# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Higgons, Thomas

​HIGGONS, Sir THOMAS (1624–1691), diplomatist and author, born in 1624, was the son of Thomas Higgons, D.D., rector of Westbury, Shropshire, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Barker of Haghmond Abbey in the same county (Le Neve, Pedigrees of Knights, Harl. Soc. p. 172). In the beginning of 1638 he became a commoner of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, but left the university without a degree, and afterwards travelled into Italy. Soon after his return, in 1647 or 1648, he married Elizabeth, widow (having been second wife) of Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex [q. v.], and daughter of Sir William Paulet, knt., of Edington, Wiltshire. He delivered an affecting oration at her funeral on 16 Sept. 1656, which he had printed in the same year. From its extreme scarcity, most of the copies would appear to have been afterwards destroyed. In January 1658–9 Higgons, being then resident at Grewell, near Odiham, Southampton, was elected M.P. for Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and for New Windsor, Berkshire, on 9 April 1661. He was knighted on 17 June 1663. His services to the crown were rewarded with a pension of 500l. a year, and gifts to the amount of 4,000l. (A Seasonable Argument to perswade all the Grand Juries in England to petition for a Parliament, 1677, p. 3). In 1665 he was engaged on some diplomatic business at Paris (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1664–5 p. 396, 1665–6 p. 28). In 1669 he was sent as envoy extraordinary to invest John George, duke and elector of Saxony, with the order of the Garter. About four years afterwards he went as envoy to Vienna, where he continued for three years. On 29 April 1685 he became M.P. for St. Germans, Cornwall. He died suddenly of apoplexy in the court of king's bench on 24 Nov. 1691, having been summoned there as a witness in a cause pending between Elizabeth, duchess of Albemarle, and his brother-in-law, John, earl of Bath. He was buried in Winchester Cathedral on 3 Dec., near the remains of his first wife. By Lady Essex he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances. He married secondly, by license dated 11 Nov. 1661, Bridget (d. 1692), widow of Symon Leach, of Cadeleigh, Devonshire, and daughter of Sir Bevil Grenville, knt., of Stowe, Cornwall (Chester, London Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster, col. 679), by whom he had three sons, George, Thomas, and Bevil [q. v.], and three daughters, Grace, wife of the Rev. Sir George Wheeler, knt., of Sherfield, co. Southampton, Jane, and Bridget. Higgons was also author of: 1. ‘A Panegyrick [in verse] to the King [Charles II, on his restoration],’ fol., London, 1660. 2. ‘The History of Isuf Bassa, Captain-general of the Ottoman Army at the Invasion of Candia’ (anon.), 8vo, London, 1684. He likewise translated from the Italian of G. F. Busenello ‘A Prospective of the Naval Triumph of the Venetians over the Turk’ (anon.), 8vo, London, 1658, in verse, for which he was complimented by Waller, who addressed a poem to Mrs. Higgons.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 343–5; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. xvii. 465–6; Evelyn's Diary (1850–2), ii. 259; Le Neve's Pedigrees of Knights (Harl. Soc.), pp. 35, 366; Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. i.; wills of Sir Thomas Higgons (P. C. C. 213, Vere), and Lady Bridget Higgons (P. C. C. 38, Fane).]
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