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Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 (O.S. January 13, 1732) – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is notable for being involved in three major surrenders during the war: his participation in the Battles of Saratoga (sustaining a wound shortly afterward) contributed to John Burgoyne's surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 Siege of Charleston, and, as George Washington's second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown. After the war Lincoln was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. He led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays' Rebellion in 1787, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston. ==Early life== Benjamin Lincoln was born on January 24, 1733, in Hingham, Province of Massachusetts Bay the sixth child and first son of Colonel Benjamin Lincoln and his second wife Elizabeth Thaxter Lincoln.〔Mattern, p. 9〕 Lincoln's ancestors were among those who first settled in Hingham, beginning with Thomas Lincoln 'the cooper,' who was among several Lincolns who settled in Hingham when it was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.〔(History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, Vol. III, Thomas Tracy Bouve, Published by the Town, John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, Mass., 1893 )〕 Lincoln's father, one of the wealthiest men in Suffolk County, served as a member of the governor's council from 1753 until 1770, and occupied many other civic posts before his death in 1771.〔Mattern, pp. 8–9〕 Lincoln's maternal grandfather, Col. Samuel Thaxter, one of the most prominent and influential citizens in Hingham, Ma, became Colonel in a regiment and one of those commissioned to settle the boundary between Massechusetts and Rhode Island in 1719. In his early life, Lincoln worked on the family farm, and attended the local school. He followed his father into public life, becoming town constable at 21, and in 1755 he joined the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk County militia (where his father was colonel) as an adjutant.〔 In 1756, at the age of 23, Lincoln married Mary Cushing, daughter of Elijah Cushing of Pembroke, Massachusetts, whose ancestors were also among the founders of Hingham.〔(History of Scituate, Massachusetts, Samuel Deane, Printed by James Loring, Boston, Mass., 1831 )〕 They had eleven children, seven of which survived to adulthood.〔Mattern, p. 14〕 In 1757, he was elected the town clerk of Hingham, a post he held for twenty years. He continued to be active in the militia during the French and Indian War, but saw no action, and was promoted to major by the end of the conflict in 1763.〔Mattern, p. 15〕 Lincoln was elected a Hingham town selectman in 1765, a post to which he held for six years. During this tenure political opposition rose in the province to Parliamentary tax measures, polarizing the political landscape of the colony. Lincoln sided with the opposition, eventually becoming a leading force among Hingham's Patriots.〔Mattern, pp. 16–19〕 In 1770, in a list of resolutions passed by the inhabitants of Hingham, Lincoln outlined the measures urged by residents towards the non-importation of British goods, and he condemned the Boston massacre.〔(History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Solomon Lincoln, Printed by Caleb Gill, Jr., Farmer and Brown, Hingham, 1827 )〕 In 1772, Lincoln was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Regiment of the Suffolk militia.〔(History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, Vol. I, Part I, Thomas Tracy Bouve, Published by the Town, Printed by John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, Mass., 1893 )〕 That same year he won election as a representative of the town to the provincial assembly.〔Mattern, p. 19〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Benjamin Lincoln」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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