When English colonists first arrived at Jamestown in 1607, indigenous people had been living in Virginia for thousands of years. In the Shenandoah Valley, groups such as the Monacan, Manahoac, and Iroquois lived off the fertile land and water supply from the Shenandoah River. In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood and a company of men made the first European exploration of the Shenandoah Valley. Europeans did not settle in the Valley, though, until the late 1720s and 1730s. Though Virginia was an English colony, the Valley was initially settled by Germans, Swiss, and Scots-Irish immigrants, which left a lasting impact on the development of the colony. Altogether, the Shenandoah Valley was home to a variety of different people, cultures, and religions which resulted in a vibrant community. Rockingham County, initially part of Augusta County, separated into its own county in 1778. Rockingham County’s earliest settlers were German, English, Scots-Irish, and Swiss immigrants. They came to Virginia seeking affordable land on which they could farm. These immigrant groups left their mark on several aspects of life in the Valley. In particular, they fostered a diverse range of religions, including Mennonites, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, United Brethren, and more. [1]
This is a map of Virginia from 1861 depicting what are today the states of Virginia and West Virginia. Source: Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Lincoln family has lived in the United States since Samuel Lincoln arrived with his two brothers in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1637. From that time and until the birth of Col. Abraham Lincoln in 1799, men of the Lincoln family followed a generational pattern: each new generation of sons in the family moved away from their birthplace, living in 3 or more different states throughout their lives. Furthermore, each “lifetime migration distance” grew substantially as generations progressed. In addition to an internal family pattern, the Lincoln family was part of a wider national trend of migration as well. As the colonies grew more established, the colonists began to move westward in a search for more land; this westward movement, however, was not direct and people instead followed along natural landmarks such as the Allegheny Mountains southward before moving westward towards Kentucky. Additionally, as time passed, American migrants had a “growing propensity…to move longer distances,” reacting to factors such as “population pressure in the East, the increasing ease of travel, and the westward progression of the frontier.” While his cousins Thomas and President Abraham Lincoln continued the family pattern, Col. Abraham Lincoln broke this generational trend when he inherited his father’s homestead and never moved away. [2]
This is the marker placed on the Lincoln Homestead property by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 1997.
“Virginia John” Lincoln moved his wife and children from Berks County, Pennsylvania to a 600-acre plot of land purchased for £250 in what is now Linville in 1768. This began over a hundred years of Lincoln family history in Virginia. At the time of his death, John’s personal possessions were valued at a little over £91. Several of the items listed in the probate inventory, including a wagon, windmill, and 6-plate stove, were listed as being owned in partnership; it is most likely that these items were shared between John and his son Jacob, who lived on adjoining land and had a house very close by. Perhaps most importantly, the probate inventory does not list John Lincoln as owning any enslaved people. Therefore, he was the last member of this branch of the Lincoln family who did not own slaves. From his death in 1788, the Lincoln men and women owned numerous enslaved people, until their own cousin declared them free with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. [3]
This StoryMap was created by JMU Undergraduate students Kelly Ryan, Jack Greentree, Devon Farrington, and Brandon Carter. It will take you on an interactive journey of the migration of the Lincoln Family in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Jacob Lincoln’s gravestone in the Lincoln Family Cemetery in Linville, VA.
Jacob Lincoln was the fifth child of “Virginia” John and the only one of his sons who remained in Virginia. Jacob, born in 1751 in Pennsylvania, moved with his family to Virginia at the age of 17. He was heavily involved in the local community throughout his life and participated in events of national importance as well. Jacob’s signature appears with a few others from Rockingham County on a petition submitted to the Virginia House of Delegates on October 16, 1776. With over 10,000 signatures, the petition asked that the Church of England be removed as the sanctioned church of Virginia and that the burden of paying tithes to the church be ended. The petitioners requested that now that they had been “delivered from British Oppression…. every religious Denomination [be] on a level” while the legislature would only interfere in religious practices in order to “support them in their just Rights and equal Priveliges.” [1]
On August 29th, 1780, Jacob married Dorcas, daughter of David and Dorcas Robinson. Dorcas Lincoln was 17 and Jacob was 28 when they were married. They went on to have 11 children – four boys and seven girls – from 1781-1803. Colonel Abraham, a subsequent inhabitant of the Lincoln Homestead, was their ninth child. Shortly after Jacob and Dorcas were married, Jacob went to serve in the American Revolution and rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant. He served first for three months in Western Virginia in McIntosh’s regiment and then served four months in 1781 in Captain Richard Ragan’s regiment, which was present at Yorktown when General Cornwallis surrendered. [2]
Following his Revolutionary War service, Jacob returned to Rockingham County, where he lived out the rest of his life. In 1778, Jacob had purchased around 200 acres of land adjoining his father’s property in Linville from Tunis Vanpelt. This is the land on which Jacob built the Lincoln Homestead in 1800 and that his family lived on for almost 100 years. In 1791, Virginia John’s home burned down, and Jacob’s brother Thomas sold the remainder of their father’s property to Jacob. This was incorporated into the rest of Jacob’s land holdings. [3]
The main home of the Lincoln Homestead, 2023.
Jacob was appointed to various positions in Rockingham County, including as the overseer for a road in the county and as a Captain of the militia. Furthermore, he served as an Overseer of the Poor for the county from September 26, 1803, until November 4, 1805. The General Assembly of Virginia shifted the duty of caring for poor people from churches, to an elected body. Initially created in 1780, the Overseers of the Poor was a body of appointed officials from the county who were required to help care for the poor of the county; they would meet periodically to discuss how the poorhouse would be run, what kinds of taxes they would need to raise in order to support people, and to decide on the members who would be in the group. The Overseers of the Poor was an early precursor to more modern social welfare programs and it was an important community body. People could apply for aid from the Overseers or someone in the community could recommend a struggling person to the Overseers. They could give out a variety of kinds of aid, ranging from single disbursements of material goods, monetary aid, or continued support for several years.[4]
Jacob Lincoln’s signature on the Overseers of the Poor records. Source: Rockingham County Circuit Court, Overseers of the Poor Minute Book I, Courtesy of the Histories Along the Blue Ridge Project.
In addition to his roles within the community, Jacob amassed a significant amount of wealth throughout his lifetime. A large portion of that wealth derived from the purchase of enslaved African Americans. The first enslaved person owned by the Lincolns appears in the historic record in the will of David Robinson, Jacob’s father-in-law. Written in 1785, Robinson willed his “youngest daughter Dorcas Lincoln one negroe girl named Caty, now in the possession of her husband Jacob Lincoln to her and her heirs forever.” Caty, or Cate, appears again in the 1791 Personal Property Tax Book alongside three others: Philis, Tom, and Spencer. Philis and Tom were over sixteen years old, while Cate and Spencer were between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Since David Robinson mentions that Cate was already with Jacob and Dorcas, but she does not appear in their tax records until 1791, it is likely that she was younger than 12, and therefore was not taxable property yet. Only enslaved people between the ages of twelve and sixteen, or those who were over sixteen, were taxed in Rockingham County. The tax records reveal that the number of people owned by the Lincolns fluctuated until Jacob’s death in 1822. The 1820 Federal Census, however, was taken two years before Jacob’s death and records sixteen enslaved people of various ages living in the Lincoln home, including seven children under fourteen years of age.[5]
Entry for Jacob Lincoln in the 1791 Personal Property Tax Book listing Philis, Tom, Spencer, and Cate. Source: Rockingham County Circuit Court, Personal Property Tax Voucher 1791.
Though a probate inventory of his estate has not survived, his will helps give his economic standing by the time he passed away in 1822. Jacob left the Lincoln Homestead and at least 200 acres of land to his widow, Dorcas, as well as all the household and kitchen furniture she did not want to sell, one mare, three cows “of her choice,” and his “Yellow Girl Jane & her two children During her widowhood one Negroe Man named Jerry, son of Kate.” Each of his sons was awarded a sizable tract of land while his daughters received sums of money anywhere from $500 to £1000. His daughter Abigail’s sum of £1000 appointed to her had £200 taken out of it because she had previously been given ownership of “a negroe Boy Call’d Sam & a negroe Girl named Emily.” Once his daughter Elizabeth received ownership of “a Negroe Girl named Ann,” he ordered that the remaining enslaved people and all the rest of his belongings should be sold at public auction. Unfortunately, the enslaved who were to be sold at auction were not listed by name. Despite being a young man in the Revolutionary era, petitioning the Virginia House of Delegates for religious freedoms, and fighting several months to gain freedom from Great Britain, Jacob made the choice to own a substantial number of enslaved people. [6]
[3] Wayland, The Lincolns in Virginia, 33 and 73. Jacob purchased the land in 1778. The land passed out of the Lincoln family 96 years later when Jacob’s daughter-in-law, Mary Homan Lincoln, passed away. Per Virginia John’s will, transcribed on pages 35-36 in The Lincolns in Virginia, his house and property was to be given to his widow, Rebekah so that she might live there and receive the profits from working the land. Their son Thomas was to be given the option to rent the property during her lifetime, and after her death would receive the entire plantation. However, when the house burned down in 1791, Thomas sold the land to his brother Jacob, with the permission of his mother, and moved to Kentucky.
[4] Overseers of the Poor Minute Book I 1787-1861 Transcript, Rockingham County Circuit Court, Histories Along the Blue Ridge, 45-55, https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/erp/files/ show/4250; Robert M. Usry, “The Overseers of the Poor in Accomac, Pittsylvania, and Rockingham Counties, 1787-1802,” Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects, William & Mary, 1960, iv and 18.
[5] David Robinson, “Copy of Last Will of David Robinson,” April 12, 1785, Lincoln Family Papers 1746 – 1939, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, MMC-0975, Accession no. 6065A; Records of Rockingham County, Virginia, Circuit Court, “Jacob Lincoln,” Personal Property Tax Vouchers, 1791; United States Census Bureau. “United States Census, 1820, Virginia, United States.” Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1820.
[6] Jacob Lincoln, “Copy of Last Will of Jacob Lincoln,” February 7, 1822, Lincoln Family Papers 1746 – 1939, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, MMC-0975, Accession no. 6065A.
