the proprietary government a tract of several thousand acres in Berks county. The younger Daniel received a good education and engaged in mercantile pursuits in Montgomery county, where he served during the Revolution as colonel and brigadier-general of militia. In 1784 he was elected to the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, and in 1787 he was appointed a commissioner of the Connecticut land claims. He was a member of congress from 1789 till 1796, when he resigned and removed to Hagerstown, Md. In 1801 he was again elected to congress, and died during his term of service. He was among the number that voted for the location of the seat of the government on the Potomac. — His brother, John, b. in Bern, Pa., 9 April, 1746; d. 15 Oct., 1821, served in congress from 1807 till 1809. — His cousin, Joseph, governor of Pennsylvania, b. in Bern township, 18 Nov., 1752; d. in Reading, Pa., 10 June, 1832, received a common-school education in the intervals of farm labor, and became clerk in a store in Reading, Pa. At the beginning of the Revolution he raised and equipped in that town a company with which he took part in the battles of Long Island and Germantown. He was promoted colonel, was captured and confined in the “Jersey” prison-ship, where he did much to alleviate the sufferings of his fellow-prisoners. He was a member of the Constitutional convention of 1776, and of the State constitutional convention of 1790, and served five years in the house and four in the senate of Pennsylvania. In 1807 he was appointed one of the two major-generals to command the quota of Pennsylvania militia that was called for by the president. He served in congress from 1797 till 1805, and again from 1815 till 1820, when he resigned. He was governor of Pennsylvania from 1821 till 1823, when he retired from public life. — John's son, Daniel, b. in Berks county, Pa., was a representative in congress from 1809 till 1811. — John's nephew, William, b. in Bern, Pa.; d. in Lancaster county, 14 Oct., 1853, received a public-school education, and settled on a farm in Lancaster county. He was elected to congress as a Whig in 1831, serving until 1837, in which year he was a delegate to the State constitutional convention. — William's son, Isaac Ellmaker, lawyer, b. in Lancaster county, Pa., about 1820; d. there, 6 Feb., 1871, was graduated at Yale in 1842. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1844, and began to practise in Lancaster. In 1848 he was deputy attorney-general for Lancaster county. He was then elected to congress as a Whig, serving from 1853 till 1855, but, as he had expressed opinions on slavery that were not in harmony with those of his constituents, he was defeated in the next election. He then practised law with success till his death.
HIGBEE, Elnathan Elisha, educator, b. in
Saint George, Vt., 27 March. 1830. He was graduated
at the University of Vermont in 1849,
completed his theological course in the seminary of the
German Reformed church at Mercersburg, Pa., and
in 1864 was called to take the chair of church history
and exegesis there during the temporary absence
of Dr. Philip Schaff in Europe. He was elected to
succeed Dr. Schaff in 1866, in 1871 was made president
of Mercersburg college, and in 1881 appointed
superintendent of public instruction for Pennsylvania.
Dr. Higbee has been a frequent contributor
to the “Mercersburg Review,” a literary and
theological periodical of the German Reformed church.
HIGGINSON, Francis, clergyman, b. in
England in 1588; d. in Salem, Mass., 6 Aug., 1630.
He was graduated at Cambridge, and about 1615
became minister at Claybrooke, one of the parishes
of Leicester. Here he acquired great influence as
a preacher, but, becoming a Puritan, left his parish,
although he continued to preach occasionally in
the pulpits of the established church. He refused
offers of many excellent livings on account of his
opinions, and was supporting himself by preparing
young men for the university, when, in 1628, he
was invited by the Massachusetts Bay company to
accompany its expedition to New England in the
following year. He arrived in Salem on 29 June,
1629, and on 20 July was chosen teacher of the
congregation. He drew up a confession of faith,
which was assented to, on 6 Aug., by thirty persons.
In the following winter, in the general sickness
that ravaged the colony, he was attacked by a
fever, which disabled him, and finally caused his
death. He wrote an account of his voyage, which
is preserved in Hutchinson's collection of papers,
and “New England's Plantation; or a Short and
True Description of the Commodities of that
Country” (London, 3d ed., 1630; reprinted in the
Massachusetts historical society's collections, vol.
i.). — His son, John, clergyman, b. in Claybrooke,
England, 6 Aug., 1616; d. in Salem, Mass., 9 Dec.,
1708, came to this country with his father, after
whose death he assisted in the support of his
mother and brothers by teaching in Hartford.
With Giles Firmin he was employed by the
magistrates and ministers of the Massachusetts colony
to take down in short-hand the proceedings of the
synod of 1637. He was chaplain of the fort at
Saybrook for about four years, and in 1641 went
to Guilford as assistant to Rev. Henry Whitfield,
whose daughter he married. In 1643 he was one
of the “seven pillars” of the church there. He
sailed for England with his family in 1659, but the
vessel put into Salem harbor on account of the
weather, and he accepted an invitation to preach
there for a year, finally settling as regular pastor
of the church that his father had planted. He was
ordained in August, 1660, and continued there till
his death. He was an active opponent of the
Quakers, but subsequently regretted his zeal, and
took no part in the witchcraft prosecutions of 1692.
He was one of the most popular divines in New
England, and at his death had been seventy-two
years in the ministry. He published various
sermons, and was the author of the “Attestation” to
Cotton Mather's “Magnalia,” which was prefixed
to the first book of that work.
HIGGINSON, Stephen, merchant, b. in Salem, Mass., 28 Nov., 1743; d. in Boston, Mass., 22 Nov., 1828. He was descended from Rev. Francis Higginson, noticed above. Stephen was bred a merchant, and from 1765 till 1775 was an active and successful shipmaster. While on a visit to England in 1774-'5, he was called to the bar of the house of commons, and questioned as to the state of feeling in Massachusetts. He was a delegate to the continental congress in 1782-'3, navy agent at Boston in 1797-1801, and was one of Gov. Bowdoin's most active advisers in the suppression of Shays's rebellion, serving as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment that was sent from Boston at that time. He was a firm Federalist, and strongly supported the administrations of Washington and Adams. He lost a large part of his fortune in the war of 1812. He published “Examination of Jay's Treaty by Cato,” a pamphlet (Boston, 1795), and the essays signed “Laco,” attacking John Hancock, were, generally attributed to him. — His son, Stephen, b. in Salem, Mass., 20 Nov., 1770; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 20 Feb., 1834, became a merchant and philanthropist in Boston, and was known as the “Man of Ross” of his day, on account of
