A PERSONAL acquaintance with many members of the large Lincoln family: with Luther B. Lincoln, as a schoolmate in the academy of Westford where I was prepared for college, a young man of most amiable and attractive qualities of character, who won "troops of friends" wherever he was known, who stood high as a scholar, was a pattern of application and earnestness in every literary pursuit, and successful afterward as a schoolteacher; with Rev. Calvin Lincoln, a cotemporary in the Christian ministry, whom I knew well as the secretary for some years of the American Unitarian Association, not less loved as a man than honored for his consecration to his work, his excellent judgment and practical ability in all business affairs; with my good friend, Hosea H. Lincoln, the friend of a whole generation passed by him at the head of one of our Boston schools; and with others whom my limits forbid me to name, and, not least, the circumstance that of the stock of Thomas Lincoln "the husbandman" came my maternal grandmother, Rachel

Lincoln, who exhibited in herself the rare qualities of this good old lineage, in patriotic sympathy with her husband, a Revolutionary officer, her life spared to the advanced age of eighty-six, wise, dignified, beloved by the large circle of her kindred, and sought as a kind neighbor, an intelligent adviser, her hand as ready to help as her heart was to prompt it in daily offices of love and good-will, all these associations make the writer deeply interested in this ancient family.

The origin of the Lincoln family can be traced back to the Countess of Lincoln, England, as early as 1619. Dr. Young in his "Chronicles of the Pilgrims," says: "The Lincolns had a more intimate connection with the New England settlements, and must have felt a deeper interest in their success, than any other noble house in England." This opinion is confirmed by Cotton Mather in his "Magnalia;" he speaks of the family as "religious," and "the best family of any nobleman then in England."

Governor Dudley wrote to the Countess of Lincoln, from Newtowne (Cambridge), under date of March 28, 1631, in relation to recent losses by fire, and says, in "our new town, intended this summer to be builded, we have ordered that no man there shall build his chimney with wood, nor cover his house with thatch." It is fortunate, with our taste for genealogy, that we can go back to so early a date. We in the East do not sympathize in this respect with the habit of some other portions of

the country. Abraham Lincoln, when in Boston, was questioned by some of the Lincoln family about his ancestry. "Well," he replied, "I don't know much about that; few people out West care to go any further back than their grandfathers."

Most of the early settlers of this country, named Lincoln, came from Norfolk County in England, and they were all more or less related to each other. They were then designated by their several occupations. Thus we have Thomas the Husbandman, Thomas the Weaver, Thomas the Miller, and Thomas the Cooper Of these Lincolns, Thomas the Weaver came from Hingham, Norfolk County, England, and his brother Samuel from Norwich, the chief town of the same County. Samuel came first to Salem, Massachusetts, and went thence to Hingham. Samuel had a son named Mordecai, born at Hingham in 1651; he settled in Scituate in 1700. Mordecai had a son named Jacob; Jacob had a son named Solomon.

Thomas the Husbandman came from Windham, Norfolk County in England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. This town was named for Hingham, a market-town and parish in Norfolk County, England. Windham, five and a half miles west-northwest of Hingham, is now Wymondam, so called from a prominent family in the original place, named Wymond, the syllable ham signifying "home," the "home of the Wymonds." Hingham, Massachusetts, was formally settled September 18, 1635, by Rev. Peter Hobart and twenty-nine

others who drew houselots on that day. Within three subsequent years large numbers were added to these, embracing, with the first comers, nearly all the old families which have been conspicuous in that town.

In 1638 Thomas the Husbandman, made Freeman in 1637,-and Stephen his brother, who also came from Windham, and went first to Salem, thence to Hingham, ― received grants of houselots. Thomas the Husbandman has numerous descendants in Hingham, in the County of Worcester, and in other parts of Massachusetts. There are distinguished men of this family, who have rendered valuable services to their communities in civil and military offices.

Thomas the Husbandman, born probably in 1616, had four sons, Joshua, Thomas, Caleb and Luke. Joshua, son of Thomas, was baptized May 3, 1645. Thomas, son of Thomas, was born December 22, 1652.

Caleb, son of Thomas, born May 8, probably in 1654, married Rachel, daughter of James Bates. Their children were Joshua, Peter, Caleb, Jacob, Solomon, Thomas, and Ebenezer.

Luke, son of Thomas, born March 27, probably in 1698, in Scituate, removed to Leicester, where he held public office, being selectman in 1747; he married Lydia Loring, daughter of David Loring of Barnstable.

The children of Luke and Lydia (Loring) Lincoln were five in number.

(1) William was born May 23, 1738.

(2) Rachel, born August 7, 1741, married, January 21, 1768, Colonel Timothy Boutelle of Leominster.

(3) Loring, born May 6, 1744, married Dorothy Moore. They lived in Greenboro, Vermont. He was a captain in the battle of Bunker Hill, and was eight months in the Continental army.

(4) Lydia was born January 18, 1746.

(5) Mary, born October 10, 1754, married, in 1778, Asa Meriam of Oxford, Massachusetts. They had only one child. The town of Oxford is remarkable as the place in which, in 1636, thirty families of the Protestant refugees from France took up their residence, in consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. in 1634.

Stephen Lincoln, son of Stephen, who came from Windham, England, had only one son, Stephen. Stephen, son of Stephen, son of Stephen, had three sons: Stephen, born probably in 1666, who had a descendant in Hingham, Alexander Lincoln, who died October 7, 1879; David, born September 22, 1668; James, born October 26, 1681.

The descendants of Stephen Lincoln, brother of Thomas the Husbandman, many of whom are now (1882) living, have been confined largely to the limits of Hingham.

Isaac Lincoln, born Jan. 18, 1701-2, was a graduate of Harvard College in 1722, and for a long term of years a public school-teacher in Hingham.

Abner Lincoln, born July 7, 1766, was a graduate of Harvard College in 1788, and the first preceptor of Derby Academy. He was an accomplished scholar and a successful teacher.