Joseph Hanks

Joseph Hanks (December 20, 1725 – 1793) was born in North Farnham Parish, Richmond County, Virginia, to Catherine Hanks (died 1779) and John Hanks (circa 1690s–1740). He was a tenant farmer and managed a plantation in Richmond County. In 1782, Hanks and his family relocated to Hampshire County, Virginia, in an area now part of West Virginia, possibly due to concerns about the post-Revolutionary War environment. Records indicate that after his mother’s death in 1779, Hanks inherited estate funds, which may have facilitated or influenced the migration.

Hanks married Ann, also known as Nancy or Nannie, circa 1742. She died around 1794. Together, they had multiple children: Thomas (born 1759), Joshua (born about 1762), William (born about 1765), Charles Joseph, and Lucy (born circa 1767). Lucy Hanks, his daughter, was the mother of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s mother. Lucy Hanks married Henry Sparrow in 1791 and had eight children with him, including Nancy, Sarah, Elizabeth ("Betsy"), Polly, and others.

Charles Joseph Hanks was raised by his older siblings after his mother's death and later moved to Kentucky in 1798, where he worked as a carpenter. He married Mary Young in 1810, then relocated to Indiana and subsequently to Sangamon County, Illinois.

Regarding his earlier life, Joseph Hanks resided on 108 acres along a fork of Mike’s Run near Patterson Creek in Hampshire County, Virginia (now Mineral County, West Virginia). He appears on the 1782 Hampshire County census with a household of eleven white individuals, including his wife and nine children, possibly including Lucy Hanks.

In March 1784, Joseph Hanks, his wife, children, and granddaughter Nancy traveled via the Wilderness Road to Kentucky, settling in Nelson County near Pottinger’s Creek. The family bought land there in 1787, near the settlement of Rolling Fork, a site of early Kentucky defenses. After Joseph Hanks's death in 1793, his widow Ann returned to Virginia with their youngest son, Joseph Jr., and sold part of the Kentucky property in 1794.

Joseph Hanks's estate and property played a role in the lineage of Abraham Lincoln. His granddaughter Nancy Hanks became Lincoln’s mother, and his grandson Dennis Hanks lived with Lincoln in Indiana. Elizabeth ("Betsy") Hanks Sparrow, his daughter, assisted in Lincoln's birth, lived near him in Kentucky and Indiana, and was regarded by Lincoln as "Granny." Other descendants, including John Hanks, participated in Lincoln's early life and political campaigns.

The birthplace of Nancy Hanks is believed to be at Joseph Hanks’s home in Hampshire County, which now includes a memorial from the state of West Virginia.