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Facts and Events
Marriage Advisory
There have been several stories and published works [Hitchcock, Nicolay and Hay, Waddell] suggesting that this Abraham Lincoln was married to: Anne Boone, Mary Shipley, Elizabeth Winter, or Hannah Winters. So far, none of these assertions have been supported by records and are likely "family tradition" passed down or based upon inaccurate conclusions. The only wife of Abraham Lincoln supported by actual records was Bathsheba Herring, who is listed in the records of Rockingham County, Virginia when the family sold their land at Linville's Creek prior to their move to Kentucky. She appears to have been the bride of Abraham Lincoln when he applied for a marriage license in Augusta County, Virginia on June 9, 1770. [Chalkley's Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia,II:277], and was likely his only wife.
It is suggested that researchers review the following in-depth article: Lincoln's Grandmother, by Charles H. Coleman, in Illinois State Historical Society (Springfield, Illinois). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Society, 1908)
About Capt. Abraham Lincoln
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
Captain Abraham Lincoln (May 13, 1744 – May 19, 1786) was the grandfather of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a military captain during the American Revolution, and a pioneer settler of Kentucky. Some historical sources attest his last name as Linkhorn, although neither Abraham nor his children ever signed themselves as such.
CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN FROM ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA, GRANDFATHER OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Captain Abraham Lincoln, born May 13, 1744 in Pennsylvania, and who died May 1786 in Kentucky, was married to Bathsheba Herring, and lived in Rockbridge County Virginia during the American Revolution. He served in that Revolution as Captain of a Virginia militia company.
Captain Abraham Lincoln was possibly in Winchester Virginia's General Daniel Morgan's Regiment with whom Captain Sam Houston, father of General Sam Houston of Texas fame, served since both were from the Valley of Virginia from which Morgan drew much of his Regimental forces.
Captain Sam Houston later became Inspector of Morgan's Regiment and held the rank of Major.
John Houston was the original emigrant to America.
Captain, later Major Sam Houston, was the grandson of this John Houston who had bought 228 acres of land in 1748 six miles from what is now Lexington, Virginia in Rockbridge County.
Captain Abraham Lincoln had bought land in Rockbridge County next to his brother Isaac Lincoln on August 12, 1773. It was located on Linve's Creek, Virginia and it was sold to Abraham by another Lincoln, John Lincoln and his wife, Rebecca.
The land Captain Abraham Lincoln bought had originally been patented to Duff, Green and Hite on 27 March 1739 which was conveyed to them by Robert McKay. Witnessing the land sale to Abraham Lincoln in 1773 was Josiah Davidson and Cornelius and Ann Briant (Bryant), according to historian Lyman Chalkley. Hite was one of the first settlers in the Valley of Virginoia.
Captain Abraham Lincoln's son, Thomas Lincoln, father of President Lincoln, was born in this Valley of Virginia in 1778, five years after the land purchase.
In 1782, Captain Abraham Lincoln, the President's grandfather, took the trail to Kentucky with his family. In Kentucky he was killed by the Indians in 1786.
In 1782, Kentucky was part of Virginia which extended westward to the Mississippi River. In 1790 Kentucky became part of The Southwest Territory and in 1792 was made a state.
It appears that the John Houston family likely attended the same church in the Valley of Virginia as did James McCord Sr and his brother David McCord, sons of David McCord of Derry, Pennsylvania.
The McCords and the Houston family were related, as described later in this book. One of the McCord wives was a great-granddaughter of John Houston, just mentioned, and General Sam Houston was a great-grandson of this John Houston.
Campbell W. McCord, descended from James McCord Sr., son of David of Derry, was close to General Sam Houston and participated in a biography of General Sam Houston.
Records in Virginia
- Page 17 - Jacob Lincoln, 200 acres, East side of Linvils Creek. Adjoining Robert Belsheer. Surveyed in consequence of Abraham Lincoln entry of 200 acres dated July 14, 1770, and by him assigned to the above Jacob Lincoln, January 2, 1782. [Abstract of Land Grant Surveys, 1761-1791, Augusta & Rockingham Counties, Virginia, by Peter Cline Kaylor, pg. 102].
- Page 19 - John Kring, 400 acres, East side of Linvils Creek on the West side of Millers round Hill. adjoining Jacob Lincoln, Belsheer. Surveyed in consequence of an entry for 400 acres made by Abraham Lincoln, April 25, 1771, and assigned to said Kring. Surveyed January 3, 1782. [Abstract of Land Grant Surveys, 1761-1791, Augusta & Rockingham Counties, Virginia, by Peter Cline Kaylor, pg. 103]. (Note: the Jacob Lincoln listed in both of these records was the younger brother of Abraham).
References
- ↑ Lea, J. Henry; Hutchinson, J. R. The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, Second Publisher: HeritageQuest Online, Second Address: http:/www.heritagequestonline.com/. (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1909)
page 77. - ↑ A. Lincoln: A Biography
12, 2009.
"a Native American, probably a Shawnee, shot Abraham from the nearby woods."
- Lincoln's Grandmother, by Charles H. Coleman, in Illinois State Historical Society (Springfield, Illinois). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical Society).
The year 1770 was a busy one for young Abraham Lincoln. It appears to have been the year he commenced his service in the Virginia militia, first as an "ensign" or "third officer". (today's second lieutenant), and later as a captain, a rank he attained not later than March, 1776. In July, 1770, Abraham made his first land purchase, 200 acres of "colony land" (public land) in the Linville Creek neighborhood, on the east side of the creek. The same month he began the accumulation of personal property with the purchase of two cows.
More important, 1770 was the year of the marriage of Abraham Lincoln and Bathsheba Herring, the only daughter of Alexander Herring of Bridgewater, near Harrisonburg, which was then in August County. His application for a marriage license was dated June 9. Both the cows and the land were purchased a few weeks after the marriage. Abraham was determined to show his bride that her husband was an enterprising young man.
Abraham's marriage license application does not include the name of his intended bride. The Augusta County records show that this was a common practice at the time., but for many years it has caused great confusion among Lincoln students concerning the identity of the paternal grandmother of President Lincoln.
It has been suggested that the unnamed bride of 1770 was the first of two wives, that Thomas Lincoln, father of the President, was a son by the first marriage, and that the Bathsheba who accompanied Captain Abraham Lincoln to Kentucky in 1782 was a stepmother of Thomas. His own mother, according to some supposition, was Anne Boone, or Mary Shipley, or Elizabeth Winter or Hannah Winters.
The Anne Boone error was a very natural one, for an Abraham Lincoln did marry an Anne Boone, a cousin of the famous Daniel. But the Abraham in this case was a half-brother of John Lincoln, not the son, and the marriage took place in July, 1760, ni Pennsylvania, not ten years later in Virginia. Since Anne Boone was a Quaker and her marriage took place "out of meeting", she was disciplined by her Quaker meeting. She acknowledged her error but nevertheless remained with her husband, by whom she had twelve children.
The Mary Shipley story appears to have originated with J.L. Nall of Carthage, Missouri, a grandson of Nancy Lincoln Brumfield, the youngest daughter of Captain Abraham. In a letter to Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, February 11, 1895, Nall gave Mary Shipley as the name of his great-grandmother, the wife of Captain Abraham. To this statement Mrs. Hitchcock added details in 1899: "An Englishman named Robert Shipley of Lunenburg County [Virginia] and his wife, Sarah Rachel Shipley, had five daughters [including] Mary, who married Abraham Lincoln of Rockingham County, Va. The Lincoln genealogists Lea and Hutchinson, citing Nall, accept Mary Shipley as the first wife of Captain Abraham and the "mother of his elder children". The first wife died in Virginia "some time previous to 1779", according to these authors, who accept Bathsheba Herring as the second wife of Abraham. The Lincoln biographers Nicolay and Hay, citing Nall, also accept Mary Shipley as the wife of Abraham, whose marriage, they state, took place in North Carolina.
Anne (or Ann) Boone also comes into the picture as the mother-in-law of Abraham rather than his wife. According to J.A. Waddell's Annals of Augusta County, Abraham's wife was Elizabeth Winter, daughter of William and Anne Boone Winter". But Hannah Winters, not Elizabeth, was the name of Abraham's wife, according to Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy. Nicolay and Hay state that Welles was convinced that "the Abraham Lincoln that married Hannah Winters, a daughter of Ann Boone, sister of the famous Daniel, was the President's grand-father.
Out of this wilderness of genealogical confusion one recorded fact stands clear: With the removal of the family to Kentucky in prospect, on February 18, 1780, Abraham and Bathsheba Lincoln sold their Linville Creek farm of about 250 acres to Michael Shanks and John Reuf. The deed was signed by "Abrm Lincoln" and "Batsab Lincoln". In the deed and recording certificate (dated June 26), Mrs. Lincoln's first name is spelled "Bershaba", Bathsheba" and "Bersheba". Official records show, that Abraham Lincoln applied for a marriage license in 1770, and that ten years later the name of his wife was Bathsheba (or Bersheba or Bershaba). Was she the mother of all five of his children, or more particularly, was she the mother of the President's father Thomas (whose probable year of birth was 1778)?
Thanks to the careful investigations of Waldo Lincoln, William E. Barton, John W. Wayland and Louis A. Warren, it may be said with assurance that the bride of 1770 was Abraham's only wife and that her first name was Bathsheba. Very probably her family name was Herring. She was two years older than her husband and long-survived him, dying in Kentucky in 1836 at the age of ninety-four.
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