Levi Lincoln, Sr.

Infobox Governor
name = Levi Lincoln, Sr.


imagesize = 111px
order = 3rd
office = Acting Governor of Massachusetts
term_start = December 10, 1808
term_end = May 1, 1809
lieutenant =
predecessor = James Sullivan
successor = Christopher Gore
birth_date = birth date|1749|6|10|mf=y
birth_place = Hingham, Massachusetts
death_date = death date and age|1820|4|14|1749|6|10|mf=y
death_place = Worcester, Massachusetts
party = Democratic-Republican
spouse =
profession =
religion =
order2 = Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district
term_start2 = December 15, 1800
term_end2 = March 5, 1801
predecessor2 = Dwight Foster
successor2 = Seth Hastings
order3 = 7th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
term_start3 = May 29, 1807
term_end3 = December 10, 1808
governor3 = James Sullivan
predecessor3 = Edward Robbins
successor3 = David Cobb
order4 = 4th United States Attorney General
term_start4 = March 5, 1801
term_end4 = March 2, 1805
predecessor4 = Charles Lee
successor4 = John Breckinridge

Levi Lincoln, Sr. (May 15, 1749–April 14, 1820) was an American revolutionary and statesman who served as a Minuteman at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a state legislator in Massachusetts, a participant in Massachusetts' state constitutional convention, Governor of Massachusetts, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, a U.S. Representative, Attorney General for President Thomas Jefferson and Acting Secretary of State.

Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1749. He graduated from Harvard in 1772 and studied law under Joseph Hawley. When the Battle of Lexington occurred he volunteered to fight with the Minutemen. From 1775 to 1781, he served as clerk of the court and probate judge of Worcester County. Though elected to the Continental Congress in 1781, he declined to serve. Lincoln was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1796, and of the Senate in 1797. In 1800, he was elected to Congress and served until March 5, 1801, when President Jefferson appointed him Attorney General of the United States. He held the office until March 5, 1805. Lincoln was acting Secretary of State from March 5, 1801 to May 2, 1801.

Lincoln was a member of the Council of Massachusetts in 1806, and served as Lieutenant Governor in 1807-1808. Upon the death of James Sullivan, he became Governor, but was not elected in 1809. In 1811 he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court but declined. He died in Worcester, Massachusetts on April 14, 1820.

Lincoln was distantly related to General Benjamin Lincoln IV, Secretary of War 1781-1783, as well as Abraham Lincoln, sharing a common ancestor with the sixteenth U.S. President in Samuel Lincoln, who had settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the 17th Century. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=G0RBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA136&dq=%22levi+lincoln%22+%22samuel+lincoln%22&ei=pP7SSLHBBY3sswOjyuHbAw#PPA136,M1 The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, James Henry Lea, J. R. Hutchinson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1909] ] He had two sons who were also governors - Levi Lincoln, Jr., who was also Governor of Massachusetts, and Enoch Lincoln, who was Governor of Maine.

References

*Marvin J. Petroelje, "Levi Lincoln, Sr.: Jeffersonian Republican of Massachusetts". Ph.D. dissertaion, Michigan State University, 1969.

External links

* [http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/llincon.htm Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7504831 Find-A-Grave]
* "This article contains material from the US Department of Justice " [http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ls/agbiographies.htm#lincoln Attorneys General of the United States] " which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain."
*CongBio|L000316
* [http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/peopleofpower/abrahamlincoln.html People of Power: Abraham Lincoln]

External links