Higginson

1681, and later his employer secured for him a
position in the mint in the Tower of London.
In 1683 he entered the service of the English
East India Company as a writer, and sailed for
Fort Saint George, Madras, where he arrived
on Mar. 19, 1684. From this date till Oct. 23,
1692, when he became president of Fort Saint
George, his promotion was rapid. He was ap-
pointed an assistant custom and warehouse agent
on July 3, 1684; in 1685 he became a factor at
£15 a year; in February 1686 the president ap-
pointed him to his council at a salary of £40;
and on' July 10 made him an assistant to Judge
John Gray of the Admiralty court; to these
duties, Oct. n, 1686, Higginson added that of
one of the three municipal judges. Sir Josiah
Child, governor of the board of directors of the
East India Company, advanced Higginson, at
the age of thirty-five, to second in Elihu Yale's
council, and wrote "let none of you think much
or grudge at the speedy advancement of Mr.
Higginson" (J. T. Wheeler, Madras in the Olden
Time, Madras, 1861, I, 195). James II granted
to the East India Company, Dec. 30, 1687, a
municipal charter for Madras, and on Sept. 29,
1688, Higginson was sworn in as first mayor of
the municipality, an office later held by his son
Richard. In this year he was not only second
in the president's council, mayor, paymaster,
justice of the peace, chief accountant and book-
keeper, and mint master, but he was also in
charge of the mayor's court, and commissioner
of customs. In 1689 ne resigned as mayor, left
the East India Company's service, and proceeded
to Bengal. Three years later he returned to Ma-
dras, was reinstated on the council, and Oct. 23,
1692, assumed the governorship, in place of
Elihu Yale who had been removed because of
disputes with the council. In May of this year,
he had married Elizabeth Richardson, the orphan
daughter of John Richardson, chief of the Bal-
lasow factory in Bengal, who had died in 1681.
By his wife he had five children, three sons and
two daughters.

While president of Fort Saint George, Hig-
ginson sent Dr. Samuel Browne to Gingee, Aug.
7, 1693, and received from Kasim Khan six vil-
lages, and in 1695, the village of Catawuk, but,
owing to troubles with the Great Mogul and
Mahrattas, the new territories were not occupied.
These troubles led the Company in March 1694
to appoint Higginson lieutenant-general of India.
He was able to get confirmed the perwanna
issued by Kam Baksh, Feb. 25, 1693, for the
villages of Tondiarpelt, Pursewaukum, and Eg-
more. In spite of the confirmation of the Grand
Vizier of the Grand Mogul, Asad Khan, Mar.

Higginson

19, 1694, the dispute over these and other vil-
lages, tribute, and supplies of powder and shot
led to further trouble and desultory warfare from
Oct. 12, 1697, to Feb. 22, 1698. Such disputes,
controversy with the Catholic bishop of Saint
Thomas over the appointment of priests to towns
within the confines of the Company's territories,
opposition from his council, and the still un-
settled disagreement over the affairs of Elihu
Yale who did not leave India until Feb. 22, 1699,
led to Higginson's being succeeded by Thomas
Pitt on July 6, 1698. From July 6 to Sept. 12,
1698, he served in Pitt's council, but on Feb. 23,
1700, finally left for England.

Here Higginson took up his residence in Char-
terhouse yard, London. With nineteen others
he presented a petition to Queen Anne, June 10,
1706, for the removal of Gov. Joseph Dudley of
Massachusetts ; and he was a member of the So-
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in New
England. His death, from smallpox, occurred in
Soper Lane, Pancreas Parish, and he was buried
in Bow Church, Cheapside.

[MSS., East India Company, Factory Records, Ma-
dras, in the library of the India office, Whitehall, Lon-
don, and Madras, India; John Bruce, Annals of the
Hon. East-India Company (3 vols., 1810) ; John Farm-
er, A Geneal. Reg. of the First Settlers of New Eng.
(1829) ; New-Eng. ffist. and Geneal. Reg,, Jan. 1847;
Henry Yule, The Diary of William Hedges, vol. I
(1887) ; "Higginson Papers," Hist. Colls, of the Essex
Inst., vol. VII, no. 5 (Oct. 1865) ; "Higginson Letters,"
Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 3 sen, VII (1838); H. D.
Love, Vestiges of Old Madras (4 vols., 1913) ; Mrs.
Frank Penny, Fort St. George, Madras (1900) ; Frank
Penny, The Church in Madras (1904) ; J. L. Sibley,
Biog. Sketches Grads. Harvard Univ., vol. II (1881) ;
B. C. Steiner, "Two New England Rulers of Madras,"
South Atlantic Quart., July 1902 ; J. T. Wheeler, Early
Records of British India ( 1 878) .] jj 5 jjt

HIGGINSON, STEPHEN (Nov. 28, 1743-
Nov. 22, 1828), merchant, grandfather of Thomas
Wentworth Higginson [q.v.]f was the son of
Stephen and Elizabeth (Cabot) Higginson of
Salem, Mass., and a direct descendant of Fran-
cis and John Higginson [qq.v.]* He attended
the Salem schools and then entered the business
office of Deacon Smith of Boston. In 1764 he
married his second cousin, Susan Cleveland of
Connecticut. He then became a supercargo, nav-
igator, and part owner of vessels, sailing to
various European ports. When in London in
1775 he was called before a committee of Parlia-
ment and questioned regarding New England
commerce and resources (Peter Force, American
Archives, ser. IV, vol. I, 1837, pp. 1645-48).
He continued his voyages until the beginning
of the Revolution when he became a priva-
teer. At this pursuit he is said to have made
$70,000. In 1778 he moved to Boston and formed
a partnership with Jonathan Jackson. He was a