Person:William Biggs (1)

From The New England Historic Genealogical Society "Register" Vol. 151 (January 1997), pp. 85-100

William and Mary Briggs of Boston and the Connecticut Valley With Notes on their Sons-in-Law John Harris and Wolston Brockway [Footnotes omitted] by Gale Ion Harris

Charlestown, where William and Mary were married, was only a short ferry ride across the river from his parents' home in Boston. That home was sold five months later in the summer of 1665, when the older couple removed to Wethersfield. William and his bride may have accompanied them, for his first child, born in 1665 or 1666, is not recorded in Charlestown or Boston. In any case, William must have been in Middletown before January 1671, when he recorded the four-acre parcel near Pistol Point that his father gave him, but cancelled four days later. His children's later deeds show that William Biggs, Jr. accumulated properties on both sides of the Connecticut River. In particular, they show that it was William, Jr. who recorded on 22 February 1671 a tract at Dividend given to him by the town, bounded east on the River, north on Wethersfield bounds, "being one mil[e] and a half long... and 43 rods wide." A valuation of the estates of Middletown inhabitants dated 16 August 1673 shows "Wm Bigs 41:10" in sequence after John Willcock, David Sage, John Kirby, and Arthur Scovill.

William's estates at Middletown, valued at 39 lb, included land on both sides of the Connecticut River and debts due from Francis [unclear - Herrick?], Abraham Smith, and Deacon Thomas Allen. His inventory in August 1681 also lists the six children below, aged four to fifteen years. Administration was granted to "Mary the Relict," who exhibited the inventory in court at Hartford that September. In March 1690/91, the court appointed "Richard Hall and Mr. Southmayd to bind out Wm Biggs his youngest son [evidently John, then aged fourteen] to some good place where he may be carefully provided for & instructed." Widow Mary Biggs never completed her duties as administratrix; on 12 April 1693, upon complaint "that there was no administrator," the court appointed [her son-in-law] William Smith and William Taylor to "gather it up and make report thereof... so distribution may be made."

1. ↑ New England Historic Genealogical Society. NEHGS Register
   Vol. 151 (January 1997), pp. 85-100.