LINCOLN, Thomas (1778-1851). Manuscript marriage bond document signed ("Thomas Lincoln"), Knob Creek, Kentucky, 12 October 1816.

One page, 4to (184 x 210 mm), old folds, staining. Docketed on verso, "Caleb Hazle / Marriage Bond / Commonwealth / 1816 Oct/ 19th."

MARRIAGE BOND FOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SECOND TEACHER, CALEB HAZLE, SIGNED BY BOTH LINCOLN'S FATHER, THOMAS LINCOLN, AND HAZLE.

In full: "Know all men by these presents that we Caleb Hazle and Thomas Lincoln are held and firmly bound unto the commonwealth of Kentucky in the just and full sum of Fifty pounds United States currency which payment well and truly to be made and done we bind ourselves heirs and jointly severally and and firmly be these presents sealed with our seals and added this 12th day of October 1816.

"The condition of the above obligation is such that if there should be no legal cause to obstruct a marriage shortly to be solemnised between the above bound Caleb Hazle and Miss Mary Stevens for which a license this day issued then the above obligation to be void otherwise to remain in full force and Virtue in Law."

Thomas Lincoln was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, in 1778, shortly after his father, Captain Abraham Lincoln, completed his service with the August County Militia under General Lachlan McIntosh. In 1781, the family moved to Kentucky, where five years later, Thomas Lincoln watched as his father was murdered while Abraham and his three sons were working their field. In 1806, he married Nancy Hanks in Washington County. The following year, a daughter, Sarah, was born, followed by Abraham in 1809 and Thomas, Jr. in 1812.

During these early years Nancy taught Sarah and Abraham to read and write (Thomas, Jr. died shortly after birth) and it was she who insisted that her children be properly educated, and so they were sent for short periods to local "subscription schools," one of which was run by a man named Caleb Hazle, over whose marriage to Mary Stevens in 1816 Thomas Lincoln provided a bond of fifty pounds. The family left Kentucky for Indiana only weeks later, with Nancy dying there of milk sickness in 1818. Thomas Lincoln returned only long enough to propose marriage to a widowed family friend, Sarah Bush Johnston, who would continue to encourage Sarah and Abraham to pursue their education.

The relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his father became strained, however, as Thomas's eyesight and physical health began to fail, and he relied more and more on his son to perform hard manual labor around the farm and even work for neighbors to supplement the large family's income. The resentment that remained lasted for the rest of Thomas's life, and Lincoln visited his father only a few times after leaving the family home. Upon learning that his father was dying Lincoln sent word through a stepbrother, "Say to him that if we could meet now, it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant; but that if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere-long to join them." Yet despite this, Lincoln named his fourth son, born two years after Thomas Lincoln's death, after him.

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