Thomas Riggs (1633 - 1722)

Born Mar 1633 in Hawkshead, Lancashire, England

Husband of Mary (Millett) Riggs — married 7 Jun 1658 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 26 Feb 1722 at age 88 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

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Disputed parentage

Some have maintained that Edward Riggs was the father of Thomas Riggs of Hawkshead. However, Alvy Ray Smith and Robert Charles Anderson have provided convincing evidence that while Edward and Thomas share a common ancestor, they are not father and son. (For details, read the paper at the following link.) They also provide some evidence that the father of Thomas was Robert Rigg of Hawkshead.

DNA evidence shows that Thomas Riggs is related to Edward Riggs of Roxbury but he is not the father of Thomas.^[1]

Biography

Thomas Riggs was educated in England for the profession of a scrivener. He was town clerk of Gloucester, Massachusetts for fifty-one years, a selectman upwards of twenty years, and representative in 1700. He also served as Schoolmaster. He was an exceedingly valuable man in the town, more than half of whose male inhabitants and most of the female inhabitants at that early period could not read or write. Thomas died February 26, 1722, at the age of ninety.

THOMAS RIGGS was born in Lancashire, England about 1633.

He was baptized March 25, 1633 Hawkshead, Lancashire, England. Son of Robert Riggs (Cowper, Hawkshead Parish Register) batch no. P005961, FHL 476869

Records of the Drapers Company of London show a Thomas Riggs, son of Robert of Hawkshead, Lancashire - apprenticed 3 February 1646 for nine years to Richard Barlow, Scrivener, of Tower Street, London. The apprenticeship would have been completed in 1655 and shortly after Thomas must have immigrated to Gloucester, Massachusetts

Arrival - About 1656

The earliest reputed evidence in Gloucester of Thomas Riggs is a small pigskin notebook, Kept by Thomas Riggs, the town clerk of Gloucester, dated 1656. - The notebook dated 1656 suggests that he arrived that year and purchased the book, He might however, have purchased the notebook before departing from England and dated it there.

Thomas Riggs and Mary Millet were married 7 June 1658 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. May Millett (Millet) who was born 26 Aug 1639 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts daughter of Thomas and Mary (Greenway) Millett

Mary's father Thomas died intestate and his estate was eventually divided up equally into 5 parts to be shared between his children - Thomas Riggs of Gloucester receiving Mary's share (Essex Probate Records Vol 3 1675-1681 pp83-84).

Thomas Millett; who had a grant in 1658 of six acres of upland lying at Little River, and 7 Oct 1661 bought of Coe and Lee Wakleys, houses, gardens and home lots on the south side of Goose Cove; who by grant and purchase acquired other lots of land, and was at one time the largest owner in the common territory; who lived a long and useful life here, and whose descendants here and in the neighbourhood have continued to the present day." (written in 1888).[S42:p147]

After Mary died 23 Jan1695, Thomas married his second wife, 30 Oct 1695 in Gloucester - Elizabeth Frese, born about 1642, she was the widow of James Frese of Salisbury by whom she had had a son James, born 16 March 1667.

Thomas died at Gloucester, Essex Co, MA on 26 Feb 1722 aged about 90, town clerk about 51 years, Elizabeth his widow died shortly afterwards at Gloucester, Essex Co, MA on 16 June 1722 aged 80.

Thomas was town clerk for 51 years, selectman for 20, a representative to the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Gloucester's first schoolmaster. Many of Gloucester's early records are in Thomas Sr.'s hand.

For more info on the history of the house which Thomas Riggs occupied, see the Thomas Riggs's house at Cape Ann.

When Thomas Sr.'s youngest son Andrew married Mary Richardson in 1704, a single-storey cape was added to the log house. In 1753 Andrew's youngest son George built the gambrel roof, accommodating three upstairs bedchambers. The house remained in the Riggs family nearly untouched until the current owner designed a timber-frame wing of 18th-c. handhewn beams that provides a great room and loft as well as the house's first permanent electricity, running water, and heat (save for the six working fireplaces).

Children - Thomas and Mary had ten children:

1. MARY RIGGS Born 6 March 1658/9 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. Mary married "BENJAMEN HASKALL" at Gloucester, Essex Co, MA 21 NOV 1677 Mary died 29 JAN 1699. They had nine children
2. THOMAS RIGGS Born 23 JAN 1660/1 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. died 1 Feb 1660/61
3. SARAH RIGGS Born 16 JAN or Feb 1661/2 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. On 9 MAY 1681 Sarah married JOHN TUCKER of Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. Their marriage was recorded at Gloucester and at Salem (where they were both described as being "of Gloucester" Their son William, born 11 MAY 1690, married Dorcas Lane, an older sister of Sarah Lane who married Thomas Riggs the son of Thomas and Ann. The had nine children.
4. ANNA alias ANN RIGGS, Anne Born 27 APR 1664 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. She is entered in the VRs as ANNA. On 30 JAN 1684 at Gloucester, Essex Co, MA, -Ann married NATHANIEL WHARFF , born 1662 the son of Nathaniel Wharff of Casco. Savage quotes the date as 30JAN1684 [S5], whilst Torrey quotes the date as 30 JAN 1683. . She died 17 DEC 1701 shortly after the birth of their thirteenth child (including a set of twins).
5. THOMAS RIGGS Born 7 DEC 1666 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. married Ann Wheeler and had 11 children. (four sons and seven daughters) Married 2nd Elizabeth Wood, and third Ruth Dodge.
6. 'JOHN RIGGS Born 25 FEB 1669/70 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. married Ruth Wheeler, and had 11 children (four sons and seven daughters)
7. ELIZABETH RIGGS Born 22 APR 1672 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. died 28 April 1728- On 28 APR 1692 at Gloucester, Essex Co, MA, Elizabeth married EZEKIALL COLLINS , born 23 FEB 1665 the son of John and Mehitable (Giles) Collins of Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. Elizabeth and Ezekial had 7 children
8. ABIGAIL RIGGS Born 29 DEC 1678 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA.
9. ANDREW RIGGS Born 8 JAN 1681/2 in Gloucester, Essex Co, MA. married Mary Richardson and had nine children (three sons and six daughters)

Note

Thomas Riggs first appears in town as a granteeof land at Goose Cove in 1658. In 1661, he bought houses and lands of Matthew Coe and Thomas and John Wakley, also situated near Goose Cove. A part of an old house in that section of the town is still shown as the original tenement erected by him. He is said to have been educated in England for the profession of a scrivener; and his ability in that line made him a welcomeacquisition to a community, of whose men one-half were unable to write; while his repeated election to the most important offices sufficiently attests the estimation in which he was held by the citizens.

He was town-clerk from 1665 to 1716 (fifty-one years), selectman upwards of twenty years, and representative in 1700. Besides filling these offices, he often served on committees, and sometimes officiated as schoolmaster. He married, first, Mary, daughter of Thomas Millet, June 7, 1658. She died Jan. 23, 1695; and he married, next, Elizabeth Frese, Oct. 30, 1695, who died June 16, 1722, aged eighty: he died Feb. 26, 1722, aged ninety.

Sources: History of Gloucester byBabson, FHL 974.45/G3 H2bj. New England Historical and Genealogical Register , Vol.17, p.31-32, & 152-153. FHL 974 B2ne (Note: This has some mds. ofthe children.) Gloucester Vital Records, Essex Co., MA. FHL 974.45/G3 V29v.

Sources

1. ↑ http://alvyray.com/Riggs/printpapers/HawksheadRiggs_finalTAGversion.pdf

• Smith, Alvy Ray. The Probable Genetic Signature of Thomas¹ Riggs, Immigrant to Gloucester, Massachusetts, by 1658, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2010) Vol. 164, WN 654, Page 88.
• The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. Three Volumes. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995. 2386p. Page: 1583
• Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
• Smith, Alvy Ray, and Anderson, Robert Charles. (2007) Proposed Hawkshead, Lancashire, origins of Edward Riggs of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and Thomas Riggs of Gloucester. The American Genealogist, 82:120-129.
• Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Generations Network, Inc., Provo, UT, USA, 2004)
• Clemens, William Montgomery. American Marriages Before 1699 (Biblio Co., Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1926)
• Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1862)
• American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
• Essex County, Massachusetts Biographies
• Family Data Collection - Deaths http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?f=sse&db=genepoold&h=2202525&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt