The information on John Briggs is based on the research done
by Douglas Richardson and published in The American Genealogist Vol. 59 in
1983. It was hoped that updated information was available, by now, but
apparently that doesn’t seem to be the case. I have not been able to find any
documentation in the Gloucestershire, England records, found on-line.
There may, in fact, be non-digitized information, but a trip to England
was not going to happen any time soon.
A general research of the name Briggs shows that the name
may well have originally been a Yorkshire
name, before the Battle of Hastings. It was spelled Brugges, which in its
original form meant ‘Bridges.’ This could have meant they lived near a bridge
or were keepers of a bridge, collecting tolls for the magistrate of the area.
Whatever the case, there are families of Bridges and families of Briggs and
there may be other spellings as well. They could all be connected back in the
mists of time, but I only went back as far as 1595.
According to the information in TAG, John Briggs was b. 1595
in Thornbury, Gloucestershire ,
England . He is
my 10th great grandfather. He
was the son of Richard Briggs and Agnes Wingod. John married Agnes Thayer and
they had 6 children, all born in England :
John - bp. Sep 27 1634 in Thornbury
Katherine - bp. Jan 6 1636/7
Richard - bp. Mar 17 1638/9
Samuel - b. 1641
*William - b. c. 1645
Hugh - b. unknown
One of the biggest issues in researching this family was
untangling some of the previous research from another John Briggs (b. 1609)
family. This John Briggs was married to Hannah Fisher and does not seem to have
any connection to this line of Briggs. What
made it confusing was they both ended up in the same general geographical
location. Fortunately, there are some records that show John (1609) was one of
the purchasers of Aquidneck Island , RI , while the John Briggs I was following settled in Taunton , MA .
Still they used so many of the same names for their children and the families
did move around, that it was a hair puller, for sure.
So to continue, William Briggs, b. c. 1645, in England , came
here with his parents and siblings sometime around 1657. They spent a few years
in the Marshfield , MA
(remember this was actually Plymouth Colony) before moving to Taunton . In Marshfield ,
William married Sarah MacCumber, whose family came from Dorchester, Devonshire , England .
Sarah had a twin brother, William McCumber.
By Jan. 1667, they were in Taunton
where their first child was born. Their family:
*William - 1667-1731, m. Mehitable Blake
Thomas - 1669-1740, m. Abigail Thayer
Hannah - b. 1672, m. Samuel Woodward
Mary - b. 1674, m. Jacob Staple
Matthew - 1676-1765, m. Abigail Burt
Amos - b. 1678-1770, m. Sarah Payne
John - b. 1680, Hannah Rockett
The first five were born in Taunton and the rest may have been too, I
just haven’t found verification for them. Also, I have seen other lists of
children for this family and Amos was not included in all of them. I am leaving
him in this list because I can not prove one way or another, if he belongs to
this William and Sarah Briggs.
Their oldest son, another William, married twice. He first
married Elizabeth Lincoln in 1693. They had a daughter, Sarah, b. Jul 5 1894 in
Taunton , MA .
He then married Mehitable Blake in Milton , MA
on Jun 16 1696.
Their children were:
Agnes - 1697- c. 1735
*Nathaniel - 1698-1773 m. Judith Guild
Mehitable - c. 1703-1782 m. John Ware
Eliphalet - b. c.
1706
Seth – b. c. 1798
Nathaniel Briggs (1698-1773) is recorded as Lt. in most of
the records found, possibly serving in the French and Indian War. He married
Judith Guild (1697-1774), the daughter of Deacon John Guild and Sarah Fisher,
of Dedham and Wrentham , MA .
Judith was the 7th of eight children, born in Wrentham, Norfolk Co.,
MA. Nathaniel and Judith had eight children as well. They were:
Nathaniel, b. c. 1721
Margaret, b. c. 1723 m. Nehemiah Willis
Jemima (c. 1724-1789) m. John Harvey – They lived in NH
*Judith (c.1725-c.1773) m. Joseph Tower
Marcy, b. c. 1730
William, b 1736
John (?-c.1773)
Mehitable
Information found on the Find-a-Grave site says that
Nathaniel and Judith were the 3x great grandparents of five men with the
surname Ball, the founders of the Ball Corporation. They were also instrumental
in the creation of the Ball State University
in Muncie , IN. It also states they were 5x great
grandparents of Senator John Goodwin
Tower , former US Senator from Texas .
Senator Tower and his daughter were killed in a
plane crash in 1991.
The next generation will be following Judith Briggs. She was
also recorded as Judah ,
but it proved difficult to find much information about her. Fortunately, I had
some information which helped. I needed to jump forward several generations and
work back which is how I found her in New
Brunswick . She fell into that time period before the
American Revolution when many colonists were heading north to take up free land
offered by King George. A host of people left Cape Cod, SW Massachusetts and RI,
for Nova Scotia .
To make matters more difficult for researchers, part of Nova
Scotia was divided and renamed New Brunswick sometime in the 1780’s. This
means that any research for that time frame needs to include both Provinces. A
great deal has been written about the families that remained in the colonies,
but not much has been written about the ones who headed to Canada .
Possibly there was no way to know where certain missing family members had gone
or perhaps it was assumed they died young.
Here follows what is known about Judith Briggs, daughter of
Nathaniel and Judith Guild Briggs.
Judith Briggs and Joseph
Tower were married in 1743 in Attleborough , MA .
Soon after, they removed to Cumberland
Hill , RI . They had a family of 7 children, all born in
Cumberland Hill, with the possible exception of they very youngest child. Joseph’s name was listed as a grantee of
Sackville, c. 1760, but it was noted that he never took possession of his
grant. Joseph was lost at sea around 1761.
One research report claims that Joseph died enroute to Canada , which
is entirely possible. Judith was now a widow with a new baby or soon to be new
baby. Her older children were also heading north for the free lands as part of
the Planter Migration to occupy the vacated Arcadian homes and farms. There is no telling if Nancy , the youngest was born in RI, on the
way to Sackville, or was born after their arrival.
Judith and Joseph’s children were:
*Benjamin – 1744-1804 m. Ann Finney
Joseph – 1746-1822 m. Ellen Mason, relocated to Ira , VT
Nathaniel – 1748 – 1836 m. Lucy Tingley, relocated to Lennox , PA
Joshua – 1750-1753
Lucy – 1752-1822 m. Gideon Smith
William – 1755-1783 lost at sea
Benjamin was the progenitor of the Towers in New Brunswick . In 1770,
the return of the Township
of Sackville showed:
500 acres of land, 2 oxen, 2 cows, 7 young neat cattle, 8 sheep, 1 swine.
Benjamin
and Ann Finney Tower
had 10 children, all born in NS/NB:
Joshua
– b.1768
Benjamin
– b.1770
George
– b.1772
Nathaniel
– b. 1774
William
– (c.1776 - c.1804)
*Phebe
Elizabeth – 1777 – 1822 m. Edward Buck
Ann
- b. c. 1780 m. Charles Delesdernier
Joseph
– (b. c. 1784 – 1857) m. Sarah Maxwell
Gideon
– b. c. 1786 m. Catherine McFarlane
Ruth
- b. 1787 m. Israel
Thornton
Edward
– (1797 – 1875) m. Mary Ann Finney
George
– (1798 – 1878) m. Phebe Palmer
Ann
Buck – (1800 – 1833) m. Benjamin Simonton, relocated to Cass Co., IA
William
– (1801 – 1819)
Thomas
– (1803 – 1819
James
Richard – (1812 – 1874) m. Sarah Mitton
Phebe
– (1814 – 1881) m. Leighton Card
Phebe
and Edward are my 4th great grandparents and both are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery ,
Dorchester , NB. Since I have already completed other
blogs on the Buck family, I will end this line with this couple.
As a
note of interest, for a few years I worked with a Mr. Simonton. I asked him if
he knew anything about his ancestry and it seems that someone in his family had
done some research. As it turned out, his family was related to the Benjamin
Simonton who married Ann Buck. What turned out to be even more remarkable was
that he grew up in the town right next to my home town. As a teenager, he had
worked at a drugstore where my mother did business. I love small world
stories!!
Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts ,
Massachusetts Vital and Town
Records.
http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/tower/365/
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