The Lincoln kinsman

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Number 3

F'ort Wayne, Indiana

September, 1938

THE HERRINGS OF VIRGINIA

SEARCHING FOR FACTS ABOUT LINCOLN'S PATERNAL
GRANDMOTHER

FOUR Virginia families, the Ship-
leys, Boones, Winters, and Her-
rings, have attempted to gather in-
formation which would allow them
to identify the paternal grandmother
of Abraham Lincoln with their kins-
men. However, the folk-lore and tra-
dition which would make Bathsheba
Herring the wife of Grandfather Lin-
coln seems to have been accepted
generally in recent years.

There can be no doubt about the
given name of the woman who was
left a widow by the massacre of
Grandfather Lincoln in the wilder-
ness of Kentucky. Her name was
Bathsheba. There is no document
available, however, which affirms
that the family name of Bathsheba
was Herring and one is entirely de-
pendent upon reminiscences for this
assertion.

The Vioneer^s Bride

It is unfortunate, indeed, that the
notice of Grandfather Lincoln's mar-

riage in 1770, recorded in the Au-
gusta County, Virginia records does
not reveal the name of his bride. The
problem of learning her maiden
name has been further complicated
by the persistent tradition that Grand-
father Lincoln was married twice, al-
though there is no authoritative evi-
dence supporting this claim.

Still more confusing is the story
prepared for early biographers by
James N. Nail, a great grandson of
the widow Lincoln. He claimed that
her maiden name was Mary Shipley,
and inasmuch as he was a direct des-
cendent and an influential citizen as
well, his testimony bore much
weight. The fact that one of the
widow's children was named Mary,
presumably for her mother, also con-
tributed to the acceptance of the Nail
story. The editor of The Lincoln
Kinsman has in his possession a let-
ter by John Nail on the subject of
Lincoln's ancestry from which the
following excerpt is made.

The Lincoln Kinsman

"Carthage, Mo. Feb. 11—95
"C, Hanks Hitchcock

"Dear Sir

"In reply to your favor of the 6th
Inst. I beg leave to say I am not
posted as to the geneology of the
Hanks family. About all I know is
that Nancy Hanks wife of my Uncle
Thomas Lincoln and mother of the
President came from North Carolina
and lived with her Uncle Richard
Berry in Washington Co. Ky, until
She married my uncle Thomas Lin-
coln on the 23rd of Sept 1806. Rich-
ard Berrys wife was a Shipley. I
Suppose Nancys mother was was
Berrys Sister as he was her uncle
Thomas Lincolns mother and Rich-
ard Berries mother were sisters,
Both Shiplies.

"I have the honor of being quoted
as the best living authority on the
geneology of the Lincoln family. I
have made this a life Study because
of the pride I take in my Maternal
Ancestors. You ask me if Thomas
Lincoln married Lucy Shipley or
Lucy Berry; he married Nancy Hanks
as before stated, his father Abraham
married Mary Shipley and Richard
Berry married Lucy Shipley. . . .

"Yours truly,
"J. L. Nail"

In conflict with the Herring and
Shipley traditions are two other stor-
ies relating to the paternal ancestry
of President Lincoln, one recognizes
Ann Boone as the grandmother and
the other Hanniah or Elizabeth Win-
ters as occupying the grandmother
relationship to the President. Re-

gardless of the family history re-
leased by Mr. Nail and the printed
statements about Boone and Winters
connections, the Herring tradition
seems to be the most persistent one
and worthy of being given the pref-
erence.

Herring Fawily Reminiscences

The reluctance with which some
students of Lincolniana have accepted
the Herring tradition is largely due
to the fact that there has been much
division of opinion as to the parent-
age of Bathsheba Herring, if her
name was Herring, among the mem-
bers of the Herring family them-
selves.

In 1908, Charles Griffin Herring,
then living at Harrisonburg, Vir-
vinia wrote a letter to J. Henry Lea,
in which he said:

"Bathsheba Herring, as I recall
it, was a daughter of Leonard Her-
ring, and was born on the old plan-
tation near Bridgewater in Rocking-
ham County, Virginia."

When Mr. Lea, in collaboration
with Mr. Hutchinson, brought out in
1909, the book The Ancestry of
Abraham Lincoln, he mentioned Ma-
jor George Chrisman, living in the
Lincoln country in Virginia and
stated :

"He (Major Chrisman) is third
cousin of the President, being son of
George Harrison Chrisman by Mar-
tha Herring, daughter of Alexander
Herring, only son of William, who
was the brother of Leonard Herring,
the father of Bathsheba, wife of Abra-

The Lincoln Kinsman

ham Lincoln, grandfather of the
President."

One member of the family, Wil-
liam H. Chrisman, published a pam-
phlet in 1927 in which he made
the following statement in the fore-
word:

"Abraham Lincoln's grandmother,
Bathsheba Herring, and Herring
Chrisman's great grandfather, John
Herring, were brother and sister."

It will be observed from these
testimonies that at first it was be-
lieved by members of the Herring
family that Bathsheba was a daugh-
ter of Leonard Herring. Dr. W. E.
Barton in his book on The Lineage
of Lincoln published as late as 1929
states that Bathsheba was "probably
the daughter of Leonard Herring."
It was shown, however, through the
public records that Leonard did not
marry until 1760. If Bathsheba was
born the year Leonard was married
she could not have been more than
nine years old in 1780 at the time
she was supposed to have married
Abraham Lincoln, the pioneer.

The Early American Herrings

It became very evident from these
accounts that Bathsheba could not
have been a daughter of Leonard
Herring except by an earlier mar-
riage of which there is no record.
The conclusion now is that Bath-
sheba must have been a daughter of
Alexander Herring and a sister of
Leonard. With this supposition as a
basis from which to work out her
family connection, we may attempt
a brief account of the Herring family

of Virginia and its relation to Abra-
ham Lincoln's ancestry.

The earliest reference to a mem-
ber of the Herring family in America
from which it is thought the paternal
grandmother of Lincoln descended is
found in a deed book in the Court
House at Georgetown, Delaware.
(Book 1, page 245). On November
4, 1719, Alexander Herron (Her-
ring) then residing in Sussex County,
purchased of Edward Bran of the
same county, one hundred and eighty
acres of land on "the South side of
a Branch called Ivery Branch pro-
ceeding from Rehoboth Bay."

Alexander and his wife, Margaret,
had four children: one son, Alex-
ander Jr., and three daughters,
Esther Wood, Sarah Prettyman, and
Eady Herring. These children were
named in the senior Alexander's will,
dated September 19, 1735, and to
Alexander, Jr., was left the home-
stead acquired from Edward Bran.
(Sussex County, Delaware, Will Book
A., No. 1, Pages 288-289.)

In the same county with the Her-
rings lived the family of Isaiah Har-
rison. He was twice married, first
to Elizabeth Wright by whom he had
five children: Isaiah, John, Gideon,
Mary, and Elizabeth; and second to
Abigail Smith, who became the
mother of five children by him,
namely: David, Thomas, Jeremiah,
Abigail, and Samuel.

It is this last group of Harrison
children in which we have the most
interest and especially in Abigail
who married Alexander Herring,
Junior, only son of the Delaware
pioneer. Abigail was born in 1710
and while still living in Sussex

The Lincoln Kinsman

The Lincoln Kinsman

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Dr. Louis A. Warren,

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BUSINESS MANAGER
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County, Delaware, the above men-
tioned wedding took place.

Alexander Herring, Senior, and
Isaiah Harrison passed away while
residing in Delaware. Both died with-
in the three year period beginning
in 1735 and concluding in 1738.
Shortly after their deaths, the mi-
grations of their children to Virginia
began. Some of the Harrisons were
settled in the vicinity of what is now
Harrisonburg, Virginia in Rocking-
ham County as early as 1738.

Alexander Herring Jr. and his
wife, Abigail Harrison Herring sold
the land in Delaware which Alexan-
der had inherited from his father,
the deed bearing the date of May 5,
1742. This probably marks the time
of their migration to Virginia and
they soon settled among the Harri-
sons on Linville Creek.

Three years later Alexander was
serving as a road surveyor or over-
seer but it was not until 1749 that
the first land purchase was credited
to him. At that time he acquired
365 acres on Cooks Creek adjacent
to Daniel Harrison. In 1751, a deed
from Samuel Harrison conveyed to
him property on Linville Creek in

the community where he settled
when first coming to Virginia.

Alexander and Abigail Herring
are said to have had five sons and
one daughter. The names of the sons
are known through the discovery of
a deed of bargain and sale from
Leonard Herring the oldest son to
his brothers, named Alexander, Wil-
liam, Bethuel and Jesse. The name
of the traditional daughter, although
nowhere found in the public records
associated with the sons of the pio-
neer Herring, is said to have been
Bathsheba.

Lincoln and Herring Contacts

In 1768 there moved into the Lin-
ville Creek community, a man by the
name of John Lincoln, who had a
family of five sons and four daugh-
ters. The three oldest sons were
named Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
the other two John and Thomas. The
names of the daughters were Hannah,
Lydia, Sarah, and Rebeccah.

On June 9, 1770, Abraham, the
oldest son of John Lincoln was
granted a license to marry but the
name of the bride is omitted from
the record. The assumption is that the
bride was Bathsheba Herring, only
daughter of Alexander Herring. If
it can be established that Bathsheba
was the daughter of Alexander Her-
ring we will be able to trace the
ancestral line of President Lincoln
back to the pioneer Alexander Her-
ring of Delaware and also to the
pioneer Isaiah Harrison of Delaware,
whose children Alexander and Abi-
gail, respectively, were the parents
of Bathsheda Herring Lincoln.

The Lincoln Kinsman

One reminiscence which has come
down with reference to this marriage
would leave the impression that there
was much objection on the part of
the Herring family to this matri-
monial venture. The story as it is
often told runs something like this:

"Abraham Lincoln, who married
Bathsheba Herring was a poor and
rather plain man. Her aristocratic
father looked with scorn on the al-
liance and gave his daughter the
choice of giving up her lover or be-
ing disinherited. The high-spirited
young woman did not hesitate. She
married the man she loved and went
with him to the savage wilds of Ken-
tucky in 1782, Her husband was
afterwards killed by an Indian, and
one of her sons, a lad of 12 years,
killed the Indian, avenging his
father's death. Bathsheba Herring
was a woman of fine intelligence and
strong character. She was greatly
loved and respected by all who knew
her."

This story did very much to en-
courage the theory that Abraham
Lincoln, the Virginia pioneer, was
married twice and that Bathsheba
was his second wife. It would be
reasonable to expect that a father
might object to a young girl marry-
ing a widower with three or four
children and going off with him to
Kentucky. But Alexander Herring,
father of Bathsheba, had been dead
five years before the migration of
the Lincolns took place.

The tradition advanced by the
Herring family that Bathsheba was
the one and only wife of Abraham
Lincoln would directly challenge the
implication that there was a serious

and permanent cleavage between
Alexander Herring and his daughter
Bathsheba. The Lincolns did not
migrate to Kentucky for twelve years
after the wedding and during this
interval Bathsheba had settled down
in the immediate community where
her father lived. Five years before
the Lincoln migration to Kentucky,
Alexander Herring died so he could
not have witnessed the departure and
there can be no association of the
migration with his parental indigna-
tion at the marriage of his daughter
to Lincoln. He did live long enough
to see at least three and possibly
four children born to Bathsheba Lin-
coln, although none of the children
were named for him or any of his
Herring kinsmen.

It is barely possible that there has
crept into the oft repeated story
about the Lincoln-Herring marriage,
very naturally, a prejudiced attitude
as the following affidavit recently
made by W. S. Fallis will imply:

"I, W. S. Fallis, am now in my
seventieth year and am of sound
mind and memory, and am desirous
of making and do make the following
statement, under oath, of my knowl-
edge of the maiden name of the wife
of Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather
of the President.

"Witnesseth : That during my boy-
hood and for several years after I
was of age I was privileged to spend
much time in the home where lived
the grand niece of Bathsheba Herring.
This niece, an unmarried daughter of
Alexander Herring and granddaugh-
ter of William Herring, a brother of
Bathsheba, was Margaret D. Herring

The Lincoln Kinsman

who was born in 1810 and was a con-
temporary of the President.

"Being an ardent southerner she
had no sympathy of the things, she
felt, the President stood for and, I
think, formed a personal dislike for
him on account of it.

"She frequently discussed with me
and in my hearing the family and
their connection and always or most
always spoke of the marriage of her
aunt Bersheba, or Bathsheba as she
called her, and Abraham Lincoln and
spoke of opposition of the family to
the marriage. This aunt to my cer-
tain personal knowledge knew posi-
tively that her aunt Bathsheba Her-
ring had married the Abraham Lin-
coln who became the grandfather of
the President and that she was the
only wife of the grandfather."

It may also be said with reference
to the oft circulated marriage story
that the Lincolns were not inferior
people as implied and not only did
they marry into the Herring family
but they also married into the Har-
rison family. It was from the Harri-
son family that Alexander Sr., him-
self had chosen his bride. In fact
Hannah Lincoln, sister of pioneer
Abraham Lincoln, married John Har-
rison, a nephew of Alexander Her-
ring Jr., and another sister, Lydia
Lincoln, also married a Harrison
kinsman.

A further search through the Au-
gusta and Rockingham records con-
vinces one that economically the
Lincolns were as well off as their
neighbors. For instance in the 1792
tax report Abigail Herring listed 1

horse, 1 negro; Leonard Herring, II
horses, 1 negro; Hannah Herring, 1
horse; Bethuel Herring, 5 horses, 2
negroes; William Herring, 7 horses,
2 negroes; Thomas Herring, 1 horse.
That same year Jacob Lincoln, bro-
ther of the pioneer Abraham, listed
7 horses and 4 negroes.

It will also be noted that the Lin-
coln family inter-married with other
members of the Herring family in
later years. In the "Memoirs of Lin-
coln" by Herring Chrisman, it is not
only set forth that the author looked
to Alexander as one of his forebears
on his father's side but also seemed
to be proud that Joseph Chrisman,
a descendant of a Herring, had mar-
ried one of the daughters of Jacob
Lincoln.

This marriage is one instance,
however, where the story is reversed
and the Lincolns become the aristo-
crats, according to Estelle Chrisman
Laughlin of Gering, Nebraska who
writes about the incident as follows:
"There is also a story that the Cap-
tain Jacob Lincoln's were very aris-
tocratic (Jacob Lincoln was a brother
of Abraham, the pioneer) and did
not like for their daughter Elizabeth
to marry a son of a neighboring
German planter, namely, Joseph
Chrisman."

There is also another interesting
family reaction in the Laughlin cor-
respondence which throws much light
on why no considerable interest has
been taken in attempting to identify
the paternal grandmother of Abra-
ham Lincoln. With reference to tlie
offsprings of the above mentioned
Joseph Chrisman and Elizabeth Lin-

The Lincoln Kinsman

coin, it appears that one of their
children was named John Lincoln
Chrisman but having southern sym-
pathies during the war, the name
Lincoln was dropped from his name
and never used thereafter. There
were few, if any, of the Lincoln kins-
men in Virginia who were in sym-
pathy with the views of the Presi-
dent.

Josiah Lincoln — Namesake

One of the leads through which
it has been thought some definite in-
formation about the parentage of
Bathsheba might be learned is in the
naming of her second son Josiah,
The name cannot be associated with
any of the Lincolns and it is not
found among the Herrings. First it
was thought that Josiah Lincoln was
named for Josiah Boone which led
some historians to believe that Abra-
ham Lincoln, the pioneer, had mar-
ried a daughter of Josiah Boone,
who was a close neighbor in Rock-
ingham County. A complete list of
Josiah Boone's children is not avail-
able so there is no means of checking
this theory.

There was a Josiah Harrison who
may have been the man for whom
the second son of Bathsheba Lincoln
was named Josiah, thought to have
been the son of Jeremiah Harrison,
a brother of Abigail Harrison Her-
ring. This Josiah Harrison was evi-
dently a cousin of Bathsheba and
was appointed to appraise the estate
of both Alexander and Jesse Herring,
brothers of Bathsheba.

There was also a Josiah Davidson,
who lived in the immediate com-
munity when the Lincolns resided

in Rockingham County. The David-
son family claims that Edith Her-
ring, the first wife of Josiah David-
son, was a sister of Bathsheba Her-
ring who married Abraham Lincoln.
If this tradition could be sustained
over against the assertion that Bath-
sheba was an only daughter of Alex-
ander Herring, we might conclude
that this Josiah Davidson furnished
the name Josiah for the Lincoln
family.

This copy of the Lincoln Kinsman
goes forth, as an urgent appeal for
assistance, to all who may have ac-
cess to Herring or Lincoln family
records and especially to descendents
of Mordecai Lincoln, Josiah Lin-
coln, Thomas Lincoln, Mary Lincoln
Crume, and Nancy Lincoln Brum-
field, children of Bathsheba Lincoln.
Surely somewhere there must be ab-
solute proof that the maiden name
of the pioneer Abraham Lincoln's
widow was Bathsheba Herring.

H the parentage of Bathsheba Lin-
coln, widow of the massacred pioneer,
can be definitely traced to Alexander
and Abigail Harrison Herring, all
other claimants for paternal honors
with respect to the pioneer Lin-
coln's children can be dismissed as
void and we will have found several
new American ancestors for the Presi-
dent, some of them reaching back into
old established English families.

An excellent Virginia book source,
Settlers by the Lone Grey Trail by
J. Houston Harrison has contributed
much to this compilation which gives
a brief genealogical list of the Her-
ring and Harrison ancestors, and the
fifth and sixth generations of Lin-
colns.

The Lincoln Kinsman

HERRING FAMILY
First Generation

a. Alexander, ?-?.

, Margaret.

Second Generation

aa. Alexander, ?-?.

Harrison, Abigail.

ab. Esther, ?-?.

Wood, ?

ac. Sarah, ?-?.

Prettyman, ?.

ad. Eady, ?-?.

Third Generation

aaa. Leonard, 1735-?.)

Harrison, Abigail.

aab. Alexander, (?-1779).

aac. Bathsheba, (1742-1836).

Lincoln, Abraham.

(See Lincoln Family adaaa),

aad. William, (?-1806).

aae. Jessie, (?-1781).

aaf. Bethuel, (1751-?).

(Irven or Irwin).

HARRISON FAMILY
First Generation

a. Harrison, Isaiah, (1666-1738).

1. Wright, (Towsend) Eliza-

beth.

2. Smith, Abigail.

Second Generation

aa. Isaiah, 1689?.

ab. John, 1691-1771.

, Pheobe.

ac. Gideon, 1694-1729.

ad. Mary, 1696-1781.

Cravens, Robert.

ae. Elizabeth, 1697-?.

af. Daniel, 1701-1770.

1. Cravens, Margaret.

2. Stephenson, Sarah.

ag. Thomas, 1704-1785.

1. DeLa Haye, Jane.

2. Cravens, Sarah,
ah. Jeremiah, 1707-1777.

, Catherine.

ai. Abigail, 1710-1734.

Herring, Alexander.

(See Herring Family aa.)
aj. Samuel, 1712-1790.

, Mary.

LINCOLN FAMILY
Fifth Generation

adaaa. Abraham, 1744-1786.

(Herring), Bathsheba.

(See Herring Family aac.)

adaab. Hannah, 1748-1803.

Harrison, John.

adaac. Lydia, 1748-?.

(Bryan) .

adaad. Isaac, 1750-1816.

Ward, Mary.

adaae. Jacob, 1751-1822.

Robinson, Dorcas.

adaaf. John, 1755-1835.

Yarnall, Mary.

adaag. Sarah, 1757-?.

Dean, .

adaah. Thomas, 1761- (1819).

Casner, Elizabeth,
adaai. Rebecca, 1767-1840.
Rymel, John.

Sixth Generation

adaaaa. Mordecai, 1771-1830.

Mudd, Mary.

adaaab. Josiah, 1773-1835.

Barlow, Barbara.

adaaac. Mary, ?-?.

Crume, Ralph.

adaaad. Thomas, 1778-18 51.

(1) Hanks, Nancy.
(Parents of the President) .

(2) Johnston, Mrs. Sarah

adaaae. Nancy, 1780-1845.

Brumfield, William.

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