- Thomas Wiggin
Captain Thomas Wiggin (1592 - 1667), often known as Governor Thomas Wiggin, was the first governor of the
Upper Plantation of New Hampshire which eventually became the RoyalProvince of New Hampshire in 1741.Captain Thomas Wiggin first ventured to
New England in 1630 when he sailed withJohn Winthrop to Boston on theWinthrop Fleet . In the years that followed, he served as the governor of the Upper Plantation, comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham. In 1631 he settled in Stratham. He was also the holder of the massive Squamscott patent, land east of the mouth of theSquamscott River , and continued to be a close ally of Governor John Winthrop of theMassachusetts Bay Colony .Thomas Wiggin and his son Thomas Wiggin Jr. joined other New Hampshire residents in signing a petition to King
James II of England protesting the grant of land toJohn Mason (governor) , proprietor of the controversial Masonian Grant (issued to Mason and fellow speculator SirFerdinando Gorges ), which sought to hold enormous tracts of New Hampshire land. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y18SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=%22thomas+wiggin%22+leavitt&source=web&ots=bSBb2Up462&sig=3Rf0JRnsE4xJG0dpEF7Axm3KaIA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA227,M1 Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Vol. VIII, Concord, 1866] ] Following the death in England of John Mason, who never set foot in America, Mason's heirs attempted to seize the lands granted Mason by voiding deeds held by colonists and throwing them off their hard-won acres, enraging the colonists. The petition signed by Wiggin and others referred to "our pretended proprietor Robert Mason Esq." and begged forRoyal relief from the greed of well-connected adventurers.Captain Thomas Wiggin was a
Puritan and extremely religious. He ascribed fervently to the belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic theology and ritual. He was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy, and believed that English Puritans needed to create a New England in a new world.In June 1659, his son
Andrew Wiggin married Hannah Bradstreet, daughter of Massachusetts Bay Colony GovernorSimon Bradstreet andAnne Bradstreet (daughter of Massachusetts Bay Colony GovernorThomas Dudley ).References
External links
* [http://www.dover.lib.nh.us/DoverHistory/many_names_of_dover.htm More Info]
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