Thomas Wiggin

1592 - 1666  (74 years)

• Name	Thomas Wiggin  [1, 2]
  Birth	1592	Douglas, Lancashire, England
  Gender	Male
  Immigration	1630	New England   [1]
  Death	22 Mar 1666	Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire
  Notes	Joyce Elaine (Joy) Wiggins-Robbins contacted the author in February, 2017 to advise that she had published a book on Capt. Thomas Wiggins and his descendants in the U.S. It is entitled "Shadow Echo Me - Captain Thomas Wiggins (1601-1666) - The Making of American Values". It is available through Amazon or through the author. She can be reached at: joy1982@windstream.net Capt Thomas Wiggin - Wikipedia Captain Thomas Wiggin/b (1592 1667), often known as Governor Thomas Wiggin, was the first governor of the Upper Plantation of New Hampshire which eventually became the Royal Province of New Hampshire in 1741. Captain Thomas Wiggin first ventured to New England in 1630 when he sailed with John Winthrop to Boston on the Winthrop Fleet. In the years that followed, he served as the governor of the Upper Plantation, comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham. In 1631 he settled in Stratham. He was also the holder of the massive Squamscott patent, land east of the mouth of the Squamscott River, and continued to be a close ally of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thomas Wiggin and his son Thomas Wiggin Jr. joined other New Hampshire residents in signing a petition to King James II of England protesting the grant of land to John Mason (governor), proprietor of the controversial Masonian Grant (issued to Mason and fellow speculator Sir Ferdinando Gorges), which sought to hold enormous tracts of New Hampshire land.sup[1]/sup Following the death in England of John Mason, who never set foot in America, Mason's heirs attempted to seize the lands granted Mason by voiding deeds held by colonists and throwing them off their hard-won acres, enraging the colonists. The petition signed by Wiggin and others referred to "our pretended proprietor Robert Mason Esq." and begged for Royal relief from the greed of well-connected adventurers. Captain Thomas Wiggin was a Puritan and extremely religious. He ascribed fervently to the belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic theology and ritual. He was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy, and believed that English Puritans needed to create a New England in a new world. In June 1659, his son Andrew Wiggin married Hannah Bradstreet, daughter of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Simon Bradstreet and Anne Bradstreet (daughter of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Thomas Dudley). MAINE PIONEERS, 1623-60 Captain Thomas Wiggin; Wigan; Wiggins; Wigon Comment: gent. [L.] whose birth-place has eluded search, may be the person of whom Sir John Drake wrote from Barnstaple, England, Jan. 6, 1627; "Captain Thomas Wigan desires a letter of marque against the French"; this was addressed to the secretary of state, and is noted in Index to Parl. Docs. Dom. ser. Charles I, vol. XLVII, 7. But the Piscataqua man stands clearly before us as one of the witnesses to the possession of land under patent to Oldham and Vines, in Maine, 25 June, 1630. Another proof of his presence here at that time comes in the letter of John Humphrey, Esquire, one of the Massachusetts Bay company, to his brother in law, Isaac Johnson, Esquire, from London, Dec. 9, 1630: "For Mr. Wiggin & your thoughts concerning him & those who set him on worke, I think you will hear little more. Yet your letter shall be delivered,... I purpose this morning to goe to Mr. Downing to advise about it." [Winthrop Letters, Mass. Hist. Coll. XXXVI, 3.] The historian Hubbard says that "Bristol and Shrewsbury men" planted a colony on the upper part of the Piscataqua in 1631, "under Captain Wiggans." The Captain again witnessed the giving of possession of a patent, this time to Lewis and Bonython, in Maine, Jan. 28, 1631-2. "Captain Wiggans went back for England the next year," Hubbard continues, "and soon after returned with more ample power and means to promote what was in hand. The Bristol men had in the mean time sold their interest (which was two thirds) in the said plantation to the Lord Say and the Lord Brook, one to Mr. Willis, and Mr. Whiting, who likewise employed Captain Wiggans to act in their behalf for the space of seven years next following; the Shrewsbury men still retaining their own share. After the time was expired, the advance not being much, the whole was prised but at 600 li. and sold to Captain Wiggans; which he paid at a very easy rate, as some of his neighbors have used to say." Captain Wiggin remained in charge of the "Dover and Squamscot" patent, including Dover, Exeter and outlying lands, till about 1639, when Rev. George Burdett, (successor of Rev. William Leverich, the first minister of the colony) worked himself into the favor of the people, and assumed control, though with no legal authority. The coming of Rev. John Wheelwright and his associates to settle Exeter, together with the agitation by Mass. Bay people of the question whether that town was not within their jurisdiction, all operated to incline the Captain toward acknowledgement of their claims; and he became the most important factor in the extension of the Mass. government over both New Hampshire and Maine. But this was no sudden freak. As far back as the year 1632 when in England on business connected with his own colony, Captain Wiggin had written two memorable letters, one to Mr. Downing, touching Sir Christopher Gardiner's fiasco and another matter of some importance to New England; the other to Sir John Cooke, principal secretary, testifying to the great value of New England as a profitable place for plantations, and especially showing the high character of Gov. John Winthrop and the people of "the Mattachusetts." [Mass. Hist. Coll. 3d. S., VIII.] This testimony was given at a critical moment in the affairs of the Bay colony. Gov. Winthrop, in his History, thus describes it: "Feb. 22, 1632-3, .. We had intelligence from our friends in England that Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain Mason (upon the instigation of Sir Christopher Gardiner, Morton and Ratcliffe,) had preferred a petition to the lords of the privy council against us, charging us with many false accusations; but through the Lord's good providence and the care of our friends in England, (especially Mr. Emanuel Downing who had married the governor's sister,) and the good testimony given on our behalf by one Capt. Wiggin, who dwelt at Pascataquack and had been divers times among us, their malicious practice took not effect." The friendly service thus voluntarily rendered by Capt. Wiggin was never forgotten. And when Massachusetts needed a man to superintend the pacification of the colonists about the Piscataqua and along the coast of Maine, they naturally turned to him. He was commissioned first as an Assistant, then as a presiding judge, then as commissioner for adjustment of all manner of problems arising in the assumption of authority in new plantations. It is fair to say that he was the most important man in the whole business of uniting the colonies of upper New England. He was also a deputy to the Gen. Court at Boston, and in his magisterial capacity performed the marriage ceremony, attested documents, etc. in Massachusetts as well as in New Hampshire and Maine. He had grants of land from the Gen. Court in addition to what he had recd. from the Patentees and had purchased. He carried on milling and farming operations. 23 May, 1656, "Captain Wiggan, having been imployed by the Genll Court with other gent., to bring in the easterne plantations, as a gratuitie in respect of his service, hath the grant of two hundred acors of land uppon the river that leads up to Cochechawicke," etc. The committee appointed to lay out his tract reported April 28, 1659, that they had laid it out "near the head of the littell river caled the back river." He and his son Thomas sold land April 25, 1662; he made a power of attorney to Thomas March 21, 1662-3. With wife Katharine he gave a marriage portion to son Andrew 4 June, 1663. The 30th of that month he attended court for the last time; a year later he was unable even to reach the "ordinary" without help, as a neighbor testified who had failed to reach his place in the grand jury that day by reason of assisting "his worp." i.e. "his worship," the title of the magistrate. He kept his lands apart from any town association many years, holding aloof from participation in town meetings or in the support of the ministry or other public affairs; probably deeming his state duties and charges heavy enough, and owning a tract large enough to constitute a "plantation" of itself. But at length public opinion prevailed against him, and he became a tax-payer in Exeter. He married Katharine--, who may have been a sister of Mr. William Whiting of Hartford, one of the proprietors of the Squamscot patent. At all events, Mr. Whiting made a bequest "to my sister Wiggen 5 li. and unto her children 3 li. apiece," in his will dated March 20, 1643. Children, Thomas, Andrew, Mary, all bapt. at Hampton Sept. 20, 1641. The latter married George Vesey. He made will 16 June, 1664, which was probated in Hampton court in "1666." He bequeathed to his wife Katherine certain articles and whatever debts were due him and all goods not heretofore or herein given; certain bequests to sons Andrew and Thomas who have already had their portions, and to daugher Mary, for whom 150 pounds had been previously set apart in the deed to Andrew. See Ault, Burdett, Chesley, Colcord, Commins, Duncan, Emery, Leverich, Lewis, Purchase, Shrewsbury, Tibbett, Vesey
  Person ID	I21948	McKenzie Genealogy
  Last Modified	28 Jul 2011

  
  

  Family	Catherine Whiting,   b. 1598, London, Middlesex, England d. 16 Jun 1664, Rockingham, New Hampshire (Age 66 years)
  Children	1. Andrew Wiggin,   b. 6 Jan 1634, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts d. 9 Jan 1708, Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire (Age 74 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. Thomas Wiggin,   b. 1640, Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire d. 1700, Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire (Age 60 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   3. Mary Wiggin,   b. 20 Sep 1641, Stratham, Rockingham, New Hampshire d. 25 Dec 1700, Stratham, Rockingham, New Hampshire (Age 59 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F08268	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Jul 2011

  
  

• Sources

  [S009935] P. William Filby, Passenger and Immigration List Index, 1500s-1900s, (Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI:). [S007835] Maine Pioneers, 1623-60.