Higgins Family of Maryland's Eastern Shore

Maryland Eastern Shore Higgins References, 1650-1679

Year:	1600
Meanwhile:	Much of the native American population had already perished from diseases introduced by Europeans (measles, smallpox, typhus, etc.), beginning with Columbus. Direct contact with Europeans was not necessary as existing trading routes and contact between tribes spread the diseases. In any given area, typically 50% of the population had died within a decade of contact and 90% within 50 years of contact. Because epidemics came in repeated waves, most tribes did not have an opportunity to recover before the next epidemic arrived. The tribes familiar to colonial settlers were just a small number of the many tribes that had once existed. Early descriptions of the America's described it as a virgin land. The historian Francis Jennings more properly described it as a "widowed land".

Year:	1640
Meanwhile:	English Civil War erupts between the Royalists of King Charles I and the Parliamentary army, eventually resulting in defeat for the Royalists and the downfall of the monarchy. On January 30, 1649, King Charles I is beheaded. England then becomes a Commonwealth and Protectorate ruled by Oliver Cromwell. By 1645 King Charles I, who supported the Maryland Charter, had effectively lost all political power to the Puritan Parliament. Using a recent act of Parliament as a pretext, a merchant sea captain, Richard Ingle, who had previously been arrested in Maryland for treasonous statements against the king, organized an attack on the Maryland colony and subjected it to a two-year occupation referred to by the colonists as the "plundering time". The property of "papists and malignants" was seized and many colonists, including Governor Calvert and several Jesuit priests, fled to Virginia. The Catholic chapel was destroyed and the two leading Jesuits were arrested and transported to England for trial. The houses of many Catholics who refused to take the required oath against Lord Baltimore and the king were looted and vandalized. This situation continued until late 1646, when Governor Calvert raised a force of Virginians and exiled Marylanders and recaptured the colony. A general pardon was extended to all Marylanders who would take the oath of fidelity to Lord Baltimore. More problems arose in 1649 after Oliver Cromwell came to power in England. Maryland acknowledged the new government, but Virginia remained loyal to the new king Charles II, who inherited the throne after Charles I was beheaded in January 1649. This placed the Puritans in Virginia in a dangerous situation, and the Governor of Maryland invited them to take refuge there, guaranteeing their rights and freedom of religion. In 1650 about 300 Puritans settled near the present Annapolis. Instead of showing gratitude for their salvation by the Marylanders, within four years the Puritans, claiming the support of Parliament, had seized the government of Maryland and reintroduced religious and political persecution to the colony. Catholics were denied protection by the Laws of England and were disenfranchised from the political process. An attempt by Governor Stone in 1655 to retake the colony with 130 men led to a battle in which the Puritans were victorious. Following this the Jesuit missionaries were again expelled to Virginia and their homes plundered, and many of those remaining loyal to Lord Baltimore suffered reprisals. After Cromwell's victory over Charles I he took his New Model army to Dublin to subdue the Irish who had supported the royalist. During Cromwell’s sojourn in Ireland, which lasted for one year, he engaged in a general massacre of Royalists. In October 1651, Cromwell’s supporters captured the last Royalist stronghold- Limerick. To pay his officers Cromwell passed an Act of Settlement, which gave his supporters large tracts of land in Ireland, spurring Protestant settlement in Northern Ireland.

Year:	1651
Meanwhile:	Peter Stuyvesant moved the main Dutch settlement on the Delaware to the site of present day New Castle, DE and called his settlement Fort Casimir. Two years later Johan Rising replaced Johan Printz as governor of New Sweden. Rising took control of Fort Casimir only to lose it the following year, together with Fort Christina, to the Dutch. Although the Dutch retained control of the colony until the English took it, many Swedes elected to remain there with other Europeans such as the Finns, Germans, English, French, Scots, and other Scandinavians.

Year:	1651
	George Higginson
	Servant. Transported
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1653
Meanwhile:	Colonial immigrants from the tidewater area of southeastern Virginia move into the Albemarle area of northeast North Carolina.

Year:	1653
	John Higgins
....................	"William Stockder assigns to John Higgins Nov 19 1653 land due him for transporting himself about three years since for which he [John] received a valuable consideration from William Bronniday, dec'd, who disposed of the same by will to him the same Hodgin and of which a survey is already made by the Lord Proprietary General the 22 Nov, 1653"
Source:	"MD Early Settlers Section 48, Liber ABH p352", Maryland Gen. & Historical Recorder, Vol 10 p.57
Clues/Cross Reference:	Per 1897 biography of Cecil Campbell Higgins (1850-1922), "He is lineally descended from John Higgins, who received a grant of land on the Chesapeake, in Maryland, from Charles II, under Lord Baltimore." Source: History of the Bench and Bar of New York, Vol 1, pub. 1897
	Per biography of Martin Meginney Higgins (1844-1934), mayor of Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, "His family is one of the oldest in Talbot County, dating back to about the middle of the seventeenth century, when they emigrated to this country from Lincolnshire, England." Source: History of the Reincarnation of Easton, Maryland, pub. 1926

Year:	1656
	Michael Higgens
....................	Servant, transported 1656
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1658
	John Higgins
....................	Born 1658. Married Penelope Hull
Source:	IGI

Year:	1659
	Richard Higgeson
....................	Transported 1659
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1662
Meanwhile:	Connecticut receives official charter. The separate Connecticut and New Haven colonies merge in 1664, because of the latter's fear of being annexed by New York.

Year:	1662
	John Higgs
....................	Immigrated from Virginia
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1663
Meanwhile:	King Charles II officially designates the colony of Carolina, which includes both present day North and South Carolina.

Year:	1663
	Michael Higgins
....................	Made statements in Provincial Court regarding sales by Hugh Stanley from the estate of Daniel Gouldsons
Source:	Maryland 1663 Provincial Court Proceedings

Year:	1663 Talbot Co.
	Nich. Higgins
....................	"50 acres. Stepney. 28 Aug 1663. for Thomase Baxter and assigned and patented in the name of Timothy Lindall in Ewans Bay adjoining the Land of William Ewan possessed by Nich. Higgins in Rt [right?] of his Wife"
Source:	Talbot Co Rent Rolls
Clues/Cross Reference:	"50 acres. Salem. March 1663. for Timothy Lindall in Ewans Bay adjoining to the land of Thos Baxter possessed by Nich. Higgins in rt. [right of?] his Wife" (may refer to inlet near land of William Ewens) Source: Talbot Co Rent Rolls

Year:	1663 Anne Arundel Co.
	Richard Higgins
....................	16 Mar 1663. Will of for John Sison. “...Overseers: Cornelius Howard afsd. and Richard Higgins.”
Source:	Maryland Calendar of Wills from 1635 to 1685 Vol I, Jane Baldwin

Year:	1664
Meanwhile:	Maryland passes a law making lifelong servitude for black slaves mandatory to prevent them from taking advantage of legal precedents established in England, which grant freedom under certain conditions, such as conversion to Christianity. Laws are also passed to prevent marriages between English women and free black men. Similar laws are later passed in New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas and Virginia.

Year:	1665
Meanwhile:	The Great Plague in London kills 68,596 people.

Year:	1665
	William Higgate
....................	Transported 1665
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1667
Meanwhile:	John Milton publishes "Paradise Lost".

Year:	1668
	George Higgenbotham
....................	Transported
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1668
	Henry Higgs
....................	Transported
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1668 Somerset Co.
	Isabell Higgins (Higgens)
....................	Married George Mitchell
Source:	Somerset County Court Proceedings 1665 - 1668 ; Old Somerset on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Clayton Torrence; Maryland Eastern Shore Vital Records 1648-1725, F. Edward Wright

Year:	1669 Dorchester Co.
	John Higgs
....................	Transported. Dorchester County
Source:	The Early Settlers of Maryland, Gust Skordas

Year:	1669 Talbot Co.
	Jno. Wiggins
	Will of Thomas Powell. Wit: Wm. Blackstone, Jno. Wiggins, Michael Parker, Edward Fish
Source:	Maryland Calendar of Wills from 1635 to 1685 Vol 1, Jane Baldwin; "The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist: Vol XII, No. 2, April 1971", p.33
Clues/Cross Reference:	Thomas Powell owned land "at head of the north west branch of the Great Choptank"(Old Town) and was probably a Quaker.

Year:	1669 Talbot Co.
	Nicholas Haggitt
	3 May 1669. Nicholas Haggitt appointed attorney, with power of attorney, for John Edmondson
Source: