♀Margaret Langer

Margaret Langer (died 5 March 1693/4) was a daughter of Richard Langer of Hingham, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, and the wife of Thomas Lincoln, a settler of the town, to whose eldest son her father left his Hingham land. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Thomas Lincoln (1652–1698).

Marriage and family

Margaret married Thomas Lincoln, who is said to have come to Hingham from Wymondham, in Norfolk, in the autumn of 1638. They are said to have had eleven children, born or baptized at Hingham between 1643 and 1662, among them twin sons, Joshua and Caleb, in 1645; three of the eleven, an elder Caleb born in 1643, Daniel and Ephraim, had died by 1681.

Richard Langer, very aged by his own account, made his will on 20 February 1659. He had bought two home lots from his son-in-law, Thomas Lincoln, and he left his land in Hingham to Margaret’s eldest son, Joshua. To Margaret he left his green rug, on condition that she gave her two sisters, Dinah and Elizabeth, four shillings each as a gift from him.

Widowhood

Thomas made his will on 24 May 1681 and signed it with his mark. He left his wife Margaret all his movable goods, made bequests to his five daughters, four of them already married, and left his dwelling house at Hingham to his three sons, Joshua, Caleb and Thomas. He died at Hingham on 16 August 1692, and the will was proved at Boston on 3 November 1692, with the three sons as executors. Margaret survived him and is said to have died at Hingham on 5 March 1693/4.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Thomas and Thomas’s daughter Susannah Lincoln (born 1688). They meet again in Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908), whose parents, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), were both descended from Thomas Lincoln and Margaret Langer. From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one.

Notes

Sources

Her father’s will is known from a printed abstract in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1856), which quotes Richard Langer as “being of perfect memory yet very Aged” and gives his bequests “To my dau. Margarets Eldest sonne, Joshua Lincon, all my land in Hinghame”, the “two home lotts that I Bought of my sonne in law, Thomas Lincon”, and “my Greene Rugg to my dau. Margaret, shee giueing as a gift from mee [to] my other two daus. Dinah, and Elizabeth, 4s. each”. The will was proved on 2 May 1661.

Her husband’s will, dated 24 May 1681 and copied into the Suffolk County probate register, leaves “unto my wellbeloved Wife Margrett Lincolne all my Moveable Goods” and names eight living children, five daughters and three sons; it was proved at Boston on 3 November 1692.

Her parentage, her death date, her husband’s origin and arrival at Hingham, and the eleven children come from the genealogical volume of the History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893), which says that she outlived her husband. Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England also names her as a daughter of Richard Langer.

Dates that differ

The printed abstract of Richard Langer’s will gives its date as 20 February 1659; Savage’s dictionary gives 20 February 1660, with the same probate date of 2 May 1661. The abstract’s date is followed here.