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.
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