Edward RIGGS

                   Notes from "Genealogy of the Riggs Family", Vol l, by John H. Wallace, 1901.
Idward II was born in England and came to this country along with family,
landing in Boston,
Mass., in the early summer of 1633.  He assisted his father in preparing a new
habitation and in taking care of the sick until 5 Apr 1635, when he married
quite a young girl, daughter of a family who had come from England and settled
in Boston.  In August of the same year, his mother died.  He soon set about
establishing a home of his own.  In 1637 he was a sergeant in the Pequot war.
He greatly distinguished himself by rescuing a body of his companions from an
ambuscade into which they had been led by the Indians, and in which they all
would have been cut off.  By this notable act of bravery and skill the name of
"Sergeant Riggs" became his well known designation as long as he lived.  About
1640 he became a settler at Milford, Conn., and had land assigned to him.
    In 1655, associated with Edward Wooster, Richard Baldwin, John Browne, Robert
Dennison, John Burnett and perhaps others, they purchased from Indians the
part of land on the Naugatuck, then known as Paugusset, about ten or twelve
miles from Milford, and established a plantation which was later called Derby.
The location of Sergeant Riggs is still known as "Riggs Hill."  He built his
home at this location, as well as a strong stockade as a protection against the
Indians.  In this he secreted and protected Whaley and Goff, two of the English
Parliament that condemned and executed Charles I, while the emissaries of
Charles II were searching diligently for them along the Connecticut coast, in
1661.  While Edward was not a member of the church and consequently not a
voter, this brave act, in the face of the vengeance of the re-established
English throne, establishes two points in his character; that he was governed
by his convictions in considering human rights, and that his sympathies were
wholly with the Puritans in their struggle for liberty from the mother country.
It is understandable that he would rebel against laws which excluded the right
of citizenship and vote unless one was first a member of the church.  This may
have been a motive for the change of his location in the advanced years of his
life.
    The Province of New Jersey was named as a grant from the Crown in 1664.  In
1665 Edward, with some of his associates of Derby, visited there and were well
pleased.  They determined to found a new plantation on the Passaic that would
be accessible to the sailing craft of the day.  The site of Newark was chosen.
The next year he spent most of the summer there preparing for the advent of the
proposed colony.  His wife was with him, the first white woman to spend a
summer in Newark.  The agreement was executed 24 Jun 1667.  His two sons Edward
and Joseph were designated as "Planters," that is, original proprietors, but no
home lot was assigned to Joseph as he was a bachelor.  Son Samuel was provided
for at Derby. In 1669 the colony was fully organized, and Edward died.  His
widow, Elizabeth, still a healthy and well-preserved woman, sometime previous
to 1671 married Caleb Carwithie.  Previous to her marriage she conveyed to her
son Joseph one-half of her home lot.