of England and constable of Chester. It was held by the Lacys until the death of Henry, the 3rd earl. Henry served Edward I. in Wales, France and Scotland, both as a soldier and a diplomatist. He went to France with Edmund, earl of Lancaster, in 1296, and when Edmund died in June of this year, succeeded him as commander of the English forces in Gascony; but he did not experience any great success in this capacity and returned to England early in 1298. The earl fought at the battle of Falkirk in July 1298, and took some part in the subsequent conquest of Scotland. He was then employed by Edward to negotiate successively with popes Boniface VIII. and Clement V., and also with Philip IV. of France; and was present at the death of the English king in July 1307. For a short time Lincoln was friendly with the new king, Edward II., and his favourite, Piers Gaveston; but quickly changing his attitude, he joined earl Thomas of Lancaster and the baronial party, was one of the “ordainers” appointed in 1310 and was regent of the kingdom during the king’s absence in Scotland in the same year. He died in London on the 5th of February 1311, and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. He married Margaret (d. 1309), granddaughter and heiress of William Longsword, 2nd earl of Salisbury, and his only surviving child, Alice (1283–1348), became the wife of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, who thus inherited his father-in-law’s earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. Lincoln’s Inn in London gets its name from the earl, whose London residence occupied this site. He founded Whalley Abbey in Lancashire, and built Denbigh Castle.
In 1349 Henry Plantagenet, earl (afterwards duke) of Lancaster, a nephew of Earl Thomas, was created earl of Lincoln; and when his grandson Henry became king of England as Henry IV. in 1399 the title merged in the crown. In 1467 John de la Pole (c. 1464–1487), a nephew of Edward IV., was made earl of Lincoln, and the same dignity was conferred in 1525 upon Henry Brandon (1516–1545), son of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. Both died without sons, and the next family to hold the earldom was that of Clinton.
Edward Fiennes Clinton, 9th Lord Clinton (1512–1585), lord high admiral and the husband of Henry VIII.’s mistress, Elizabeth Blount, was created earl of Lincoln in 1572. Before his elevation he had rendered very valuable services both on sea and land to Edward VI., to Mary and to Elizabeth, and he was in the confidence of the leading men of these reigns, including William Cecil, Lord Burghley. From 1572 until the present day the title has been held by Clinton’s descendants. In 1768 Henry Clinton, the 9th earl (1720–1794), succeeded his uncle Thomas Pelham as 2nd duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, and since this date the title of earl of Lincoln has been the courtesy title of the eldest son of the duke of Newcastle.
See G. E. C.(okayne), Complete Peerage, vol. v. (1893).
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM (1809–1865), sixteenth president of the United States of America, was born on “Rock Spring” farm, 3 m. from Hodgenville, in Hardin (now Larue) county, Kentucky, on the 12th of February 1809.[1] His grandfather,[2] Abraham Lincoln, settled in Kentucky about 1780 and was killed by Indians in 1784. His father, Thomas (1778–1851), was born in Rockingham (then Augusta) county, Virginia; he was hospitable, shiftless, restless and unsuccessful, working now as a carpenter and now as a farmer, and could not read or write before his marriage, in Washington county, Kentucky, on the 12th of June 1806, to Nancy Hanks (1783–1818), who was, like him, a native of Virginia, but had much more strength of character and native ability, and seemed to have been, in intellect and character, distinctly above the social class in which she was born. The Lincolns had removed from Elizabethtown, Hardin county, their first home, to the Rock Spring farm, only a short time before Abraham’s birth; about 1813 they removed to a farm of 238 acres on Knob Creek, about 6 m. from Hodgenville; and in 1816 they crossed the Ohio river and settled on a quarter-section, 112 m. E. of the present village of Gentryville, in Spencer county, Indiana. There Abraham’s mother died on the 5th of October 1818. In December 1819 his father married, at his old home, Elizabethtown, Mrs Sarah (Bush) Johnston (d. 1869), whom he had courted years before, whose thrift greatly improved conditions in the home, and who exerted a great influence over her stepson. Spencer county was still a wilderness, and the boy grew up in pioneer surroundings, living in a rude log-cabin, enduring many hardships and knowing only the primitive manners, conversation and ambitions of sparsely settled backwoods communities. Schools were rare, and teachers qualified only to impart the merest rudiments. “Of course when I came of age I did not know much,” wrote he years afterward, “still somehow I could read, write and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.” His entire schooling, in five different schools, amounted to less than a twelvemonth; but he became a good speller and an excellent penman. His own mother taught him to read, and his stepmother urged him to study. He read and re-read in early boyhood the Bible, Aesop, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Weems’s Life of Washington and a history of the United States; and later read every book he could borrow from the neighbours, Burns and Shakespeare becoming favourites. He wrote rude, coarse satires, crude verse, and compositions on the American government, temperance, &c. At the age of seventeen he had attained his full height, and began to be known as a wrestler, runner and lifter of great weights. When nineteen he made a journey as a hired hand on a flatboat to New Orleans.
In March 1830 his father emigrated to Macon county, Illinois (near the present Decatur), and soon afterward removed to Coles county. Being now twenty-one years of age, Abraham hired himself to Denton Offutt, a migratory trader and storekeeper then of Sangamon county, and he helped Offutt to build a flatboat and float it down the Sangamon, Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. In 1831 Offutt made him clerk of his country store at New Salem, a small and unsuccessful settlement in Menard county; this gave him moments of leisure to devote to self-education. He borrowed a grammar and other books, sought explanations from the village schoolmaster and began to read law. In this frontier community law and politics claimed a large proportion of the stronger and the more ambitious men; the law early appealed to Lincoln and his general popularity encouraged him as early as 1832 to enter politics. In this year Offutt failed and Lincoln was thus left without employment. He became a candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives; and on the 9th of March 1832 issued an address “To the people of Sangamon county” which betokens talent and education far beyond mere ability to “read, write and cipher,” though in its preparation he seems to have had the help of a friend. Before the election the Black Hawk Indian War broke out; Lincoln volunteered in one of the Sangamon county companies on the 21st of April and was elected captain by the members of the company. It is said that the oath of allegiance was administered to Lincoln at this time by Lieut. Jefferson Davis. The company, a part of the 4th Illinois, was mustered out after the five weeks’ service for which it volunteered, and Lincoln re-enlisted as a private on the 29th of May, and was finally mustered out on the 16th of June by Lieut. Robert Anderson, who in 1861 commanded the Union troops at Fort Sumter. As captain Lincoln was twice in disgrace, once for firing a pistol near camp and again because nearly his entire company was intoxicated. He was in no battle, and always spoke lightly of his military record. He was defeated in his campaign for the legislature in
- ↑ Lincoln’s birthday is a legal holiday in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
- ↑ Samuel Lincoln (c. 1619–1690), the president’s first American ancestor, son of Edward Lincoln, gent., of Hingham, Norfolk, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1637 as apprentice to a weaver and settled with two older brothers in Hingham, Mass. His son and grandson were iron founders; the grandson Mordecai (1686–1736) moved to Chester county, Pennsylvania. Mordecai’s son John (1711–c. 1773), a weaver, settled in what is now Rockingham county, Va., and was the president’s great-grandfather.
