Seven Children at Her Right Hand and Two in Distant Burying Places

Parental grief in colonial New England bore little resemblance to the experience of the bereaved of the 21st century.  In 1767, to lose a child before they reached adulthood was customary, even expected, considering a childhood mortality rate between 35-40%[1].  Under a Puritan, specifically Calvinist belief system, the destination of the soul was predetermined at Creation and children were no exception.[2] A parent whose grief was demonstrable several days out was considered excessive and was subject to criticism.[3]

               To the current day parent, it is unfathomable to consider grief in any amount excessive when measuring the loss of a child.   To lose nine of the thirteen children born within the course of a lifetime would be improbable and impossible to bear.

Map of Colonial Plymouth County, in part

              Hingham and Weymouth, Massachusetts are neighboring towns, one in Plymouth County and one in Norfolk County, respectively, from which many of the early settlers of surrounding towns such as Abington, Bridgewater, Stoughton, and Milton hailed[4]. The families of Elisha and Rachel (Tirrell) Lincoln were no exception. They settled in Whitman with their individual families which was then South Abington or Little Comfort and were married on the 14th of November 1718. This would have been the 25th of November in today's Gregorian calendar.

Because they were navigating the challenges of a new civilization in an unkind climate, little to no medical care, shortages of food in winter, and no abundance of resources, death was no stranger early settlers.  Grave markers in local cemeteries such as Mount Zion in current day Whitman which was once a series of local family burial grounds are peppered with the names and dates of children.  It is a common occurrence to find families with the same given name used and reused as children with that name died, one after the next.  One Alice Reed would be born, die, and be proceeded by another with the same name, born within only a few weeks.  Families could use names three, four, and five times before a child survived until adulthood.

Caked with impermeable lichen, Rachel Lincoln’s slate grave marker resides at Mount Zion Cemetery and required careful treatment before an inscription could be read.  Because lichen is a symbiotic substance that deteriorates slate, contributing to delamination and other challenges over the course of time, it was imperative to treat it with a biological cleaner to prevent further codependence of stone and organism.

Both Elisha and Rachel's stones have complete soul effigies within the tympanum,

which was a common feature for the time and artist.  Scrolled side work was once present on both although one side has delaminated and broken away on Elisha’s stone.  Elisha's soul effigy is surrounded by laurels while Rachel's has ferns. Elisha's side panels were once topped with stars.  One remains, indicating possible military service.

Within the ancient portion of Mount Zion Cemetery along Washington Street, significant relocation of grave markers has taken place since the oldest remaining stone was laid in 1733.  Headstones and footstones are located leagues apart. Footstones face headstones and are located in the plots of other families.  New gravestones from the 20th century were placed in the ancient section of the yard among graves from the early 1700s.  The Lincoln marker pair illustrates this movement in Rachel’s subscript.

“Seven children who lay at her right hand and 2 other children in distant burying places.”

However, there are no children buried at Rachel’s right hand because Elisha is supposedly buried there, or at least that’s where his stone is located.

In 1850, the selectmen of the Town of Abington decreed that “all graves that now have

monuments and all Tombs shall be considered in possession of those improving them with space around them reserved for other members of the family and shall be holden by them as long as they are used for that purpose but all graves without monuments after one year from January 1st, 1851 shall be considered as unoccupied ground and subject to the Proprietors disposal.”[5]

At the time, of Rachel’s death in 1767 and Elisha’s in 1774, customs regarding married couples laying side by side, wife on the right and husband on the left, were not yet in place.  As members of a Puritan-based Congregational church (First Congregational Church of Abington) the Lincolns would not likely have believed in a corporal resurrection, so traditions were not in place regarding the placement of graves[6]. Once the worship style of the period moves toward a more contemporary Congregationally dominant style, the belief that Jesus would return from the East and therefore headstones must face east, and footstones lay in front of them became pervasive.[i]

To identify Rachel's unnamed children, I used the following criteria:

• Date of death prior to 27 Dec 1767 (Rachel's date of death) or unknown

• Seven children local to Abington/Whitman and two who died elsewhere

• Last name Lincoln or a closely spelled rendition (Lincolne, Linconne, Lincon)

• Father's name Elisha paired with date of birth reasonable to Rachel's childbearing years

• No conflicting parents identified (example: Elisha Jr.'s children)

Results:

For the purpose of data visualization, a date range of 100 years is applied beginning at the parents’ date of marriage when dates of birth are unknown or beginning at the date of birth when date of death is unknown. 

Key Format	Count	Description
Black Text	4	Rachel’s epitaph does not refer to this child. They died after her date of death.
Blue Text	2	Date of death not yet identified.
Bold Text	5	Likely buried at Rachel’s right hand based on date of death.
Green Text	2	Undetermined.  Potential “distant land” burial.

Yes	Possible	No
Joseph (24 Jan 1724 - 5 Feb 1724)	?    Rachel (23 Jan 1721 - ?) – m. Thomas White	Jonathan (abt 1723 – 24 Nov 1798) – m. Hannah Bates
Elisha (bap. 18 Jul 1725 – bef. 1742)	?    Prudence (15 Feb 1735 - 1797?) – m. … White	Nehemiah (25 May 1727 - 15 Jan 1818) – m. Keziah Packard
Ezekiel (d. 3 Jun 1729)	?    Elisha (14 Oct 1742 – aft 1779?) m. Tabitha Reed, others?	Ezekiel (bap. 22 Jun 1729 - 1804) – m. Miriam Tirrell
Prudence (d. 18 Jul 1729)	?  Gideon (bap. 16 Jun 1745 - ?)	Joseph (5 Jun 1739 - 26 Apr 1822) – m. Hannah Glyde & Mary Morse
Joseph (13 Jan 1732 - bef 1739)

Five of the Lincoln children died in Abington prior to Rachel's death. Two others appear to have no local death record but do have records indicating a presence in either Abington or neighboring towns after 1767. Four of the others married and would have been buried with a spouse.  Many of the area death records came from grave markers which is problematic since these of the nine children do not have one that is readily identifiable. They continue to be a work in progress.

If I were to consider Rachel’s mindset in choosing to memorialize nine lost children, age at death notwithstanding, it tells me that she cared deeply for these children whether her epitaph was her own design or that of a loved one.  As a mother, it is unthinkable to consider being surrounded with messaging implying that grief of any length could be excessive or to be presented platitudes in my darkest hour.  As a society, we have come leaps and bounds from where we were in the 1700s in how we address grief, but nowhere near far enough.  Identifying Rachel’s children and locating their vital records is a small task in comparison with the grief of losing nine children.  At present, only Nehemiah’s grave marker, located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, has been located.  Ezekiel Jr. is interred in Bedford, New Hampshire.

[i] Recent dispute exists on this theory, but not enough to entirely disrupt its presence in research literature.

[1] Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2021). Interpreting Statistics: Demographic Conditions in the English Colonies. Digital History. Retrieved 20 Jan 2025 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

[2] Congregational Library & Archives.  Congregational Christian Tradition.  Retrieved 12 Jan 2025 from https://www.congregationallibrary.org/congregational-christian-tradition

[3] Brekus, Catherine A. (2013). Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America.  Retrieved 10 Jan 2025 from https://books.google.com

[4] Jefferys, Thomas (1755). Map of New England. Retrieved 16 Jan 2025 www.flickr.com

[5] Gardner, Russell H. (1985).  History of Whitman, Revised Edition.  Book Commission of the Whitman Historical Commission. Sponsored by the Board of Trustees of the Whitman Public Library.  P. 51

[6] Ezekiel Dodge Collection. First Congregational Church Records, Abington, MA. Abington Church Book 1714-1719. Retrieved 15 Jan 2025 from http://nehh-viewer.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/  Sept 1 1728 “Elisha Lincolne was admitted to Communion wth ye Chh”p. 2

• Submitted to the Olde Abington Historical Society on 28 January 2025

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The Lincoln family is one that will jump off the page if you are familiar with US history. As a native of Hingham, Elisha would have likely been familiar with his first cousin, twice removed, Major General Benjamin Lincoln. At the time of Elisha's death in 1774, Benjamin Lincoln was a Lieutenant Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk Militia. Benjamin Lincoln later went on to be a Major General and accepted the surrender of Cornwallis on behalf of George Washington at Yorktown. For more information, the Hingham Historical Society is a wealth of knowledge. Their summer tours are incredibly informative and their Halloween tours embody entertaining storytelling. Go visit Hingham!

(photo credit: Wikipedia.)