So Far Away - Swanton Morley and Abraham Lincoln

 

I’ve previously written about Joseph Canham, his home named Clondalkin, and the cemetery in Swanton Morley. Did you know that through Swanton Morley we have a connection to Abraham Lincoln??

 

Swanton Morley is a village located at the geographical center of Norfolk County in England. This small village has a long history; it was documented in the 11th-century Domesday Book*, and was home to the ancestors of Abraham Lincoln. And since at least the early 1700s, it has been the home to many of our ancestors. The Canham line alone can be found there as far back as 1789 when Zachariah Canham married Mary Fish in All Saints Church (pictured) which was built in the 1370s. Other family lines branching off from the Canhams in more recent generations, such as the Harvey line which extends from the wife (Mary Ann Dawson Smyth) of John Canham (son of Zachariah Canham) can be traced as far as Christmas Eve 1706 when William Harvey was baptized in All Saints Church. And chances are if the proper records are located, this line will extend even further back in Swanton. “Swanton” is derived from the Old English for herdsman’s enclosure, and “Morley” refers to the fact that the parish was held by Robert de Morli in 1346. The oldest recorded objects found in the area include items from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and the Roman occupation. The Angel, a pub run by Canham family members in earlier times, was probably named for a medieval stone carving of a genuflecting angel found in a nearby well house.

Oh, and about that Abraham Lincoln connection? So far, I haven’t found out we’re family, but it could yet happen! Richard Lincoln (1550-1620), a local churchwarden who built the above-named Angel public house was the wealthy grandfather of Samuel Lincoln.

Richard Lincoln disinherited Samuel’s father Edward in favor of his fourth wife, thus throwing the Lincoln family into penury and forcing young Samuel to flee from Swanton Morley to Hingham, Massachusetts. His great-great-great-great-grandson was none other than Abraham Lincoln!

Such a far-away place with a connection to our very genes! How far away exactly? Well, obviously this will vary for each of us, but from my home to the church in Swanton Morley is 4,803.55 miles.

Many of the details of this piece are from Wikipedia. 

 *A record of the “Great Survey” of much of England and parts of Wales, completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conquerer.