Holbrook line: Daniel Lincoln, Immigrant

Daniel Lincoln is one of those men who should appear on a game show called "To Tell the Truth", at the end of which the host would ask "Will the real (Daniel Lincoln) please stand up?"  There were several men by that name in the small town of Hingham, Massachusetts.  Our Daniel arrived there in about 1644, just as another man by the name of Daniel Lincoln died there.  It's possible that the Daniel who died was an uncle or even the father of our Daniel, but no one seems to know for sure.  There were a lot of Lincolns in Hingham and it appears that not all of them were closely related, although some surely were.

In Hingham, Daniel is referred to as a "boatman" or "seaman".  Nothing in his inventory indicates such a life, but as he lived to be about 80 years old it's possible that he stopped that line of work earlier and turned to something else to support himself and his family.  He married Susanna Cushing, daughter of Thomas Cushing, on May 15, 1645 at Hingham, Massachusetts.  We don't know whether the courtship began in England or whether it was something of a whirlwind romance, but the two settled down together and as far as I'm aware not, lived happily ever after.

There were eight children born to the couple, one being a son who did not survive long.  They were born from 1654 to 1671, which almost makes me wonder what our happy couple was doing for the first ten years of their marriage.  Were there miscarriages or premature births during this time period, and if so, what changed that Susanna was suddenly able to have children?

One thing we know about Daniel, who apparently never was granted freeman status, is that he was a good military leader.  He was chosen as sergeant for his unit and was involved in King Philip's war in 1675-76, although we don't know when he became sergeant.  He still had some of his armor and a sword when he died in 1699.  His name is found in some of the early Suffolk County wills, as owing money to merchants.  Both times I saw his name, he was one of a long list of debtors to a merchant, so it must have been commonplace to sell on credit and then wait for crops, or a ship, to come in so the debt could be paid. 

Most of the other information we have about Daniel we can glean from his inventory.  He did leave a will but I can read very little of it.  It is Suffolk County case 2519 if you want to have a look at it.  I do see that he made some sort of arrangements for his wife.  Daniel died March 19, 1699, and Susanna died five years later, in 1704.    His inventory mentions books, a dwelling house and all the buildings with it, land, farm animals including several sheep, and household goods.  He had two tables and two chairs, which is more than the bare minimum a house of the time would have.  The total value of the estate was about 247 pounds.

Sergeant Daniel Lincoln lived in the New World about 55 years and helped shape it, even contributing to the survival of the colony during King Philip's War, and possibly before that.  He earned the respect of his peers and even though he wasn't one of the rich and famous, he was one of the people who built America.  We can, I think, be proud of him.

Our line of descent is:

Daniel Lincoln-Susannah Cushing
Rachel Lincoln-Israel Lazell
Isaac Lazell-Deborah Marsh
Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood
Susanna Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook
Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants