Higginson

others, and besides the usual subjects of that
day he learned something of the French and
Indian languages. He was admitted as freeman
May 25, 1636, and in the summer of that year
was sent to confer with Canonicus about the kill-
ing of John Oldham and was also made chaplain
at Saybrook Fort, where he continued about four
years. He attended the Cambridge Synod of
1637, at which his knowledge of shorthand se-
cured him the position of secretary. In 1639 he
was enrolled as one of the proprietors of Hart-
ford, where he taught school for a time, but after
a few months went to New Haven. Sometime
between 1641 and 1643, he moved to Guilford,
where he became assistant to the Rev. Henry
Whitfield and married his daughter Sarah. On
the formal organization of the church, June 1643,
Higginson was elected "teacher" but seems
never to have been ordained, although he con*
sidered himself as regularly in the ministry. In
1647 he prepared nearly two hundred of Thomas
Hooker's sermons for the press. Soon after the
establishment of the Commonwealth in England,
most of the more prominent settlers at Guilford
returned to that country and the settlement lan-
guished. Whitfield was one of the first to leave
and three years later, Higginson, who in the
meantime had continued as "teacher," was chosen
pastor in his stead. In October 1654 he con-
templated moving to the West Indies in accord-
ance with a plan for New England people sug-
gested by Cromwell, but the defeat of the English
fleet which sailed against Hispaniola in De-
cember seems to have caused him to give tip the
idea. In the controversy of 1656, which began
in the church of Rev. Samuel Stone [#.#.] of
Hartford and spread to the other churches, Hig-
ginson strongly opposed Stone, but this fact
made no change in their personal relations and
he prepared Stone's "Body of Divinity" for the
press, though it did not find a publisher. In
1658, because of his knowledge of the Indian
language, efforts were made to induce him to be-
come a missionary, but he declined. He felt,
however, that he must leave Guilford since his
salary was in arrears.

Early in 1659 he sailed for England with his
family but the ship was driven back by a storm
to his boyhood home of Salern. There he was
asked to preach and in the following spring, the
pastor having died, he was offered the post at
double the salary he had received at Guilford.
He accepted the call Mar. 9, 1660, and was in-
stalled in August He was soon in trouble with
the Quakers and was in part responsible for the
treatment which they received from the Massa-
chusetts colony. In 1663 be reached the high

Higginson
point of clerical prominence by being asked to
preach the annual election sermon before the
authorities, the first of such sermons to be print-
ed. The same year he was appointed one of the
thirteen elders to draft a reply to a letter from
the King, and for forty years thereafter he held
one of the leading places among the colony's
clergy. In April 1668 he was one of the six
chosen to conduct the public disputation which
resulted in the conviction of the Anabaptists
Goole and others. He was among those who
petitioned for the synod called at Boston by the
General Court in 1679, an^ in 1701, with Rev.
William Hubbard fr?.^.], published A Testi-
mony, to the Order oj the Gospel, in the Churches
of New England, a summons to return to the old
ways. He held aloof from the witchcraft trials,
probably because his own daughter was one of
the accused. He was opposed to slavery and
supported Sewall when the latter published his
anti-slavery tract and incurred a certain amount
of unpopularity. He wrote prefaces for Cotton
Mather's Winter-Meditation (1693) and The
Everlasting Gospel (1700), and a short "Attes-
tation" which was prefixed to Mather's Magnolia
Christi Americana (1702). His printed works,
about a dozen, are mostly very brief. The preface
to his Our Dying Saviour's Legacy of Peace to
His Disciples in a Troublesome World (1686)
contains autobiographical material. He had much
learning, although no great ability, and the promi-
nence to which he attained was almost wholly
due to the office which he held. His first wife
bore him seven children, of whom Nathaniel
[q.v.] was one; she died in 1675 ai*d ^e later
married Mary Blakeman.
[S. E. Baldwin, In Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc.t 2 ser.,
XVI (1903), has abundant citations of sources, and a
bibliography of writings; Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 3
ser. VII (1838) contains letters; see also T. W. Hig-
ginson, Descendants of the Rev. Francis Higginson
(1910).] JfTiAt
HIGGINSON, NATHANIEL (Oct. 11,1652-
Oct 31, 1708), merchant and governor of Fort
Saint George, India, was the grandson of Rev.
Francis Higginson [g.v.] who came to Massa-
chusetts in 1629 and was minister of the church
at Salem, and the son of Rev. John [q.v.] and
Sarah (Whitfield) Higginson. He was born
at Guilford, Conn., where his father was assist-
ant to the Rev. Henry Whitfield, In 1659 the
family moved to Salem. At the age of sixteen
Nathaniel entered Harvard and graduated in
1670, For a further period of two years he pur-
sued his studies and took his second degree in
1672. Finding little use for his talents, in 1674
he left for England. Here he was employed as
tutor for the children of Lord Wharton until