Besides the Washington connection mentioned in the last chapter, there are two items of interest to Americans.

The Penns of Pensylvania came originally from this district. The family lived in Minety in 1560, about five miles from here, and some are buried there. One was Law Clerk of Malmesbury, dying about 1590. An old house at Minety, called "The Mansells" has E.P. on the door lintels and the family (from whom Admiral Sir William Penn, of Bristol and father of the famous William) lived here.

Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, was a Malmesbury woman. Her husband, Abraham's father, is reported to have been a "shiftless migratory farmer" but when Abraham was born on the 12th February, 1809, in Hardin, Kentucky, the world could not have known what importance he would achieve. Nancy Hanks died when Abraham was young and his father married again. It is this step-mother who is odious to many Americans and not "our Nancy of Malmesbury."

It is obvious that he got his drive and initiative, and also his peculiar ascetic look, from his mother's side. The Hanks are some of the oldest families in Malmesbury and have been here from Saxon days, and are natural Commoners. In fact the name means "The Weaver" in Saxon. Some of the last relatives of Nancy Hanks lived almost next door to the author and the two old ladies only died some twenty years ago. Their father, whom I never knew, was a fine artist and two of his pictures, of local scenes, are in the Council Chamber of this day.

I used to attend the old ladies as a Doctor and I noticed a small daguerrotype of the father, in a small oval pinchbec frame, and, at first sight, thought it to be of Abraham Lincoln himself. The likeness was remarkable, so it is obvious from whose side of the marriage Abraham got his physical appearance. It is to be regretted that I have been unable to trace this old "photo" which would have been of great historical interest and should have been preserved for the town, but I fear it was probably cast away as being of no value or interest, when the house and contents were sold. This is the fate of so many things that are lost through lack of someone of knowledge to preserve them for posterity.

When I first came here, forty years ago, there were two old men living in the town who had fought in the American Civil War, one on each side. On the anniversary of Gettysberg, the two old chaps used to don their uniforms, one grey and the other blue, and totter round on sticks to the "Bear Inn" in the High Street for a celebration.