The Special Relationship: St Andrews Church, Hingham

The small, moneyed village of Hingham, Norfolk. A somewhat unique claim to fame here is the village's role in the creation of the modern world: this Church was the place of baptism of Samuel Lincoln, ancestor of future American President Abraham Licoln. Samuel Lincoln would be part of a group of Puritans who left Hingham in the early seventeenth century to emigrate to the colony of Massachusetts. Here they would found Hingham, Massachusetts: in the twentieth century, during the Second World War, Eleanor Roosevelt would refer to this Hingham's Main Street as "the most beautiful Main Street in America." There are numerous signs of the relationship between the two Hinghams: a tea-shop in the village is called Lincoln's, for instance, and there are numerous plaques and items (such as a bust of Abraham Lincoln) in St Andrews Church presented by representatives of the Massachusetts Hingham.