Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States

In the tiny village of Ysbyty Ifan, tucked into the breathtaking landscape of Snowdonia in North Wales, there stands a derelict cottage called Bryngwyn which translates from the Welsh as White Hill. It is, by any reckoning, an unlikely place to find the roots of the man who would become the sixteenth President of the United States and the Great Emancipator of four million enslaved people.

Yet the connection is genuine and well-documented. Abraham Lincoln's great-great-grandfather was John Morris (Morys in Welsh), who lived at Bryngwyn, Ysbyty Ifan. John Morris's daughter Ellen emigrated to Pennsylvania with a group of Quakers, leaving Wales it is believed sometime in the first half of the 17th century, drawn by the promise of a better life in William Penn's new colony. In Pennsylvania she met and married Cadwaladr Evans, who had also emigrated from North Wales from the area around Bala, some twenty miles from Ysbyty Ifan. The fact that they had not known each other in Wales makes their meeting in Pennsylvania all the more remarkable.

Their daughter Sarah Evans married John Hanks of Virginia. Their daughter Nancy Hanks married Thomas Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The Welsh blood of the Snowdonia hills ran in his veins.

The 16th President of the United States traced his roots to a derelict cottage called Bryngwyn in Ysbyty Ifan, Snowdonia -- and in 1860 printed 100,000 election pamphlets in Welsh to appeal to Welsh-speaking voters across America

Lincoln was acutely aware of his Welsh heritage and made extraordinary use of it. In 1860, as he campaigned for the Presidency, he arranged for the printing of approximately 100,000 election pamphlets in the Welsh language, targeted at the substantial Welsh-speaking communities that had settled across Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. It was a remarkable act of political intelligence: an acknowledgement that the Welsh diaspora in America was large, proud, literate and politically engaged. Visit Wales confirms the connection, noting that Lincoln's ancestor Ellen Morris emigrated from Ysbyty Ifan to Pennsylvania, where she met Cadwaladr Evans, who had also emigrated from the Bala area of North Wales. At least eight US Presidents have had Welsh ancestry, but Lincoln's is among the most directly traceable.

The cottage of Bryngwyn still stands in Ysbyty Ifan a hamlet of remarkable beauty in the Conwy valley, surrounded by moorland and the hills of Snowdonia. It is a place of pilgrimage for American visitors who know the story. A man who shaped the destiny of a nation began, in some small ancestral way, in these hills.

Career Highlights

Great-great-grandfather John Morris (Morys) lived at Bryngwyn cottage, Ysbyty Ifan, Snowdonia
Ancestor Ellen Morris emigrated from Ysbyty Ifan to Pennsylvania with a group of Quakers in the 17th century
Ellen married Cadwaladr Evans, who had also emigrated from the Bala area of North Wales
In 1860 Lincoln printed approximately 100,000 election pamphlets in the Welsh language
Nancy Hanks, Lincoln's mother, descended from this Welsh-American line
16th President of the United States -- served 1861 to 1865
Led the Union through the Civil War and abolished slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

ℹ️ Born 12 February 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky -- of Welsh descent on his maternal side through the Hanks family of Virginia

ℹ️ Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 14 April 1865 at Ford's Theatre, Washington DC, by John Wilkes Booth. He died the following morning, aged 56

Welsh connection on his maternal side -- his great-great-grandfather John Morris (Morys) lived at Bryngwyn cottage, Ysbyty Ifan, Snowdonia, North Wales

Lincoln [DVD] (2012) -- Daniel Day-Lewis

Steven Spielberg's magnificent Oscar-winning film with Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln -- focusing on the final months of his presidency and his battle to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Winner of two Academy Awards.

Available at Amazon

Team of Rivals -- Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Abraham Lincoln and the political genius who united his rivals into a cabinet that saved the Union. The book that inspired Spielberg's Lincoln. Essential reading.

Available at Amazon

Abraham Lincoln Biography

A delightful book about one of the most famous presidents in American history. Lincoln's life, career, and self-discovery are clearly depicted in this book.

Available at Amazon

The Demon of Unrest

The pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this 'riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult' (Los Angeles Times).

Available at Amazon

ALSO: