♂Thomas Lincoln

Thomas Lincoln (died 16 August 1692) was a settler of Hingham, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, whose father-in-law, Richard Langer, bought two home lots from him and then left his Hingham land to Thomas’s eldest son, Joshua. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Thomas Lincoln (1652–1698).

Life at Hingham

Thomas is said to have come from Wymondham, in Norfolk, and to have settled at Hingham in the autumn of 1638. Within the town’s first few years, by one count, four heads of families there were named Thomas Lincoln, and he was set apart from the others in the town’s records by his calling, as “the husbandman”. He is said to have lived on Fort Hill Street, “on the upland by the highway side going to Weymouth mill”, and to have served as a selectman of Hingham in 1662, 1669 and 1672.

Thomas married Margaret Langer, a daughter of Richard Langer of Hingham. 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.

Will and death

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 his 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

The will, dated 24 May 1681, is copied into the Suffolk County probate register. It opens “Thomas Lincolne of Hingham … being in bodily health & of perfect Memory”, is signed “The mark of Thomas T Lincolne”, and leaves “unto my wellbeloved Wife Margrett Lincolne all my Moveable Goods”. It names the five daughters as Susannah, wife of Joseph Bearstow (Barstow); Mary Barker, wife of Francis Barker; Sarah Marsh, wife of Thomas Marsh; Elizabeth Lincolne, wife of Daniel Lincolne; and “Ruth Lincolne my Youngest Daughter”. The dwelling house goes to “my Three Sons Joshua Lincolne, Caleb Lincolne and Thomas Lincolne”. The probate entry records that the will was proved at Boston on 3 November 1692 before William Stoughton, and names the three sons executors.

His origin at Wymondham, his arrival in the autumn of 1638, his title of “the husbandman”, his residence, his terms as selectman, his death date, Margaret’s death and the eleven children come from the genealogical volume of the History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893), which also calls him a brother of Stephen Lincoln and a farmer. Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England gives the same death date and the same will, says that Daniel Cushing’s manuscript record has him coming from Wymondham in 1638 with Jeremiah Moore, and remarks that within the first three years of the town’s settlement Hingham had four heads of families named Thomas Lincoln.

Richard Langer’s will is known from a printed abstract in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1856), which quotes him as “being of perfect memory yet very Aged” and gives his bequest “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 the green rug. The will was proved on 2 May 1661.

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.

Savage gives the youngest daughter Ruth’s birth as 19 November 1664; the 1893 history gives 19 November 1662, and that is the date followed here.