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NAVAGATION
Genesee County Biographies
Names A to B
Names C
Names D to E
Names F to G
Names H
Names I to L
Names M to N
Names O to R
Names S
Names T to Z
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Genesee County History
New York History
Erie County Biographies
History at Rays Place
Linkpendium Genesee County
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John Higley, the eldest child of Jonathan Higley and Katherine Brewster, his wife, was born in Surrey, England,
30 miles southwest of London, July 22, 1649. When of suitable age he was apprenticed to a glover in London for
the period of his minority. Family tradition says that, in his seventeenth year, he incurred the displeasure of
his master, who promised him a severe flogging the next morning. To escape the lash, and perhaps to satisfy a longing
for adventure, or actuated by the worthier motive of becoming a free citizen of the new and promising land which
he no doubt had read and heard of much, he hastily bundled up his scanty wardrobe, and concealed himself in a vessel
which was about to sail for America. In due time he landed at the trading post of Windsor, on the Connecticut River,
and there he found employment. In 1671 he married Hannah Drake, daughter of a prominent citizen of the place; soon
after purchased a home, and became in time one of the most prominent in the colony. In 1690 he was commissioned
a lieutenant, and was afterward promoted to the post. of captain. He was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut
in 1689, and afterwards elected to 28 of the 37 sessions of that body. He was the father of 16 children. This runaway
boy, John Higley, is the sole ancestor of all who bear the name in America.
FROM:
Gazetteer and Biographical Record
of Genesee County, New York
Edited by: F. W. Beers
J.W. Vose & Co., Publishers, Syracuse, N. Y. 1890
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