LIFE OF ABRAHAM
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

FAR

1620.

CHAPTER I.

ANCESTRY.

AR back in the centuries the river Witham, which winds through the lowlands of eastern England, was known as the Lindis. The town which the Romans built on the bank of the stream received the name of Lindum. When the Normans made themselves masters of England they built a castle on the top of the hill that overlooks the town and changed the name to Lincoln. (') In the course of years it became the name of a family. Possibly there were several families bearing the name in Norfolk and Lincoln counties. We know that one such family had its home in Hingham, and that Samuel Lincoln was an infant on that day when the Pilgrims, in December, 1620, established a government of the people in America. We also know that there was an older brother, Thomas; but it is not certain that we shall ever learn much about their parents. It seems probable that they were obliged to work hard to obtain a living for themselves and their children. We may conclude that their home was a cottage thatched with straw. We may think of the brothers as playing in the streets, or going into the green fields and gathering daisies, listening to the larks and nightingales. They could look across the meadows and see the tall spire of Norwich Cathedral, and in the hush and stillness hear the great bell sending forth its music.

Quite likely they heard their parents say that King James had died, and that his son, Charles I., was King. Then the talk was about

troublesome times. The King maintained that he was ordained 1625. by God to rule the nation, and that it was the duty of the people to obey. The bishop preached that the King could do no wrong.

Charles wanted money, and levied taxes without consulting Parliament. The Puritans who would not pay, together with those who would not accept the ritual prepared by the bishop, were arrested-so many that the jail and the Guildhall in Norwich were filled. When the officers undertook to collect the tax in Lincoln the people pelted them with

stones. The Puritans all over England were resisting the demands of the King. Possibly it was the desire of Charles to get rid of them that led him to grant a charter for a government of their own in America. The persecution of the bishop and the arbitrary acts of the King made life so bitter that thousands of Puritans were ready to quit England forever.

1637.

Many of the people of Norfolk and Lincoln counties had sailed for Massachusetts; others were ready to join them. The ships Rose and the John and Dorothy were at Yarmouth, preparing to sail. Francis Lawes resolved to become an emigrant; and it seems probable that Samuel Lincoln was ready to join his brother, who had settled in Hingham, near Boston. (2) We see them travelling across the meadows and lowlands, with others, to Yarmouth town. Together the ships sail across the Atlantic, to drop their anchors in Salem Harbor. It is probable that Samuel Lincoln, for lack of wool, did not do

[The Guildhall in which the Puritans were imprisoned is seen in the centre of the picture.]

much weaving in the town of Ipswich, where his master settled. The only sheep in Massachusetts were a few which were pastured on the islands in Boston harbor, where the wolves could not get at them.

When the apprentice became of age he joined his brother Thomas in Hingham. He had learned a trade; it is not certain that he followed it, but probably he became a farmer. A maiden named Martha became his wife; her parental name is not known. Their children were Samuel, Daniel, Mordecai, Mary, Martha, Sarah, and Rebecca. (*)

1641.

1675.

Startling news came that the Indians were murdering the settlers of Swanzey. It was the beginning of the war with the Pequots, under their chief, Philip. Samuel, the oldest son, seized his father's gun and powder-horn and became a soldier. A year passed, in which more than six hundred of the settlers were killed; but the chief was dead, and his head was hanging on a gibbet in Plymouth. The captured Indians were sold as slaves to the Spaniards.

1676.

Mordecai Lincoln, the while, was blowing the bellows and making the anvil ring in a blacksmith's shop. When he became of age he set up his own forge in Hull. Perhaps Sarah Jones may have influenced him in settling there, for she soon became his wife. (*)

1686.

The year 1686 was a memorable one to the blacksmith, for a son was born to him—Mordecai, junior. Just before his birth the frigate Rose sailed into Boston harbor, bringing Sir Edmund Andros, who had been appointed Governor of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. He had brought over two companies of troops to aid him in upsetting the government of the people. It seems that Mordecai Lincoln could look from his shop door and see the frigate running out its guns and firing a salute, and the cannon of the castle replying. James II. had determined to overthrow the Puritan commonwealth. The people were no longer to assemble in town meeting or make their own laws. We may be sure that the farmers who came to have their horses shod or their ploughshares sharpened, or fishermen who wanted work done, expressed their minds freely upon public affairs, and that the blacksmith had something to say while making the anvil ring by his sturdy blows. Three years passed, and Sir Edmund Andros saw the streets of Boston suddenly swarming with armed men, who came from Cambridge, Roxbury, Hingham, Hull, and other towns, put an end to his government, and re-established their own.

Blacksmith Lincoln thought the time had come when the people of

1704.

Massachusetts should no longer be dependent on England for iron. There was an abundant supply of ore in the bogs and meadows of Scituate and Hingham. Through his efforts a furnace was constructed, and the ore dug from a bog and smelted. It was the beginning of an industry which lasted many years. His enterprise went further. He built a mill on Bound Brook, where the water tumbled over the rocks on its way to the sea. The brook at the falls was the boundary

between the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts. It was of great service for a large section of the country in both colonies. (°)

Mordecai Lincoln helped build the Hingham meeting-house. The elders decided just what seats people should occupy, and they assigned an honorable seat to him in the front gallery.

He wanted his grandchildren to be well educated, and in his will bequeathed £10 to aid them in Harvard College. (") We do not know in what year the blacksmith's oldest son, Mordecai, junior, married; neither is the maiden name of his wife to be found on any record. We only know that after the birth of a son the husband became a widower.

Although Massachusetts was sparsely settled, people were emigrating from the province. Mordecai Lincoln, with his son John, made his way to Freehold, Monmouth County, N. J. The citizens of that county regarded him as being worthy of their esteem. Hannah Salter, daughter of Richard and Sarah Bowne Salter, gave him her hand in marriage. Mr. Salter was a lawyer, judge, and member of the Provincial Assembly. Hannah's uncle, Captain John Bowne, was rich. He remembered Hannah Salter Lincoln in his will, giving her £250. Her husband was so greatly esteemed that in title-deeds he was styled "gentleman." He was thrifty, and purchased several hundred acres