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0364.html
10. ↑ Baber, Adin : “Nancy Hanks of Undistinguished Families; A Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical Study of the Ancestry of the Mother of Abraham Lincoln” (Kansas, Illinois, 1960)
11. ↑ Child, Christopher Challender : "The Maternal Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, The Origins of Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln, A Study in Appalachian Genealogy", ‘’New England Ancestors’’, Vol. 4 (Winter 2003), pp. 25-29

Also

• FamilySearch Person: 9VMF-H1F
• Brogan, Hugh and Mosley, Charles, Edit. : "American Presidential Families" (London, U.K.: Alan Sutton and Morris Genealogical Books, 1994), p. 447. Hereinafter cited as American Presidential Families.
• Stillwell, John E., Compiler : "Salter of Monmouth County", Vol. 1, p. 197, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany (1903). [Data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey]
• wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lincoln
• Clemens, William Montgomery. The Lincoln Family Magazine (New York, Jan. 1916) Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 3: See letter written by President Abraham Lincoln, "Washington, April 2, 1848".

• "My father, Thomas, is still living in Coles County, Ills., being in the seventy-first year of his age. His post office is Charleston, Coles County, Ills. I am his only (living) child."