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- History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania by William Watts Hart Davis, Warren Smedley Ely, John Woolf Jordan
Published by The Lewis Pub. Co., 1905
Original from the New York Public Library
RIGGS FAMILY
Edward Riggs, Puritan, settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1630, and was made a freeman. He was a member of the Anglican Church when in England (Anglo-Saxon origin). He was married, in 1618, to a Miss Holmes, born before 1590, in Nanzing Parish, Waltham Abbey, Essex County, England. The Riggs family have their coat of arms. Edward Riggs had one son, Edward Riggs, who fought against the Pequod Indians in 1637, and was made a sergeant on the field of battle for bravery and for saving the lives of his captain and companions from an Indian ambuscade. Sergeant Edward Riggs went from Roxbury to New Milford, Connecticut, where he purchased land and built a palisade house near the present town of Derby, and therein hid Generals Goff and Whally, known as the "Regicides." He had one daughter, Mary, and sons Joseph, Edward, and Samuel, who was known as Ensign Riggs. Sergeant Edward Riggs with his wife Elizabeth went to Neward, New Jersey, about 1666, and settled it, thereafter being known as the founder of Neward, New Jersey. His daughter Mary and sons Joseph and Edward aided in the settlement thereof. His wife Elizabeth was the only woman who stayed over the winter, and for her bravery she was voted a double portion of land. Sergeant Riggs kept a wolf pit for his own amusement.
Ensign Samuel Riggs did not accompany his parents upon their removal to New Jersey. His daughter married the Rev Humphrey, whose son was General Washington's bosom friend during the Revolutionary War, his private secretary before and after it, who carried the colors by special orders from Yorktown to Philadelphia to Congress and was voted an elegant sword by them for bravery. He was minister to Spain and Portugal, and introduced the culture of Merino sheep into this country. He was a noted literary man in his time, and his portrait by Trumbull is at Yale, and another by Gilbert Stuart is in the state house at New Haven or Hartford. His mother, formerly Sarah Riggs, was a very elegant woman in her time, and was always known among her contemporaries as Lady Humphreys, and the Chapter of Daughters of the Revolution at Derby, Connecticut, was named in her honor.
Joseph Riggs, of Newark, New Jersey, took an active part in the beginning of the Revolution, and his writings may be found in a number of places in Force's "American Archives." He left Newark, New Jersey, and took up his residence in New York. Benjamin Myer, great-grandfather of Henry W. Birkey and Isaac Myer Birkey, M.D., married Sarah Riggs, daughter of Joseph Riggs.
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http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~j k idd/books/OPAT/14/19.htm
Sergeant Edward Riggs, who belonged to one of the thirty familiesof all whom, save two, were of strictly Puritan stock, from Englandwho moved from Branford, Connecticut, to New Jersey, in 1644, and founded New Work, now the city of Newark. Edward Riggs was one of the builders and strong supporters of the first church in that citythe First Congregational, now the First Presbyterianof which, from 1736 to 1755, Rev. Aaron Burr was the distinguished pastor. This is the oldest fully organized church of any denomination within the state of New Jersey. The character of the thirty families, above referred to, is thus spoken of by Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, D. D., in a historical discourse delivered in Newark, in 1851:
"The settlers of Newark, were an eminently industrious, enterprising, public-spirited race; firm, without bigotry; gentle and affectionate, without weakness; very kind and loving people; and yet bold defenders of their rights. * * * All traces of them that remain show that they were men who united strong practical common sense with the purest morals and devoted piety."
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1590 - 1671 (81 years)