CHAPTER XX.

THE FIRST AMERICAN FAMILY.—JOSEPH HIGLEY.

~Thls world will never know in how many hearts he has writtet~ his name.”

A SHADE of obscurity covers the life of Joseph Higley, the seventh child in the family of Captainjohn Higley. Indeed, since no exact date of his birth can be discovered, it is only through the wills and other legal documents that his place is found in the family group beside his sister Hannah Trumbull, and that his life covered a period of about thirty years.

He was born about the year 1685, and died May 3, 1715. He never married. His life was apparently entirely uneventful. There is reason for believing that from his early youth his constitution was never robust, and his “weak state of body” is further cone firmed by a declaration to that effect in his will.

Boys from the age of sixteen and upward were expected to conform to the law and hold in possession a gun, which they were to have in continual readiness for bearing their part in the military defense.’ Joseph Higley’s chief and almost only possessions appear to have been his firearms and riding equipments, together with his portion of valuable lands lying in Turkey-Hills in close proximity to his brother Samuel’s, which he received from his father’s estate; also, property from his mother’s estate at Windsor.

His will, which is brief, bequeathes all of his property to his “well-beloved brothers, John and Brewster Higley,” whom he named his executors.

The inventory of his personal effects, taken August 3!, 1715, consisted of his wearing apparel, “pistols and holster, and gun, bridle reins, etc., and a book “; all of which were appraised at Liz 175.

It is supposcd that he was laid in the ancient burial ground at Simsbury.

‘“if a youth did not have sufficient means for the purchase of firearms for hlmself,the law required him to * bring to the Town Clerk so much corn or other merchantable g3ods,’ and a gun with the necessary bel~nglngs wu furnished him at the expense of the town.”— Ccl.,. irni Rsc&’rdt ./C~’s,spcc. fick!, 16t15..7₇.

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