Editing Lincoln, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==
Lincoln was settled by Europeans in 1654, as a part of [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]]. The majority of Lincoln was formed by splitting off a substantial piece of southeast Concord and incorporated as a separate town in 1754. Due to their "difficulties and inconveniences by reason of their distance from the places of Public Worship in their respective Towns," local inhabitants petitioned the General Court to be set apart as a separate town. Because the new town was composed of parts "nipped" off from the adjacent towns of [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]], [[Weston, Massachusetts|Weston]] (which itself had been part of [[Watertown, Massachusetts|Watertown]]) and [[Lexington, Massachusetts|Lexington]] (which itself had been part of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]]), it was sometimes referred to as "Niptown."<ref>https://archive.org/details/accountofcelebra00lincrich p.27 (p.63 of the PDF)</ref>

Chambers Russell, a Representative in the Court in Boston, was influential in the town's creation. In gratitude, Russell was asked to name the new town. He chose Lincoln, after his family home in [[Lincolnshire, England]]. His homestead in Lincoln was later known as the [[Codman House]] property, which was occupied after his death by his relatives, the Codman family.

Lincoln is reportedly the only town in America named after [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], England (and not the Revolutionary War Major General, [[Benjamin Lincoln]] or President [[Abraham Lincoln]]),<ref>{{cite web|title=Town History|url=http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/town_history.htm|website=Lincoln Historical Society|access-date=June 22, 2016}}</ref> although [[Lincoln, New Hampshire]], was named for the 9th [[Earl of Lincoln]], an English nobleman and incorporated in 1764, 45 years before Abraham Lincoln's birth.

[[Paul Revere]] was [[Paul Revere Capture Site|captured by British soldiers]] in Lincoln on the night of April 18, 1775. Minutemen from Lincoln were the first to arrive to reinforce the colonists protecting American stores of ammunition and arms in Concord. Colonel Abijah Pierce of Lincoln led his troops, armed with a cane. He upgraded his weapon to a British musket after the battle. Five British soldiers who fell in Lincoln are buried in the town cemetery. A substantial portion of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, was fought in Lincoln.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/49742/49742-h/49742-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Battle of April 19, 1775, in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown, Massachusetts, by Frank Warren Coburn}}</ref>

Reverend Charles Stearns (1753&ndash;1826), a Harvard-trained minister, served the [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]] in Lincoln from late 1781 until his death. Only a handful of his sermons were printed, most in the early 19th century. In addition, Stearns was principal of the Liberal School, a relatively progressive and coeducational institution that opened in early 1793. While at the school, Stearns wrote and published a number of education-related works, including ''Dramatic Dialogues for Use in Schools'' (1798), a collection of 30 original plays that were performed by the students. After the school closed in 1808, Stearns continued to tutor students privately. Among his pupils were Nathan Brooks, a Concord lawyer, and George Russell, a Lincoln physician. Stearns's published works can be accessed at [[Early American Imprints]], a microform and digital collection produced by the [[American Antiquarian Society]]. A summary article that surveys Stearns as a producer of children's drama is "The Dramatic Dialogues of Charles Stearns: An Appreciation" by Jonathan Levy, in ''Spotlight on the Child: Studies in the History of American Children's Theatre'', ed. Roger L. Bedard and C. John Tolch (New York: Greenwood, 1989): 5–24.