Monday, January 9, 2012

Did George Washington Father Nancy Hanks Lincoln?

Nancy Hanks was born the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks in what was then part of Hampshire County, Virginia. Today it is Mineral County, West Virginia. Years later, her son Abraham's law partner William Herndon reported that Abraham told him that Nancy's father was "a well-bred Virginia farmer or planter."
Nancy Hanks Lincoln (February 5, 1784 – October 5, 1818) George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799)

Monday, October 3, 2011

The Women in Lincoln’s Life

From all accounts, Lincoln was ashamed of his mother. In his autobiographical musings he said little about Nancy Hanks. He visited her grave only once and never had it marked with a headstone. In a letter written in 1836, he matter-of-factly recorded a callous description of his mother’s “want of teeth [and] weather-beaten appearance.” Yet he apparently believed that to her noble bloodline he owed much of his success. His fierce ambition-his driving desire to be someone-came, he confided to Herndon,from his mother.1
My mother was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred Virginia planter or farmer,” Lincoln reportedly confided to Herndon. “My grandmother was poor and credulous, and she was shamefully taken advantage of by the man. My mother inherited his qualities, and I hers.” According to Herndon, Lincoln was convinced that from this unknown grandfather he acquired his “power of analysis, logic, mental ability, ambition, and all the qualities that distinguish him from…the Hanks family.”2
Lincoln made his comments to Herndon as the two shared a buggy ride en route to a distant court case about 1851. As the buggy jolted over the country road, Lincoln added ruefully, “God bless my mother. All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her.” He then lapsed into silence and was “sad and absorbed,” Herndon said. Finally, Lincoln spoke again, telling Herndon: “Keep it a secret while I live.”3
Lincoln knew that his mother, with all her limitations – including the inability to write – was a strong woman. She was strong-minded and had “remarkably keen perception,” according to her maternal cousin Dennis Hanks. These were uncommon traits within the Hanks family, which was notable for notorious philanderers and numerous cases of illegitimacy. Lincoln’s own grandmother, Lucy hanks, was charged with “fornication” by a grand jury in Mercer County, Kentucky. No wedding certificate was ever found for her.4
Nancy Hanks may have continued the family’s illicit tradition. An Indiana neighbor who was Lincoln’s age, Laurinda Mason Lanman, told an interviewer: “My mother… liked [the Lincolns] but she always said that not only was Nancy Hanks an illegitimate child herself but that Nancy was not what she ought to have been herself. Loose.” Lincoln may have known about her disgraceful reputation, according to Herndon. Lincoln told Herndon that “his [relatives] were lascivious – lecherous not to be trusted.”5
In early childhood, nancy was taken from her mother – afterwards married to Henry Sparrow – and sent to live with her aunt and uncle, Thomas and Elizabeth Hanks Sparrow. Then inlate 1805, when Nancy was twenty-two, she drifted to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and lived briefly with her uncle, Joseph Hanks.
Thomas Lincoln, described by a neighbor as “an uneducated… plain unpretending plodding man,” walked into Hanks’s carpentry shop that winter and asked to be an apprentice. The rapidly growing frontier town needed carpenters, and Hanks needed help, so he hired Thomas. Soon, Hanks introduced Thomas to Nancy, and he began courting her.6
Like Thomas, Nancy “cared nothing for forms, ettiqutte, and customs,” according to Herndon. He further described her as “a bold, daredevil person who stepped to the very verge of propriety.” At five feet ten inches and about 140 pounds, she was tall and athletic. “Ina fair wrestle, she could throw most of the menwho put her powers to test,” a local townsman would recall. “A reliable gentlemen told me he heard Jack Thomas, clerk of the Grayson Court, say he had frequently wrestled with her, and she invariably laid him on his back.” Thomas Lincoln may never have wrestled with Nancy Hanks, but he to her, and she accepted. Thomas was twenty-eight, and Nancy was twenty-three. They were reportedly married on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, Kentucky, and afterwards set up housekeeping in a log cabin in Elizabethtown, where their first child, Sarah, was born on February 10, 1807.7
Abraham Lincoln was born in this primitive cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, on Feb 12, 1809.

George Washington's Surveys in Hampshire County


http://www.historichampshire.org/surveys/gwsurveys.htm

Where Was George Washington on May 5, 1783?

Nancy Hanks was conceived around 5/5/1783. I am searching for Washington's noted whereabouts near this date. It is proving quite difficult. It appears to be a mystery. Why? Was he in Hampshire County? On what business did he meet up with the young Lucy Hanks? Was he bathing in the "medicine waters" at Capon Springs?
http://www.caponsprings.net/capon_history.html

On April 19, 1783, Washington announced to his army that England had agreed to a cessation of hostilities with the United States. Eight years, to the day, had passed since Massachusetts' militia traded musket fire with Redcoats at Lexington Green. By the end of the year, the last English troops had shipped out of New York, and Washington came home to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve.

Did it take GW 8 months to go back home to Mount Vernon? Surely he must have made a few stops along the way?

List of GW timelines that shed no light on GW's whereabouts in 5/1783:
1. http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/presidents-day/george-washington/timeline.html
2. http://www.history-timelines.org.uk/people-timelines/02-george-washington-timeline.htm
3. http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/timeline/index.html
4. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwtime.html
5.http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/pres/washington/timeline.shtml
6. http://www.discovergeorgewashington.org/
7. http://www.shmoop.com/george-washington/timeline.html
8. http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/life/chronology.html
9. http://www.mountvernon.org/content/timeline
10.http://www.american-presidents.com/george-washington/george-washington-timeline/
11.http://www.buzzle.com/articles/timeline-of-george-washington.html
12.http://timelines.com/topics/george-washington
13.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

George Washington- Surveyor of Hampshire County,Virginia - Birthplace of Lincoln's Mother

One of the most informative articles about George Washington as a Land Surveyor was written in 1978 by Eldon D. Schock, 32° (Scottish Rite Mason) from Spokane Washington. We wish to thank the Scottish Rite Journal for giving us permission to republish the article shown below.

http://www.landsurveyor.us/gallery_w2_srs_article1978.htm

Historic Hampshire County Virginia & George Washington

County Established

In 1754, the opening year of the French and Indian War, Hampshire County was established with over twenty-six hundred square miles. It was the western frontier of the Colony of Virginia. Because Virginia's route to the upper Ohio River valley came through Hampshire County, the area became an important gateway to the developing west.

French and Indian War

During the trying years of the French and Indian War, Hampshire bore the brunt of enemy attacks. Although Virginia was a long way from Canada, the French know that Virginia was one of the wealthiest and most populous Colonies and a leader in the push for British expansion to the west. It was because of this that Col. George Washington, Commander of the Virginia Regiment, built a chain of forts in Hampshire County as the northern bulwarks of his western line of defense. Col. Washington was familiar with the area, having traversed it for five seasons as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax, the proprietor of the Northern Neck Proprietary.During the terrible days of the first half of the French and Indian War, many settlers fled to more peaceful areas; many who stayed died on their farms at the hands of ravaging warriors. Before the fall of Fort Duquesne to Gen. Forbes in 1758, much of Hampshire County was devoid of people. After the war, the pace of settlement increased. In 1762 Romney was incorporated as the county seat. In 1787 Watson (later named Capon Springs) was incorporated at the medicinal springs in the south-east part of the county.

http://www.historichampshire.org/hamphist.htm


The original boundary of Hampshire County when it was formed on May 1, 1754 out of Frederick County.

The Illegitimate Daughter of Lucy Hanks

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln (née Hanks), in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in southeast Hardin County, Kentucky,(now LaRue County).

Lincoln's mother, Nancy, was the daughter of Lucy Hanks, and was born in what is now Mineral County, West Virginia, then part of Virginia

                                         Nancy Hanks was born on February 5, 1784


Nancy Hanks was born the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Hanks in what was then part of Hampshire County, Virginia. Today it is Mineral County, West Virginia. Years later, her son Abraham reportedly told his law partner William Herndon that his maternal grandfather was "a well-bred Virginia farmer or planter."