Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Rev. John Higginson

-
Name John Higginson [1] Prefix Rev. Alternate birth 6 Aug 1616 Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England [2, 3, 4]
Baptism 11 Aug 1616 Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England [5]
Birth Bef 31 Aug 1616 Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England [6, 7]
Gender Male Baptised 31 Aug 1616 Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England [6, 7]
Death 9 Dec 1708 Salem, Essex, Massachusetts [3, 4, 8]
Person ID I15615 Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others Last Modified 20 Nov 2020
Father Rev. Francis Higginson, b. Bef 6 Aug 1586 d. 6 Aug 1630, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 44 years)
Mother Anne Herbert d. Bef 25 Feb 1640, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut Marriage 8 Jan 1616 St. Peter's, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England [6, 7, 9]
Family ID F10237 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Sarah Whitfield, b. Bef 1 Nov 1620 d. 8 Jul 1675, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 54 years)
Marriage Bef 1646 Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut [10, 11, 12, 13]
Children + 1. John Higginson, b. 1646, Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut d. 23 Mar 1719, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts
(Age 73 years)
Family ID F9551 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 18 Sep 2020
-
Notes - "John Higginson was admitted freeman May 25, 1636, and the same year went to Saybrook, Conn., as chaplain at the fort, where he remained 'about four years.' In 1641 be taught school at Hartford, Conn., and later became assistant to Rev. Henry Whitfield at Guilford, Conn. Upon Mr. Whitfield's resignation in 1653, he was settled as pastor of the church, where he remained until 1659, when, with his family, he embarked for England. On account of bad weather, the vessel entered Salem harbor. While there he was invited to remain and become pastor of the church founded by his father. He was installed in August, 1660, and continued in the pastorate till his death." [Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson, citation details below.]
"Reverend Higginson was chosen by Cotton Mather to write the preface of the latter's Magnalia Christi Americana, since he had been a minister in New England for sixty of the seventy years of ecclesiastical history which that volume covered." [The Ancestry of Reverend Henry Whitfield, citation details below.]
He was much concerned with what he considered an excessive number of taverns, "ordinaries," in Salem. He was opposed to slavery. He wrote a treatise in opposition to the wearing of wigs. His funeral sermon was preached by Cotton Mather and then published under the title The Happy Dismissal of a Holy Believer, A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Rev. John Higginson, with Memoirs of His Life.
Note: He was not a twin to his brother Theophilus, as widely reported; Theophilus was born a year later.
His name is on the Founders Monument in downtown Hartford.
- "John Higginson was admitted freeman May 25, 1636, and the same year went to Saybrook, Conn., as chaplain at the fort, where he remained 'about four years.' In 1641 be taught school at Hartford, Conn., and later became assistant to Rev. Henry Whitfield at Guilford, Conn. Upon Mr. Whitfield's resignation in 1653, he was settled as pastor of the church, where he remained until 1659, when, with his family, he embarked for England. On account of bad weather, the vessel entered Salem harbor. While there he was invited to remain and become pastor of the church founded by his father. He was installed in August, 1660, and continued in the pastorate till his death." [Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson, citation details below.]
-
Sources - [S2216] Mary Lovering Holman, "The Sheafe Line." The American Genealogist 22:85, Oct 1945.
- [S2122] Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 1910., date & county only.
- [S2123] The Ancestry of Reverend Henry Whitfield (1590-1657) and His Wife Dorothy Sheafe (159?-1669) of Guilford, Connecticut by John Brooks Threlfall. Madison, Wisconsin: 1989.
- [S933] Fifty Great Migration Colonists of New England and Their Origins by John Brooks Threlfall. Madison, Wisconsin, 1990., date only.
- [S2413] Randy A. West, "Updates for some English Records for some Great Migration Immigrants Who Came by 1635." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 172:245 (Summer 2018); 172:353 (Fall 2018); 173:187 (Spring 2019).
- [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.
- [S2306] The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.
- [S2122] Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 1910.
- [S2138] Randy West, "The 'Cousin' Relationship Between Rev. Francis Higginson of Salem, Massachusetts, and Increase Nowell of Charlestown, Massachussetts." The American Genealogist 90:71, January 2018.
- [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011., date only.
- [S2122] Descendants of the Reverend Francis Higginson by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 1910., place only.
- [S2306] The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012., date only.
- [S933] Fifty Great Migration Colonists of New England and Their Origins by John Brooks Threlfall. Madison, Wisconsin, 1990., says "1641".
- [S2216] Mary Lovering Holman, "The Sheafe Line." The American Genealogist 22:85, Oct 1945.