Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Hinckley

Plymouth Colony Leader Served Until Union with Massachusetts Colony

Jul 15, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Plymouth Colony Gov. Thomas Hinckley had leadership roles for more than 45 years, culminating with his governorship until the 1692 union with Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Hinckley was born ca. 1618 in England to Samuel Hinckley (1595-1662) of Tenterden, Kent, and the former Sarah Soule. The family came to Plymouth Colony in 1635, settling first at Scituate and moving to Barnstable four years later.

Thomas Hinckley as Plymouth Colony Leader

Young Thomas, not yet 30, became a Plymouth Colony deputy in 1645 and a representative in 1647. As Hinckley matured, more responsibility was added. A decade later, Hinckley became a magistrate and an assistant to the governor. Thomas Hinckley was only deputy governor for a year before becoming governor in 1681. Hinckley’s governing experience reached beyond the Plymouth Colony and included becoming a commissioner on the central board of the two colonies (Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth) from 1673 until they merged in 1692. Then Hinckley became a councilor. Three volumes of Thomas Hinckley papers were among manuscripts of the Old South Church Library that in 1866 were deposited in the Boston Public Library.

Thomas Hinckley’s Family

Thomas Hinckley married, first, Mary Richards in 1641, and second, in 1659, Mary (Smith) Glover. Children to the first wife are believed to be Mary (b. 1644), Sarah (b. 1646), Melatiah (b. 1648), Hannah (b. 1650), Samuel (1653-1698), Thomas (1654-1688), Bathshua/Bathsheba (b. 1657) and Mehitable (b. 1658), all born in Barnstable. Children to the second wife are thought to be Admire (b. & d. 1661), Ebenezer (b. & d. 1662), Mercy (b. 1663), Experience (b. 1664), John (1667-1706), Abigail (b.1669), Thankful (b. 1671), Ebenezer (b. 1673), and Reliance (1675-1759), all probably born in Barnstable. Gov. Hinckley died in 1706.

Hinckley Line of Descent

The following line of descent from Plymouth Colony Gov. Thomas Hinckley was submitted to this writer in 1989 by Blanche (Riplett) Rutz of Great Falls, MT, who had also worked on her Gilman family genealogy.

• Gov. Thomas Hinckley and second wife Mary (Smith) Glover of Barnstable, MA
• Mercy Hinckley (1662/3-1736) and Samuel Prince; lived at Boston, Sandwich and Middleborough, MA
• Moses Prince (1696-1745) of Boston and Newburyport, MA, who married Jane Bethune
• Jane Prince (1740-1800) married Rev. Chandler Robbins; lived at Branford, CT and Plymouth, MA
• Hannah Robbins (1768-1837) married Benjamin Ives Gilman of Exeter, NH; they lived at Plymouth, MA, and Marietta, OH
• Ichabod W. Gilman (1793-1879) married Lydia Mattox; lived at Marietta, OH, and Terre Haute and Hymera, IN
• William M. Gilman (1823-1863) married Minerva Helton and lived at Hymera, IN
• James Henry Gilman (1858-1941) married Melissa Craft; lived at Terre Haute and Hymera, IN
• Hallie Minerva Gilman (1887-1944) of Hymera, IN, married Carl Leslie Riplett; lived at Sheridan, WY, and Wyola, MT; parents of Blanche Riplett, born in 1919 and wed Ruben Rutz

Famous Hinckley Descendants

There are both famous and infamous descendants of Gov. Thomas Hinckley. The two Bush presidents descend from Thomas, and President Obama and Sarah Palin descend from his sister, Susannah. Other descendants of Gov. Hinckley include banker John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (1867-1943); Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910-2008), former president of the Mormon Church; and, Mary Leiter, daughter of Chicago’s co-founder of Marshall Field Department stores and wife of British Lord Curzon, foreign secretary and viceroy of India. The most infamous descendant is John W. Hinckley Jr., who plotted to assassinate President Jimmy Carter and made a failed attempt to kill President Ronald Reagan. (Story concluded below)

(A companion article gives details of how the Bushes, Obama and Palin are related. Learn about the Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors.)

Sources:

Norton, Vera, Some Descendants of Samuel Hinckley, who Came to America in 1635, and Some Ancestors of Their Wives (Lake Worth, Florida: Norton, 1976.)

Anderson, Robert C., The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)

The copyright of the article Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Hinckley in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Hinckley in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Plymouth Colony Seal

Plymouth Colony Map

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