Benjamin Lincoln

Benjamin Lincoln 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 contributed to John Burgoynes surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 Siege of Charleston, and, as George Washingtons second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown.

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. Lincolns 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. Lincolns father, one of the wealthiest men in Suffolk County, served as a member of the governors council from 1753 until 1770, and occupied many other civic posts before his death in 1771. Lincolns 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 Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 1719.

Source: Wikipedia