General Benjamin Lincoln House - Benjamin Lincoln

Benjamin Lincoln

Benjamin Lincoln was born in the house in 1733. He was active in local politics, and held positions of leadership in the militia of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, in which he surrendered American forces at the Siege of Charleston in 1780, and was present at the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.

General Lincoln then served as Secretary at War before returning to Massachusetts in 1783. He was then active in Massachusetts politics and military, leading militia that suppressed Shays' Rebellion in 1787, and served one term as lieutenant governor in 1788. He was for many years thereafter the federal collector at the Port of Boston.