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vital records sources
go to Elizabeth Jenne's page

go to John's shipping record
go to a discussion about the "discovery" and naming of Laysan Island








three of John's signatures are significantly different, but circumstantial evidence clearly points to the same John Briggs in each instance.
The second one shares the capital B of the first, but the rest resembles the third. Signatures for his son Luther show a similar difference:
one more formal, another quicker and business-like.


John was raised in Berkley, Massachusetts, and moved to nearby Fairhaven by the time he was 20. Many of his siblings also moved there, among whom were sisters who married Fairhaven men. What led to this connection and migration isn't known. At the age of 20 he can be found on the whaling crew of the ship Sally, which sailed out of New Bedford in July of 1808.1 He had already moved to New Bedford, according to the crew list, undoubtedly in the part of the town that was incorporated as Fairhaven in 1812.




     On the first of his known whaling trips John served as the ship's cooper under Capt. Obed Clark for a trip in the South Atlantic. The cooper's main responsibility was getting the barrels built on the ship for storing whale oil. This wasn't a beginner's position. He would have gone whaling for at least one earlier voyage, probably as a "greenhand," learning what was a difficult and dangerous occupation. Crew lists for New Bedford ships apparently start mostly in 1808, evident from personal research, leaving little chance of finding proof of earlier trips. The time between trips for a career whaleman was often less than a year and usually much less. Given this, there were only about six possible ships that would have brought John into port before his 1808 Sally trip. The most likely was Triton, which left New Bedford around July 1806 (when John was 18) and returned in October 1807 with a full cargo of oil from the Cape of Good Hope. This was one of the whaling fleet of I. Howland, Jr. & Co., but what makes it more compelling than the other ships is that the captain was Obed Clark. Clark didn't continue with the Howlands but switched to the William Rotch fleet in 1808, and probably brought trusted crewmen with him. John may have been on an even earlier trip. At that time they were usually about two years duration. A ship leaving in 1804 could have had John on it, he being about 16.
     Sally returned in August 1810, again with a full cargo of oil, the profit of which would go mostly to the prinicipal owners William Rotch, Jr., and Thomas Hazard.2 Rotch and Hazard were among the most successful of New Bedford's merchants and its community of Friends (Quakers). The crew had an exciting incident to tell their families when they got home. In the home stretch the ship encountered the British sloop-of-war Mary about six degrees above the equator.3 Escalating hostility between England and the United States before the War of 1812 was hard-felt in the Atlantic Ocean, with English harassment of American commercial vessels. The captain of Mary demanded that Capt. Clark "set her colors" for national identification. When he refused, the sloop began to fire on the whaler "with swivel and musket." Mary came up beside Sally and Clark was called a damned rascal, followed by more rounds of musket fire. The sloop's lieutenant boarded Sally and detained them for an hour, but eventually left them to carry on.
     Capt. Clark hired John for the next trip of Sally and raised his responsibility to include, with his coopering, being a boasteerer. The New Bedford Whaling Museum describes the job of boatsteerer this way:

"A boatsteerer in any whaleship was one of the most responsible members of the ship's company. He had to be a skilled harpooneer to fasten on to the whale, and an able boat-handler to guide the frail craft while the boatheader (officer) took up the lance to kill the whale. Incompetence could result in injury or death."4

     The shipping paper for this trip passed through a historical document auction in 2007, allowing a public glimpse where other documentation is lacking.5 John's "lay" of the profits and that of the other boatsteerer on board was the third highest behind the captain's mate. Given that there were two boatsteerers and ten "mariners," there were likely two whale boats manned by five seamen, a boatsteerer and the captain and the mate between them.
     This voyage took the crew into the Pacific Ocean. Coming home around Cape Horn from the coast of Peru, history repeated. The War of 1812 had been declared a month earlier, and privateering was commonplace in the Atlantic. Sally was intercepted on 16 July 1812 on the way back to New Bedford with 1230 barrels of oil.6 It wasn't far from home, being at a point about due south of Cape Cod and due east of Washington, DC. The privateer was the British sloop-of-war Recruit. A mate from the sloop was likely put on board Sally, and they sailed together to the east for about six days. Recruit caught the ship Canowa, from Lisbon and heading for New York and the ship Suwarrow, heading to New York from Liverpool. Probably the last of the prizes was the brig Newton, sailing from Lisbon to Baltimore, taken about the 22nd of July. The American crews were forced to give up the ships, cargo and their personal belongings, but the latter were returned to them, including cash. The former were taken to Bermuda. Newton, was converted to a cartel to transport the crews, being empty except for ballast (weight). The various American captains were probably taken to Bermuda as well, where another cartel was created and they were sent to New York. Newton had departed for Philadelphia before being caught, but there wasn't enough food for the unexpected increase of men on board. On 1 August they met the brig Martha Pond bound for New London. The brig took the Sally crew and deposited them in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 3 August.7 Those who lived in New Bedford were back there the next day, when Sally mate James Bennett went to The New Bedford Mercury office to give the paper his news. From that it's known that the ship, which had otherwise been reported at and off the coasts of Chile and Peru, were also at the Galapagos Islands.
     Back on land in Fairhaven, John busied himself courting a young woman named Elizabeth Jenney. She was living with her mother and younger brother somewhere in that town. Before her father ran away with a mistress they lived on a farm neighboring one of John's sister's family. Where John stayed once he came to Fairhaven isn't known, but if he boarded with Lydia (Briggs) Stevens, he may have met the Jenney family as early as 1808. John and Elizabeth married in early January 1813.8 This may have been at the Fairhaven Congregational Church, where Elizabeth and her siblings were baptized.





Going back to sea as a whaler wasn't an option in 1813 and 1814. As one source put it, "during the war our [United States] shipping and commerce per capita fell to the lowest point occupied since the Revolution. In the last year (1814) the British blockade was so complete that very little merchandise was imported or exported."9
     John was ready when whaling geared up again, joining the crew of Barclay in the Summer of 1815.10 The captain, Job Coffin, either brought him on as boatsteerer again or as third mate. They had a good trip, coming back in 1817 with 1,950 barrels of oil to William Rotch, Jr. The crewlist for this trip puts his home in Fairhaven. The first mate had died during the trip, suggesting an advance in position among the officers. John very likely become a mate at sea. He joined the Barclay crew again under Capt. Coffin in 1818 as first mate.11 By then he had moved to New Bedford, according to the crew list, and fathered a son who would be named for him. They returned late in 1820, topping their previous oil production by 50 barrels.12
     Having risen steadily in the ranks and apparently not daunted by the rigors of the business, John was now ready to be his own master. A Berkley town history says that "Capt. John Briggs, son of John, the mason, was a bold hardy master of a whale ship, made profitable voyages of three years in the Pacific Ocean; would stand on the bow of a tossing boat to hurl the harpoon, courage supplied the want of knowledge."13 William Rotch may not have had a master's position for John, but for whatever reason he was hired by another whaling partnership. Wilmington & Liverpool Packet was owned primarily by John Avery Parker, Willam H. Allen and Gideon Allen.14 They were also local businessmen of considerable influence, but it may have been significant that they were Congregationalists, not Friends. Although there was no particular animosity between them that I've found referred to, they tended to be factional. In the case of the Allens, they were recent converts. John captained that ship for three trips between 1821 and 1830 spanning the seas from Bremen to Japan.
     John took the ship out of New Bedford Harbor for the first time after having been cleared for sailing in April.15 Following the usual route for whalers, he followed the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic to the Cape de Verdes island of Bonavista, from which he left "for South Seas" in late May.16 The New Bedford Mercury reported that W & L Packet was seen in the Pacific Ocean previous to October 1822 with 1300 barrels of oil.17The shipping reports would often be more specific, referring to the oil being "sperm" or "whale," meaning right whale. John was on the coast of California in late in 1822, according to a report made by the ship Minerva when it returned to New Bedford.18 When ships encountered each other at sea or in a port, they would exchange information (shipping news columns referred to it as having "spoken"). This was an important way to get updates on the status of ships that spent most of their years at sea in remote areas. Owners of ships and families of the crews in this way hoped for good news. W & L Packet arrived in New Bedford with 2600 barrels specified as sperm oil just after Christmas 1823. Papers outside of New Bedford say it broke a record, but they didn't hear that from the Mercury, which tended to give news without frills.19 In his landmark History of the American Whale Fishery," Alexander Starbuck refers to this, but calls John Briggs "Capt. Richmond," which has since been repeated by other writers.







Any joy John felt from his rise to master mariner and his supposedly record-breaking trip would have disappeard when he got home. While at sea, two of his three sons died. At the end of December 1821, eight months after he had left New Bedford and on the other side of the world, the Mercury included this in their "deaths" column: "in this town, on Thursday night last week, John, aged 6 years; and on Saturday morning, James, aged 3 years, youngest sons of Capt. John Briggs. They were both interred on Sunday, in one grave."20Over that grave is a single marker, in a plot probably bought by John's father-in-law to bury his own two sons who died as boys. It's possible news of this got to him while at sea by way of another whaler. I wonder if it was customary to do that to a sea captain who didn't have the option of rushing home.





Elizabeth, her sons, her mother and two little brothers are buried next to each other in Nasketucket Cemetery, Fairhaven.


John now had the means and apparently the desire to buy a house. Manasseh Kempton, another Congregationalist, sold him 97 Elm Street in New Bedford in February 1824.21 A housewright, Kempton likely built the house. He was one of the major land owners when New Bedford first developed in the late 18th century. His tract was north of Elm Street, more or less, and prominent Friend Joseph Russell's (another Doug Sinclair ancestor) was to the south. The subsequent development of Kempton's land was by fellow Congregational/Unitarians and Russell sold to other Friends. Such was life in New Bedford, but this would fade. One of Joseph's great granddaughters converted to a Congregational sect when she married John Briggs's son Luther. It isn't yet known if or where John and his wife attended church, but a likely place was the First Congregational (later Unitarian) Church, and Kempton was a deacon there. There was probably a social relationship between the Briggs and Kemptons as well. Kempton's daughters Abby and Sophia were witnesses to the Briggs-Kempton deed and Sophia and John would be married in the not too distant future.
     In April 1824 John joined New Bedford's Star in the East Masonic Lodge.22 Shortly after, in late April, he started the second trip on W & L Packet. This trip wasn't for whales. It was headed ultimately to Bremen, Germany.23 He was sighted in City Point, Newport News, Virginia, in early May and was there for about a month. As he was heading across the Atlantic, Elizabeth died back at home. By the end of July the ship had reached Bremen. It isn't noted in the Mercury what he brought back. He left in early August and was supposed to make a stop in Lisbon, but his arrival was "47 days from Bremen," suggesting he didn't.24 When he returned in September he had only his son Luther left to greet him, and Luther, who was 10, had lived without any immediate family for three months. Luther had relatives he could stay with. Maybe his grandparents in Berkley or an aunt in Fairhaven. It was traumatic enough to be all but orphaned, but the following December his father left again for 2 1/2 years.
     In the papers accounting for his crew after his return, John mentions that he had to leave some of his men in Ecuador for an attempted mutiny. The Mercury printed this notice, which is the only information I've found about it.

The ship Wilmington & Liverpool Packet, Briggs, of New-Bedford, (out 11 months with 1200 bbls. oil,) left Payta on the 4th, and put back on the 5th Nov. three of the crew having mutined and declared their intention of killing the Capt. - this they communited to the 2nd mate, and wanted him to join them. He immediatley informed Capt. Briggs, who thought proper to return to Pata, and having got the mutineers secured, with the assistance of the Capt. of the port, proceeded to the American Consul's at Guayaquil. The mutineers were the cook, the steward, and a seaman named Pease.25

     Two of the men were African Americans: John Stevens of Philadelphia and William Jenkins of Albany, probably the cook and steward respectively, given their ages (see the crew list). The third was Joseph Pease of Taunton. He's described as "coloured" in complexion with black, straight hair. He was surely a Native American, and "Pease" was a popular surname among tribes living on Nantucket and in Taunton and Newton, Massachusetts. It would be interesting to know what led them to mutiny and why they trusted the 2nd mate with their plan. Racial issues is the obvious possibility, and the men may have wanted to leave when they were in Payta and were denied. There was another African American on the crew who isn't mentioned.
     In early March 1827 W & L Packet arrived in New Bedford with 2700 barrels of whale oil.26 The trip home took 100 days from the Society Islands in the South Pacific (surely Tahiti, the primary island there and a favorite "refreshing" spot for whalers). Somehow Joseph Rotch, a son of William mentioned above and who had moved to Philadelphia, acquired a sperm whale head brought back by WLP and donated it to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.27 Rotch had previously donated other animal heads, suggesting John saved the head by request.
     John married Sophia Kempton two weeks after he got home. This must have been discussed before he left. Connecting John to the First Unitarian Church makes sense partly because the Kemptons were members. William Ware, a prominent minister at the Second Unitarian Church in New York City with previous New Bedford connections, must somehow have left a great impression on one or both of the betrothed. They traveled to New York and were married by him, an evening wedding presumably in a newly built church at Mercer and Prince Streets.28





Second Unitarian Church, corner Mercer and Prince Sts., Manhattan. John and Sophia came from New Bedford to be married here the evening of 27 March 1827.


Wilmington & Liverpool Packet left New Bedford again in late August 1827 with John Briggs at the helm for the last time. Not to make suggestions where they don't belong, but Luther must have been desperate at the idea of his father leaving again, this time faced, maybe, with living with a woman who was, essentially, a stranger. An obituary (very likely written by his son Luther, Jr.) says he ran away from school and went to sea.29 This sounds like it might be a tall tale, but it turns out to be true, and his father was his accomplice. John had a similar experience, losing his own mother and gaining a new one when he was a boy, so he may have understood Luther's emotional state more than other fathers would. John took him to the Customs House, lied about his age and had protection papers drawn up for him, which was standard for seamen on commercial trips. He then brought him on board W & L Packet, maybe for the position of "boy." This must have appealed to John also after having his family disapppear one by one while he was away.




(coll. of National Archives & Records Adm., Waltham, MA)

a Proof of Citizenship, customary for whaling seamen, was arranged for Luther just before W & L P S left New Bedford in 1827



Luther's correct age, 13, was changed to 14

W. & L. Packet was hauled off its wharf in New Bedford by 24 August 1827 and was out of port by the 31st.30 They arrived in the waters around Oahu in March 1828. It was reported there again in April 1829, according to a logbook for the ship Plough Boy.31 This appearance at ports was fairly predictable. Whalers tended to "refresh" and get new supplies in spring and fall. Within the space of about a year-and-a-half, John and his crew produced 1200 barrels of oil.32 They had undoubtedly gone from Hawaii over to the Sea of Japan, which had become a very popular whaling ground.
     The ship certainly later sailed for the Sea of Japan with the Plough Boy. Another 1000 barrels were produced in the last half of 1829.33 Plough Boy sailed back to Oahu, then to the Society Islands - perhaps John did as well, since this was a well-traveled route for whalers. John set sail for New Bedford in late March 1830 from Talcahuano, Chile (another popular whaling port) and was back home a month later with 2800 barrels of oil.34 Luther was now 16 and fully exposed to a whaler's life and some exotic locales.




Library of Congress "American Memory" website

"View of the Island of Woahoo
[Oahu] in the Pacific as Viewed by C. E. Bensell in 1821"


On one of these W & L Packet trips, John Briggs is credited with possibly "discovering" the tiny island of Laysan, also known as Kauo, in the Hawaiian archipelago. More about this can be found on this page.





from "Jane's Oceana" site (http://www.janeresture.com/laysan/), taken from a report made in 1923.


Several years after he passed the ship to another captain, Richard Henry Dana described an encounter with W&LP in his book Two Years Before the Mast," which may also approximate the impression John and his crew had on someone seeing them at sea:

As soon as her anchor was down we went aboard, and found her to be the whale-ship Wilmington and Liverpool Packet, of New Bedford, last from the "off-shore ground," with nineteen hundred barrels of oil. A "spouter" we knew her to be, as soon as we saw her, by her cranes and boats, and by her stump top-gallant-masts, and a certain slovenly look to the sails, rigging, spars, and hull; and when we got on board, we found everything to correspond,-- spouter fashion. She had a false deck, which was rough and oily, and cut up in every direction by the chines of oil casks; her rigging was slack, and turning white, paint worn off the spars and blocks, clumsy seizings, straps without covers, and "homeward-bound splices" in every direction. Her crew, too, were not in much better order. Her captain was a slab-sided Quaker, in a suit of brown, with a broad-brimmed hat, bending his long legs as he moved about decks, with his head down, like a sheep, and the men looked more like fishermen and farmers than they did like sailors. Though it was by no means cold weather (we having on only our red shirts and duck trousers), they all had on woollen trousers,-- not blue and ship-shape, but of all colors,-- brown, drab, gray, aye, and green,-- with suspenders over their shoulders, and pockets to put their hands in. This, added to Guernsey frocks, striped comforters about the neck, thick cowhide boots, woollen caps, and a strong, oily smell, and a decidedly green look, will complete the description. Eight or ten were on the fore topsail yard, and as many more in the main, furling the topsails, while eight or ten were hanging about the forecastle, doing nothing. This was a strange sight for a vessel coming to anchor; so we went up to them, to see what was the matter. One of them, a stout, hearty-looking fellow, held out his leg and said he had the scurvy; another had cut his hand; and others had got nearly well, but said that there were plenty aloft to furl the sails, so they were sogering on the forecastle. There was only one ``splicer'' on board, a fine-looking old tar, who was in the bunt of the fore topsail. He was probably the only thorough marline-spike seaman in the ship, before the mast. The mates, of course, and the boat-steerers, and also two or three of the crew, had been to sea before, but only on whaling voyages; and the greater part of the crew were raw hands, just from the bush, and had not yet got the hay-seed out of their hair. The mizzen topsail hung in the buntlines until everything was furled forward. Thus a crew of thirty men were half an hour in doing what would have been done in the Alert, with eighteen hands to go aloft, in fifteen or twenty minutes. We found they had been at sea six or eight months, and had no news to tell us, so we left them, and promised to get liberty to come on board in the evening for some curiosities. Accordingly, as soon as we were knocked off in the evening and were through supper, we obtained leave, took a boat, and went aboard and spent an hour or two. They gave us pieces of whalebone, and the teeth and other parts of curious sea animals, and we exchanged books with them,-- a practice very common among ships in foreign ports, by which you get rid of the books you have read and re-read, and a supply of new ones in their stead, and Jack is not very nice as to their comparative value.

Dana makes further interesting comments about his description of whalemen:

I have been told that this description of a whaleman has given offence to the whale-trading people of Nantucket, New Bedford, and the Vineyard. It is not exaggerated; and the appearance of such a ship and crew might well impress a young man trained in the ways of a ship of the style of the Alert. Long observation has satisfied me that there are no better seamen, so far as handling a ship is concerned, and none so venturous and skilful navigators, as the masters and officers of our whalemen. But never, either on this voyage, or in a subsequent visit to the Pacific and its islands, was it my fortune to fall in with a whaleship whose appearance, and the appearance of whose crew, gave signs of strictness of discipline and seaman-like neatness. Probably these things are impossibilities, from the nature of the business, and I may have made too much of them.


     John moved another step higher in the whaling hierarchy in 1831. He mastered the ship Frances in that year, but he was also one of its primary owners, with members of the same Allen family who co-owned W & L Packet.35 Also among the owners were Timothy I. Dyre and Anthony D. Richmond, Joshua Richmond, John H. Coggeshall and Samuel J. L. Vose. Timothy Dyre, Anthony Richmond and possibly others among them were fellow members of the Star of the East Lodge. Joshua Richmond and John Coggeshall were partners briefly in a mercantile firm with the Allen brothers. Coggeshall, Richmond and Samuel Vose formed a partnership in 1829 to succeed the one with the Allens. Clearly this consortium was based on both fraternal and business ties.
     Frances was one of two New Bedford ships registered with that name. It was 368 tons, 105 feet long, 20 feet wide and featured a female figurehead. The first two trips were short, between 1831 and 1833, apparently extending only to the South Atlantic. The first included his now adult son Luther as first mate. He must have had a notable talent for the work. At only 5 feet 1 3/4 inches, he couldn't have had the control needed in that position by physical imposition. John Briggs was evidently smart enough to know the risks in keeping together a functioning crew often made up of motley men from all over the world were too great to indulge in unqualified nepotism. The next two trips were three and four years, the last ending in 1840. There's a log book for the first trip that shows they stopped at Madagascar. I have been able to research this yet in detail. In April 1839 Frances crossed paths with the United States Exploring Expedition, better known as the Wilkes Expedition, the mission of which was to document natural resources and ethnology across the world in places unfamiliar to American scholars. The expedition was the result, in part, of the efforts Jeremiah Reynolds made in 1828 to have the South Pacific better documented, with John Briggs apparently contributing his coordinates for Laysan Island. The concept, which was to be a government effort, was delayed with ten years of bureaucratic red tape. The ship Peacock was one of the vessels involved, and Titian Peale, one of the documenting artists, says in his journal that John Briggs approached them and came aboard their ship, then officers of Peacock went to Frances and brought back "island lances and shells."36 Although not mentioning Briggs by name, he refers to the number of months the ship had been at sea, the number of barrels the ship currently had and the amount sent home and the intent to go to Valparaiso. This leaves no doubt which ship Frances was referred to. The journal of Peacock captain William Hudson may reveal more. In expedition leader Charles Wilkes narrative, he summarizes Hudson's journal entry by saying only that they encountered Frances and offered medical assistance,37 but the exchange of visits and the relics would seem to warrant more of an entry. This is another source yet to be accessed.







Left: Parker's Block, Middle St.,New Bedford, built 1833. The area marked in red was the "counting house" (business office) of the Allen family in the later 1830s.
They and John Briggs would have conducted business here for the last two trips of "Frances." Whale-oil barrels are lined up in the foreground.
Right: New Bedford wharves in 1876. Parker's Block is at the top of the image. There are some things in this view that post date John Briggs's whaling days,
such as the railroad track acros the wharves. It hasn't been found yet where "Frances" was docked, since the Allens didn't have their own wharf. "Wilmington & Liverpool Packet"
was docked at Parker's Wharf. John A. Parker's counting house before he had his "block" builtwas probably on the same site in a smaller building.
John Briggs would have gone there for business through the 1820s.


John and Sophia had a son named John K. (probably Kempton) Briggs, born about 1833. John returned and fathered another child in the Fall of 1836. A daughter Abby Ann was born the following July, eight months after John had sailed out of New Bedford on his last whaling voyage. Abby died in 1838 while John was still at sea. He returned with 1310 barrels of oil, 950 of it sperm oil. He kept an interest in Frances but retired and moved from New Bedford in 1840 or 1841.
     In notes on the family by Luther, Jr., there's no mention of his grandfather's second wife and two more children, leaving the question of what Luther, Sr.'s, relationship was like with his stepmother. Luther, Jr., also said that his father moved to Rochester and had a hardware store called "Watts and Briggs." My first thought was Rochester, Massachusetts, which is next to Fairhaven. Finding them in Rochester, New York, opened another chapter in John's life.
     The apparent impetus for the move was that Sophia's sister Deborah and husband Ebenezer Watts were already in Rochester by the time John retired from whaling, and Watts had a hardware store. The 1844 Rochester directory says John was a hardware merchant at the corner of Buffalo and Exchange Streets, a building connected with the Watts family.38 I haven't found anything about a "Watts & Briggs" store, but it's plausible.
     The first family home in Rochester was downtown on South Sophia Street, now called Plymouth Street. In 1840 Rochester was a town, with a main commercial street surrounded mostly by large, suburban type houses. The map image below from 1875 shows a squarish house with an ornamental landscape in front of it. Other houses nearby have a more Victorian footprint, and I don't doubt this house, by then occupied my M. F. Reynolds, was the Briggs residence.



The directory for 1845 has "Capt." John living on a farm called "Elm Wood Grove" on Genesee Street. 39 He bought it in 1844 and may have retired from business at that point.40



A portion of the Dripps map of Rochester (1851). The dotted line to the left is the boundary between Rochester and the town of Gates. "Elm Wood Cottage" was built by another ship captain.

The 1850 agricultural census says there were 42 "improved" acres.41 The whole of the farm was valued at $9,300. There were 3 horses, 2 milk cows, 4 sheep and 4 pigs. In the previous year the farm produced 160 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of Indian corn, 100 bushels of Irish potatoes, 15 tons of hay and $40 worth of animals had been slaughtered. This shows the farm produced enough to support the family.
     John and Sophia were active in the real estate market, buying and selling lots in the city other than the ones they lived on. The farm was in an almost constant state of being mortgaged, which is confusing, but presumably they had a plan. John acted as agent for John Avery Parker, his whaling associate in New Bedford, who needed someone in Rochester to settle a real estate transaction. It's not obvious why Parker was investing in Rochester.
     The year after they moved to the farm, John served as alderman for the 8th Ward. Politics may not have suited him since he only served one term.42 He also served the 8th ward on a "vigilance committee."43 In August 1841 he signed articles of incorporation as a trustee for the First Unitarian Church in Rochester. Sophia and the Watts family were also members. This church hosted the second women's rights convention two weeks after the first in Seneca Falls. No Briggs or Watts signatures are on the subcribers to the doctrine presented that day, but the church was "filled to overflowing" with attendees, suggesting the list didn't cover all who came to listen. I can only suggest John and Sophia were there, given their committment to Unitarian principles. Quoting from wikipedia, "[Lucretia] Mott thanked the Rochester Unitarians for allowing a women's rights convention to meet in their church. A few years earlier, she said, when the Female Moral Reform Society of Philadelphia asked if they could hold their annual conference in a church, they were given permission to meet only in the basement and only if they agreed that women would not be permitted to speak. The society was obliged to bring in one clergyman to preside over the conference and another to read the reports that the women had prepared."
     John died in 1853, probably at the Watts house at what was 58 South Fitzhugh Street. Both he and his son John K. are listed there, so the Briggs were no longer living on the farm.44 He didn't have an estate to probate, likely since what real property he and Sophia had at that point was in her name or mortgaged.
     John's death date is known only from his gravestone. He, Sophia and their son John were all transported back to New Bedford when they died and buried in a lot with Abby at Oak Grove Cemetery. The lot is next to one purchased by Sophia's immediate family. Luther Jenney, John's brother-in-law, also owned a lot nearby. The Briggs lot is unusual in that the graves are marked by table stones, which was a more common practice in 17th and 18th century New England for wealthy families and ministers. Abby has her own little table, now in dilapidated condition. John and Sophia's graves are marked by a single stone and the third is for their son John K. Sophia was responsible for this memorial, as is evident in the emotional inscription:

JOHN K. BRIGGS
of Rochester N.Y.
only son of
Capt. John & Sophia F.
BRIGGS
Died Jan. 29, 1863
Aged 29 years

He was a member of Co. H 2nd
Cal. Vols. and fell in a con-
flict with the Indians near
Salt Lake City, giving all he
had and his life to his Coun-
try's service. His widowed mo-
ther mourns the loss of a brave
affectionate son who died belov-
ed and lamented by a large cir-
cle of relatives and friends

Dulce et decorum, est pro
patria mori
[It is sweet and glorius to die for one's country]

H.G.W. [a person's initials? not identified]

The "conflict with the Indians" occurred at Bear River, Utah, and evidence has shown that this was the worst massacre of Native Americans in United States history. More about this can be found here. John K. Briggs had moved to San Francisco by the time he volunteered his service.



The Briggs plot in Oak Grove Cemetery, New Bedford. Abby's stone is the little one now standing upright between the table supports.
John and Sophia's stone is in the middle and John K.'s is to the right.




children of John Briggs and Elizabeth Jenney:

i. Luther Jenney, b. 7 October 1813
ii. James, b. June 1815, d. 20 December 1821
iii. John, b. September 1818, d. 22 December 1821

children of John Briggs and Sophia F. Kempton:

iv. John K(empton?), b. abt 1833, d. 29 January 1863
v.. Abby Ann K(empton?), b. abt. July 1837, d. 6 September 1838, probably named for her deceased aunt Abby Ann West Kempton.





vital records sources: John's birth is probably recorded in the Berkley vital records, which have not been seen for this period. His first marriage date comes from the New Bedford Mercury (hereafter NBM), which reported it on 8 January 1813 without referring to a day. His second marriage is recorded in the Columbian Centinel, in the New York Post, 24 March 1827, but most informatively in the NBM, 30 March 1827. His death date comes from his gravestone in Oak Grove Cemetery, New Bedford. The signatures shown at the top of the page are significantly different, but circumstantial evidence clearly points to the same John Briggs in each instance. Signatures for his son Luther show a similar difference: one more formal, another quicker and business-like.

1. crewlist of ship Sally, New Bedford Crew Lists 1820-1915, Record Group 36 (RG 36), National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region (Boston); The New Bedford Mercury (NBM), 5 August 1808, p. 3.
2. NBM, 17 August 1810, 3.
3. The Old Colony Gazette, 17 August 1810, 3, also reported in NBM, but abridged.
4. This description is no longer used at the Museum website, but it's still a good one.
5. website of Heritage Auction Galleries, http://www.ha.com, last accessed 8 March 2008.
6. several newspaper reports are pertinent: NBM, 7 August 1812, 3; Poulson's American Daily Adviser, 10 August 1812, p. 3; The New York Gazette, 14 September 1812, 2.
7. The New York Gazette, 8 August 1812, 3; Poulson's American Daily Adviser, 11 August 1812, 3.
8. NBM, 8 January 1813, 3.
9. William W. Bates, American Marine; the Shipping in Question in History and Politics (Boston & New York:1893), 102.
10. crewlist of ship Barclay, 4 July 1815, New Bedford Crew Lists 1820-1915, Record Group 36 (RG 36), National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region (Boston); NBM, 21 July 1815, 3.
11. crewlist of ship Barclay, 10 January 1818, New Bedford Crew Lists 1820-1915, Record Group 36 (RG 36), National Archives and Records Administration, Northeast Region (Boston); NBM, 16 January 1818, 3.
12. NBM, 20 October 1820, 3.
13. Enoch Sanford, History of Berkley, Massachusetts, etc. (New York:1872), 36
14. Ship registers of New Bedford, Massachusetts vol. 1 (Boston:1940), 333. John A. Parker was involved with the Briggs in granting and buying a property at 194-195 Frankfurt St., Rochester, in 1847 and 1851.
NBM, 13 April 1821, 3.
15. NBM, 13 April 1821, 3.
16. Baltimore Patriot, 10 August 1821, 3.
17. NBM, 4 April 1823, 3.
18. Ibid, 22 August 1823, 3.
19. reported in The Baltimore Patriot (10 Jan 1824, p. 2 and 3, clip above from p. 2) and The Newport Mercury (3 Jan 1824, p. 3). The New Bedford Mercury did not report the record being broken. Alexander Starbuck's History of the American Whale Fishery, etc., makes several major errors in his reference: "The Wilmington and Liverpool packet, Captain Richmond, sailed from New Bedford in June, 1820, for the Pacific Ocean, returning on the 27th of December, 1823, with 2,600 barrels of sperm-oil-the largest amount procured by any one New Bedford ship to that date, and worth, at the average price of oil in 1823, about $65,000." He limits the record to a New Bedford ship, inferring it wasn't the largest ever brought into the US (or it was an unintentional omission).
20. NBM, 28 December 1821, 3.
21. Bristol Co. (Southern District) deed, 17 February 1824.
22. History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, etc., part 1, 109.
23. NBM, 23 April 1824, WLP, Briggs, sailed for City Point (VA) on the 18th.
24. Ibid, issues 17 September (to leave abt. 5 August for Lisbon) and 24 September 1824, 3.
25. 19 May 1826, 3, referring to November 1825. The Providence Patriot carried the same story verbatim the following day on p. 3. A notice immediately preceeding says that an agent for Lloyd's at Lima sent news of ships touching at Payta for the season, and he may have sent the dispatch about the mutiny.
26. Ibid, 9 March 1827. The customs records for the Port of New Bedford say that John brought one passenger with him from "the Port of the Society Islands" named Leanard Sistare, a mariner and US (citizen?). The ship is referred to as having a 384 ton berth.
27. Swann Auction Gallery catalogue, excerpted in the Google Books online database.
28. NBM, 30 March 1827: "In New York, by the Rev. Mr. Ware, Capt. John Briggs to Miss Sophia F. Kempton, daughter of deacon Manasseh Kempton, all of this town."
29. The New York Daily Tribune obituary, 6 January 1894, p. 7.
30. NBM, 24 and 31 August 1827, 3.
31. Logbook written by Lewis Monto, crew-member of Plough Boy out of Nantucket.
32. NBM, 15 May 1829, 3.
33. Ibid, 19 March 1830, 3.
34. Ibid, 23 June 1830, 3.
35. Ship registers of New Bedford, Massachusetts vol. 1 (Boston:1940), 109.
36. Jessie J. Poesch, Titian Ramsay Peale 1799-1885: And His Journals of the Wilkes Expedition (1961), 144.
37. Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, etc. (New York:1856), 156.
38. A Directory and Gazeteer for the City of Rochester for 1844 (Rochester:1844), 107.
39. Directory of the City of Rochester for 1845-6 (Rochester:1845), 41.
40. Monroe Co., NY, deed, 64:98.
41.1850 US Census, Non-population Schedule, Agricultural, NARA collection A4, roll 4, p. 629, line 8.
42. William Farley Peck, History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York, etc., vol. 1, p. 347.
43. The Rochester Daily Democrat, 28 Feb 1846, p. 2, col. 7 (this istaken from an index).
44. Rochester Directory for 1853-4 (Rochester:1853), 89-90.


all text and photographs © 1998-2020 by Doug Sinclair unless where otherwise noted