Salem Deaths: Higginson, Mary, w. Rev. John [d. Capt. Thomas Gardner. c.r.1] Mar 9, 17- [1713, a. 38 y. c.r.1; Mar. 9, 1708-9, a. 72 y. g.r.1] 29

Rev. John Higginson was a Puritan Minister and one of the leading persecutors in the Salem Witch Trials. He conducted examinations of the accused, witnessed confessions, warrants for arrest, and officiated at excommunications and executions.

His daughter, Ann Dolliver was accused of and arrested for witchcraft. This apparently happened when Rev. Higginson started to have doubts about the trials.

HIGGINSON, John, clergyman, was born in Claybrooke, Leicester, England, Aug. 6, 1616; son of Francis Higginson (1588-1630). He came to America as a boy with his father and succeeded him in his church in Salem, having previously been assistant to the Rev. Henry Whitfield, at Guilford, Conn., whose daughter he married. He was one of the leading clergymen in New England, being seventy-two years in the ministry; published various sermons and furnished the attestation to Cotton Mather's Magnalia, which was prefixed to the first volume of that work. He was pronounced by the critic R. W. Griswold, to be "incomparably the best writer" among the American Puritan divines. He died in Salem, Mass., Dec. 9, 1708. 13

A short biography on John Higginson.