£500 per year for the remainder of his life and that of his
heirs. Charles wrote to him:
Although we have on all occasions, both abroad
and since our happy return, declared ourself fully
satisfied with your conduct and loyalty in our ser-
vice, and although in consideration of the same,
we have given you the title and honour of a lord;
yet, seeing we are told, that malice and slander do
not give over to persecute you, we have thought
fit to give you this further testimony, and to de-
clare under our hand, that while you was the
lieutenant-general of our army, you did, both in
England and Scotland, behave yourself with as
much conduct, resolution, and honesty as was
possible or could be expected from a person in
that trust: and as we told you, so we again repeat
it, that if we had occasion to levy an army fit for
ourself to command, we would not fail to give
you an employment in it fit for your quality.Leslie lived his last years in Scotland, where he died in
1682.
References: Jefferson, Samuel, ed., A Narrative of the Siege
of Carlisle, in 1644 and 1645, by Isaac Tullie... (White-
haven, Cumbria, U.K.: Michael Moon’s Bookshop,
1988); Another Victory in Lancashire obtained against the
Scots by Major General Harrison, and Collonel Lilburn...
(London: Printed by B. A., 1651); A Letter from Scotland,
giving a full and impartiall relation of the scattering of those
forces risen against the Parliament... (London, 1649);
A Brief Narrative of the Great Victorie... Near Dunbar
(London: Printed by William Dugard, by the Appoint-
ment of the Council of State, 1650).
Lincoln, Benjamin (1733–1810) American
general
Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachu-
setts, on 29 January 1733, the sixth of eight children
of Colonel Benjamin Lincoln, a farmer and maltster
(maker of malt), and his wife Elizabeth Thaxter Lincoln.
Little is known of Lincoln’s early life, except that he re-
ceived a moderate education in Hingham. In 1754, he
was elected as the town constable for Hingham, and in
1755 he was named as the adjutant in his father’s co-
lonial militia regiment, the 3rd Regiment of Suffolk
County, Massachusetts. Promoted rapidly, he rose to the
rank of lieutenant colonel by 1772, and during this pe-
riod, he held other offices, such as justice of the peace
and clerk of the city of Hingham. He was also elected to
the colonial legislature.
By the early 1770s, relations between the colonies
and the English Parliament in London had become
strained, and Lincoln was one of those involved in the
movement to make America an independent nation. In
1774, he served as a member of the provincial congress,
and when war broke out in Massachusetts in April 1775,
he served on the committees of supplies and correspon-
dence. In January 1776, he was promoted to the rank of
brigadier general, and the following month he became
major general of the Massachusetts militia. He saw ac-
tion at the Battle of White Plains (28 October 1776),
where he was noticed by General George Washing-
ton, leader of the revolutionary forces.
On 19 February 1777, Lincoln was promoted to the
rank of major general in the Continental army, and that
summer he helped to organize a band of militia in Ver-
mont to head off the invasion of British forces under Gen-
eral John burgoyne into what is now the northern part
of New York State. As part of this defense, Lincoln com-
manded the right wing of the revolutionary forces in the
battle of Bemis Heights (7 October 1777), near Saratoga,
New York, in which 7,200 colonists under the command
of General Horatio gates halted 6,000 British troops
under Burgoyne marching toward what is now the city
of Albany, New York. During the second day of fighting
(8 October 1777), sometimes called Bemis Heights but
also known as Freeman’s Farm or Stillwater, Lincoln was
wounded in the right ankle and forced to leave the army
for nearly a year to recuperate. Burgoyne surrendered on
17 October, a serious set back for the British.
On 25 September 1778, Lincoln was named as com-
mander of the southern department of the Continental
army. Dispatched to Charles Town (now Charleston),
South Carolina, he made initial military movements into
Georgia and fought several indecisive actions against the
British but was forced back to Charles Town and had to
surrender there on 12 May 1780. Held as a prisoner of
war, Lincoln was finally exchanged in November 1780,
but he did not return to service until the following June,
when he served with Washington in New York. By this
time the British were nearing defeat in the war, and in
August 1781 Washington sent Lincoln to Yorktown,
Virginia, to try to destroy the main British army therelincoln, benJAmin 0