Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/abraham-lincolne

Birth Place

England, United Kingdom

Biography

sketcher, writer, farmer and stock agent, was born in England, son of William Lincolne. After farming in Suffolk, he came to New South Wales in the Spartan on 30 January 1838 and ran cattle on a family property on the Lachlan River. He married in the year of his arrival. A pencil drawing of an encounter with bushrangers in Lincolne’s sole known sketchbook (Mitchell Library) has a note that 'the rencontre represented on the opposite page’ occurred on 9 October 1839 when 'delivering part of a purchase of 4000 head of cattle to E. Horne Esq. and which he was driving to “Adelaide” from our Lachlan stations’. In 1840 he rented Fig Tree Farm at Jamberoo, Illawarra, remaining for four years until ruined by floods. Lincolne’s Australian Sketches contains twenty-six pencil sketches (some with a watercolour wash). All appear to have been done between about 1840 and 1844 and most are accompanied by a descriptive letter-press in the manner of a set of views. The images minutely delineate, with a topographer’s eye, every feature of homesteads, townships and views in the Illawarra, Kiama and Canberra regions. For instance, his drawing of his own Fig Tree Farm, dated 1841, fastidiously records every detail of the homestead. Waugh Hope Jamberoo Illawarra is annotated: 'the house of Mr J.M. Waugh built of mud, plastered within & stuccoed without—about 4 miles from Kiama township’ (J.M. Waugh was the father of James William Waugh and David Waugh, who first settled on the property). A similar interest in visual description is evident in Lincolne’s view of the Kiama township, although this is a more naive work, especially in its perspective and scale. Less ambitious studies, such as Tree Portrait , are usually quite finely worked. As well as the brush with bushrangers, Lincolne sketched other dramatic moments of his life such as difficulties with an angry bull. He was a more than competent animal sketcher in a style similar to his contemporary George Hamilton but, interestingly, his only depiction of an Aborigine appears to have been copied from a plate in W.H. Fernyhough 's Twelve Profile Portraits of the Aborigines of New South Wales (1836). Simply altering Fernyhough’s original tribal designation of Botany Bay , this pencil and wash sketch of Mary – Five Island Tribe – Illawarra employs little of his keen eye. As yet no drawings are known for the rest of Lincolne’s life. He returned to England in 1848-49, then settled in Adelaide, where he founded the East Torrens Agricultural Society. By 1866 he was farming at Moonee Ponds, Victoria, and at some stage had a property on the Campaspe River. By 1870 he had established himself in Bourke Street, Melbourne, and was listed as a stock agent there until 1881. During this period he was secretary to the Port Phillip Farmers’ Society. He published two books, The Australasian Farmers’ Guide (Melbourne 1869) and The Farm and Selection (Melbourne n.d.; reprinted 1878), as well as writing for agricultural journals. Lincolne died in Melbourne on 10 October 1884. Writers: Neville, Richard Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1815

Summary

Abraham Lincolne was a sketcher, writer, farmer and stock agent. He came to New South Wales in 1838 where he rented Fig Tree Farm at Jamberoo, Illawarra.

Gender

Male

Died

10 October 1884

Age at death

69