Was Lincoln of Dutch descent?

[loetar44]

I read in an article that President Lincoln was of English ancestry, along with a smaller amount of DUTCH and Scots-Irish (Northern Irish) roots.

I’m not a genealogist, but I’ve never heard before of Lincoln’s Dutch roots, so I started some research, to find some evidence that Dutch blood runs in Abraham Lincoln’s lineage? I’ve only found two traditions re. Alexander Herring, but no (clear) proof. My question. Is there any proof? If not, which tradition is most commonly believed in? Would be great if Lincoln was in a small amount Dutch.

First tradition:
Alexander Herring (Lincoln’s paternal great-grandfather) was of English descent.
Probably inspired by the story of Herring Chrisman (1823 – 1911) in his book “Memoirs of Lincoln” (published posthumously by his son William Herring Chrisman in 1930) the first immigrant Herring was according to some accounts an English gentleman’s son born in Norfolk County England. His name was Alexander (I) and was possibly related to William Herron of Ford Castle (in Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland). It is said Alexander’s parents died when he was a boy and he went to live with family who sent him to a boarding school. Discipline was harsh, so he ran away and hired himself for passage to a shipmaster who was about to sail to the colonies. It is believed that he landed in the upper colonies, lived in New York, eventually married and that is where his only son Alexander (II) and possibly his other children (daughters) were born. Alexander (II) was born in 1674. At some point Alexander II took his family to Sussex Co., Delaware, bought land and is found living there until his death in 1735. Alexander II (1674 – 1735) began the branch from which Bathsheba Herring (Lincoln’s paternal grandmother) descended. His son Allexander (III) married Abigail Harrison and they were the parents of Bathsheba.

Second tradition: Alexander Herring was of Dutch descent.
Jan Pietersen (= son of Pieter = Peter) Haring (Haring is Dutch for Herring, yes the fish) was born 26 December 1633, at the town of Hoorn, in today’s Province of Noord Holland (North Holland) in the Netherlands. He cannot be documented in New Netherland before 1662, when he was 28. So he was of a mature age at emigration. He was a wheelewright, the occupation of his father­in­law. Cosyn Gerritsen van Putten. Jan married the widow Margrietje Cosyns Gerritsen (her first husband was Harman Theunisen). The marriage was the first to be performed in the new Dutch Church at the Stuyvesant Bowery on Whitsuntide, February 1662. She was the daughter of Cosyn Gerritsen and Vrouwtie Gerritse. Margrietje was born in Haarlem, Holland and baptized in New Amsterdam on 5 May 1641, at the Dutch Reformed Church. She died in Orange County, New York in 1733, age 90. Through his marriage to Grietje, Jan Pietersen Haring acquired land in the Out Ward of Manhattan, which he farmed. All of the children of the Haring’s were born on their farm. Later almost the entire family moved to Tappan, New York, in 1686. (Jan obtained a deed from the Tappan Indians on 17 March 1681/1682, but never was there because he died in New Amsterdam on 7 December 1683). According to Garry Bryant Jan Pieterse Haring and Margrietje Cosyns had eight children. The 4th son (Source: Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society) was: Alexander Harring (= Alexander Herring), born 12 February 1674, married to Margaret (maiden name unknown), died before 1738. He began the branch from which Bathsheba Herring descended. His son Allexander Jr. married Abigail Harrison and they were the parents of Bathsheba, Lincoln’s paternal grandmother.