Higginson, Francis, 1586–1630, American colonial clergyman, b. Leicestershire, England, M.A. Cambridge, 1613. Admitted (1614) to the ministry of the Church of England, he later became a nonconformist and in 1629 sailed with a group of settlers for Salem, Mass. His journal of the first months at Salem was sent back to England and printed with the title New-England's Plantation (1630). Elected minister of the settlement, he drew up a confession of faith and a covenant that were adopted. He soon died as a result of hardships suffered the first winter.
See biography by T. W. Higginson (1891), which contains his complete journal.
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