The only surviving son of Dr. Stephen Briggs, Chief Surgeon at Madras, and Magdalene Pasley, Briggs entered the Navy on 10 September 1791. He first served as a first class volunteer aboard the ship , under the command of his uncle Captain Thomas Pasley. He later followed him into the ship with the rank of midshipman. Between 1793 and 1798 Briggs served under Captain Charles Tyler in the , and , taking part in the operations against Toulon and Corsica in 1793–94, and saw action under Admiral William Hotham in the Battle of Genoa on 14 March and the Battle of Hyères Islands on 13 July 1795.