Harrison Genealogy Repository

Notes

Research of Thomas Hamm, archivist and asst. prof. Earlham College,

Richmond, Indiana.

Note: This lineage is questioned.

THOMAS LINCOLN OF TAUNTON AND JOSEPH KELLOGG OF HADLEY AND 144 RELATED

COLONIAL FAMILIES by Ruth Lincoln Kaye, 1973, Professional Printing

Co., Wash. D.C. - Appendix

A HISTORY OF THE HIGGES, or HIGGS FAMILY by William Miller Higgs,

F.S.G., pub. 1922, by Adlard & Son, Ltd., London, Eng., p. 296 'The

Higgs Family of Gloucestershire' -

The Higgs Family of Cheltenham and Charlton Kings -

The parish church of Cheltenham was built in 1011. There was formerly

a chantry in this church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which has now

fallen to decay. From the History of Cheltenham, pub. in 1803 by H.

Rutt, it is stated that the benefice of the Rectory is an endowed

curacy:

'In 1133 the impropriation was vested in the Abbey of Cirencester. At

the disolution of the monasteries it reverted to the Crown, and was

granted in lease to Sir Henry Jerningham, May 22, 1560. On the 10th

day of May 1592 to William Greenwell: on the 15th day of February

following to Richard Stephens of Eastington and on the 17th day of

February 1597 to Sir Francis Bacon, knight, in consideration of

175.13.4. Elizabeth Badger, or Baghott (or Bagot), widow, became

lessee of the Rectory. She was the former wife of Thomas Higges,

Lessee of the Rectory, and later the wife of H. Bagot. In 1609, on

information of Henry Parry, Lord Bishop of Gloucester, that the

stipend allowed to two reading ministers, and two lay deacons, was but

ten pounds and forty shillings and eight pence a year to each, the

bishop came to Cheltenahm and preached: but the impropriatrix

continuing obstinate, a petition was presented to Lord Salisbury, then

secretary of State, that a chaplain might be appointed to either

parish. By the mediation of Thomas Stephens, Esquire, attorney general

to Prince Charles, it was compromised for the time, the sub-lessee

allowing the privy tithes for the payment of the stipends. But the

covenants being again infracted, the parishioners petitioned the Lord

Chancellor Bacon, the lessee of the Crown, stating that by the

allowing only of twenty pounds to two chaplains, and refusing to

supply the sacramental bread and wine, 6000 communicants were

deprived. The attainder of the Chancellor prevented the due effect of

the remonstrance and a further application was made to the King, with

reference to the Diocesan, and Lord Keeper Williams. In 1624, the

appropriation was granted to SIR BAPTIST HICKS, a decree in Chancery

was obtained, by which the impropriator is bound to allow a salary of

L40.0.0. each to the officiatin minsiter of either parish. This

arrangement being made, SIR BAPTIST HICS invested the Principal and

Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford with the nomination, subjected to

definite restrictions.'

There have been a number of suits in Chacery over the Cheltenham

Rectory and the Chapelry of Charlton Kings, in which the Higges family

have been participants (vide 'Chancery Proceedings, Series II).

From the 'Memoirs of old Charlton Kings', which were written in 1896

for the Charlton Kings Parish Magazine', by Clarence M. Dobell, a

printed copy of which, in book form, was published in 1898 by Messrs.

Norman Sawyer & Co., St. George's Hall, Cheltenham, the following

fuller information about the church property of which the Higges

family were lessees had been gathered:

'On the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Church property was

divided in various ways: some went to endow new churches, hospitals

and schools, but by far the greater portion of it was divided between

the great Nobles and the King, and in many cases as at Tewkesbury the

Abbey churches were actually sold back again to the congregations who

had been accustomed to use them as churches. The Church property at

Cheltenham and Charlton reverted to the Crown, and after being held by

Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth, it was in February 1597

given by Queen Elizabeth to Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, the great

philosopher and Lord Chancellor, subject to various conditions and

charges, and he sublet it to the family of Higgs.'

Under this complicated system great complaint was made that the

sub-lessees were realizing a large income from the land, etc., but

were underpaying the clergy. Letters were written on behalf of the

parishioners asking for more curates, and that the existing clergy

should be better paid; but Lord Bacon in some rather amusing letters

referred the people back to the sub-lessees, who, he said, ahd paid

him very little for their rights, and were said to be making a large

profit. Proceedings in Chancery were taken, the case lasting over

twenty years, and resulting in an order that (?180) per annum should

be equally divided between the Rectory of Cheltenham and the Chapelry

of Charlton. Meanwhile, on the fall of the Lord Chancellor Bacon, the

Church property and impropriation were granted by the Crown to SIR

BAPTIST HICKS, afterwards Vicount Campden, and ancestor of Sir Michael

Hicks-Beach, Bt.

The property had evidently been a very large one, as its vague

description fills a page of conveyance: Messuages, granges, houses,

barns, meadows, orchards, gardens, enclosures, fishings, stock and

cattle of all kinds are enumerated, but not specified, besides tithes

of wool, hay, grain and innumerable rights of fines, h(unreadable),

profits, as well as spiritual and temporal.

(some omitted here) ...On 24 March, 1635, the decree in Chancery was

at last agreed toa and conatined by Lord Campden, who, to prevent

further dispute as to the appoinment of the clergy, granted to the

Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford, an annual rent of 180 from the

Rectory hands to be equally divided between Cheltenham and Charlton.

Jesus College was to nominate three Masters of Arts, who were Fellows

of that College, for any vacancy that occurred, from whom Lord Campden

and his heirs were to select one.

From the Hicks family the Impropriation passed to Lord Essex and John

Delabere, and their representatives, in the beginning of the

nineteenth cuntury, sold the Rectory of Cheltenham to Mr. Joseph Pitt,

and the impropriate Chapelry and Tithes of Charlton to Mr. John

Whithorne, who by his will devised them to Conway Whithorne Lovesy.

In the tenth year of the reign of King Henry VII, namely 1495, we find

that at a Court held at Cheltenham with a veiw to frankpledge on

Monday after the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, the twelve jurors

then present stated upon their oath that 'William Hyckes and other,

common fishers there broke the assize and was in mercy 2d'. This form

of spelling may refer to one of this family of Higgs, but it is far

more likely to be an early spelling of one of the Hicks family found

frequently in the county, and quite distinct as a family from the

Higgs. It is not until 1520 that we find again the name 'Higgs'

mentioned in the Court Rolls, when in that year and on to 1529 the

names of John Hygges (Higges) and Walter Higges, also Thomas Higges

appear.