Benjamin Lincoln

(1733-1810)

BIRTH

January 24, 1733

PLACE

Hingham, Massachusetts

DEATH

May 9, 1810

PLACE

Hingham, Massachusetts

FAMILY

CHILDREN

Elizabeth Baylies

(1765-1799)

HOMES

POLITICAL VIEWS

CONSTITUTION RATIFICATION ADVOCATE

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN

CONGREGATIONALIST

MEMBERSHIPS

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES FELLOW, MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE FOUNDING MEMBER, MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI FOUNDING PRESIDENT, SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI MEMBER

AWARDS

Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 was an American army officer. In his early life, Lincoln worked on the family farm, and attended the local school. Lincoln served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of War. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston. He has no direct relation to Abraham Lincoln. He was a major generalin the Continental Army in the American Revolution.

COMBATANTCUSTOMS OFFICIALFARMERSOLDIER

EARLY LIFE

Benjamin Lincoln was born on January 24, 1733, in Hingham, Province of Massachusetts Bay, the sixth child and first son of Colonel Benjamin Lincoln and his second wife Elizabeth Thaxter Lincoln. In his early life, Lincoln worked on the family farm, and attended the local school. He followed his father into government, becoming town constable at 21, and in 1755 he joined the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk County militia (where his father was colonel) as an adjutant. In 1756, at the age of 23, Lincoln married Mary Cushing, daughter of Elijah Cushing of Pembroke, Massachusetts, whose ancestors were also among the founders of Hingham. They had eleven children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1757, he was elected the town clerk of Hingham, a post he held for twenty years. He continued to be active in the militia during the French and Indian War, but saw no action, and was promoted to major by the end of the conflict in 1763.

Lincoln was involved in three major surrenders during the war: his participation in the Battles of Saratoga (sustaining a wound shortly afterward) contributed to John Burgoyne's surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 siege of Charleston, and, as George Washington's second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown.

Lincoln served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of War. While Secretary of War, Lincoln became an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati of the state of Massachusetts and was elected as the first president of the Massachusetts Society on June 9, 1783. After the war, Lincoln was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. In 1787, Lincoln led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston. He has no direct relation to Abraham Lincoln.

CAREER

DEATH

Benjamin Lincoln died at Hingham, Massachusetts, on 9 May 1810, aged 77, about a year after retiring from public life. The former Continental Army general had remained active long after the Revolutionary War, serving in state government and for many years as collector of the port of Boston. In 1806 he sought to resign the customs post, but President Thomas Jefferson asked him to remain until a successor could be appointed. His eventual retirement in 1809 brought that extended public service to a close. The consulted account establishes the sequence of retirement and death but does not identify a precise terminal disease or provide a detailed record of his last symptoms and treatment. The gunshot wound he had suffered during the Revolutionary War belongs to a much earlier period and cannot simply be treated as the cause of his death decades later. His final days should also be distinguished from those of other people who shared his surname; he was not a close relation of Abraham Lincoln. The supported picture is of an ageing former officer and administrator whose life ended in his Massachusetts home community after a long working career. A more specific medical explanation would require evidence beyond the biographical summary. Retirement may describe his final circumstances, but it does not by itself prove that he was free from illness or establish how rapidly his health failed before the end.

Old Ship Burying Ground

107 Main Street, Hingham, MA, 02043, United States