Life
Thomas Hinckley was born in Tenterden, Kent, England in 1618. His parents, Samuel and Sarah Hinckley, were followers of the Nonconformist minister John Lothropp, in whose church at nearby Hawkhurst Thomas was baptized on March 19, 1618. In 1634 the Hinckleys and Lothropp migrated to New England, although when Thomas came over is uncertain, because he did not travel with his parents. They settled in the Plymouth Colony community of Scituate. In 1637 he was made a freeman of the colony, and in 1639 he followed Lothropp to Barnstable, where he began to assume positions of responsibility in the colonial government. The following is a list of his roles in government and the time he occupied each:
- Deputy (1645)
- Representative (1647)
- Magistrate and assistant (1658–1680)
- Deputy governor (1680)
- Governor (1680–1692)
- Commissioner on the central board of Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies (1673–1692)
- Councillor (1692 – ?)
Hinckley married twice; first on December 6, 1641 to Mary Richards, and again to Mary Glover (née Smith) on March 15, 1659. He may have had as many as 17 children; different sources disagree on the exact number. One of his children, Samuel Hinckley (whose mother was Mary Richards), was a direct ancestor of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as an ancestor of the former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley. Thomas Hinckley's sister, Susannah Hinckley, is an ancestor of President Barack Obama, which means that Thomas Hinckley's father, Samuel Hinckley, is the ancestor of three U.S. presidents.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Hinckley
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“For universal love is as special an aspect as carnal love or any of the other kinds: all forms of mental and spiritual activity must be practiced and encouraged equally if the whole affair is to prosper. There is no cutting corners where the life of the soul is concerned....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“We are all conceived in close prison; in our mothers’ wombs, we are close prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“A man in public life expects to be sneered at—it is the fault of his elevated sitiwation, and not of himself.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)