♂Thomas Lincoln

Thomas Lincoln (22 December 1652 – 28 September 1698) was a carpenter of Hingham, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, who served the town as constable and died at forty-five, leaving his wife Sarah Lewis (1661–1732) with young children. He was the eighth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Susannah Lincoln (born 1688).

Life at Hingham

Thomas was born at Hingham on 22 December 1652, a son of Thomas Lincoln, who had come from Wymondham in Norfolk and settled in the town in the autumn of 1638, and of Margaret Langer, a daughter of Richard Langer of Hingham. He was one of eleven children. Hingham had several men named Thomas Lincoln, and the father was set apart from the others by his calling, as “the husbandman”. The son worked as a carpenter but came to be known by his father’s title as well. He served as constable of Hingham in 1687 and lived near Bull’s Pond, in Hingham Centre.

His father’s will, made on 24 May 1681, leaves the dwelling house in Hingham to “my Three Sons”, Joshua, Caleb and Thomas, and the three were named executors when the will was proved at Boston on 3 November 1692.

Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Lewis are said to have married on 6 January 1684/5. She was a daughter of James and Sarah (Lane) Lewis of Barnstable, in Plymouth Colony^W. Their five children were born at Hingham between 1685 and 1696: Sarah, Susannah, Thomas, Ebenezer and Mary. The town recorded Susannah’s birth on 19 September 1688 as the daughter “of Thomas Lincolne and of Sarah his wife”.

Death

Thomas died on 28 September 1698, in his forty-sixth year, while on a visit to Plymouth. The Hingham town register’s entry for his death calls him “husbandman” and confirms the day and the place; the records do not say why he was there or what caused his death. His widow married Robert Waterman of Hingham less than five months later, on 20 February 1698/9.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his daughter Susannah, her daughter Elizabeth Colson (1723–1798), Elizabeth’s daughter Sarah Hovey (1747–1805) and Sarah’s son Nicholas Blanchard (1766–1849). 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 Sarah Lewis. From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one.

Notes

Sources

His daughter Susannah’s birth, on 19 September 1688, is in the Hingham town register of births, marriages and deaths, which names her parents as Thomas Lincolne and Sarah his wife; the register also gives the births of their son Thomas and their daughter Mary. Thomas’s own birth, his parentage, trade, constableship and residence, the marriage date, Sarah’s family, and his death at Plymouth come from the genealogical volume of the History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893). Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England gives the same marriage and death dates. The register’s entry for his death reads “Thomas Lincolne of Hingham husbandman dyed at Plimouth 28: 7m: 1698”; the register numbers its months from March, so the seventh month is September.

Parentage

The father’s will, dated 24 May 1681 and proved at Boston on 3 November 1692, gives his dwelling house in Hingham to “my Three Sons Joshua Lincolne, Caleb Lincolne and Thomas Lincolne”. The probate record names the three sons executors. The will also names the testator’s wife, Margrett, and the eight children then living, five daughters and three sons. The 1893 history gives eleven children in all; three of them, Caleb, Daniel and Ephraim, had died before 1681.

Richard Langer of Hingham, Margaret’s father, made his will on 20 February 1659, and it was proved on 2 May 1661. It calls Thomas’s father “my sonne in law”, records that Richard had bought two home lots from him, and leaves Richard’s Hingham land to Margaret’s eldest son, Joshua. A printed abstract of the will appeared in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1856.

Dates that differ

The 1893 history prints Mary’s birth as 14 January 1695/6; the Hingham register gives 14 June 1696, and that is the date followed here.

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.

An online transcription gives 29 July 1698 for a Thomas Lincoln of Hingham. It is the same register entry, with its “28: 7m” (the 28th of the seventh month, September) misread as 29 July.