The Samuel Lincoln Cottage ca. 1650 or ca. 1740

182 North Street
The Samuel Lincoln Cottage ca. 1650 or ca. 1740

Samuel Lincoln (1622-1690) known as Samuel the Weaver, was one of several settlers named Lincoln who came to Hingham in the 1630s. His fourth great grandson was President Abraham Lincoln establishing Hingham as the sixteenth President’s ancestral home in America. Competing title histories for this gambrel structure suggest two construction dates while historic maps support that the home was moved to this site in 1784 by Francis Barker who lived at 21 Lincoln Street or the Old Ordinary which is also on today’s tour. Margaret Coatsworth Smith the sister of Elizabeth Coatsworth author of The Littlest House owned the home from 1931 until she sold it in 1945 to SPNEA, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiques, what we know today as Historic New England. For over forty years, while owned by SPNEA and occupied by a tenant, the home was periodically opened to the public as a museum home. The current owners purchased the home in 1988 and every room in the home reflects their love of history including maintenance of four working fireplaces and wall decorations of antique maps and samplers. The present living room is most likely the oldest room in the house. It is believed that this room and a loft comprised the original home. After a car drove through the den wall in July 2021, this home was meticulously restored in the manner it would have been constructed over 300 years ago – the only exception is that the insulation is no longer bricks. The 1873 – 1893 barn was originally a shoemaker’s shop. The little garage was built by one of the caretakers of the home when owned by SPNEA/Historic New England to house his antique car, which was always in the July 4th parade. The garden house was added around 1992 and was renovated in 2020 with new windows/screens.