Nathaniel Higginson was an English politician. He served as the first Mayor of Madras, and later was the President of the colony.
Background
Nathaniel Higginson was born on October 11, 1652 in Guilford, Connecticut, United States. He was the grandson of Reverend Francis Higginson who came to Massachusetts in 1629 and was minister of the church at Salem, and the son of Reverend John and Sarah (Whitfield) Higginson. He was born on October 11, 1652 at Guilford, Connecticut, where his father was assistant to Reverend Henry Whitfield.
In 1659 the family moved to Salem.
Education
At the age of sixteen Higginson entered Harvard and graduated in 1670. For a further period of two years he pursued his studies and took his second degree in 1672.
Career
Finding little use for his talents, in 1674 Higginson left for England. Here he was employed as tutor for the children of Lord Wharton until 1681, and later his employer secured for him a position in the mint in the Tower of London. In 1683 he entered the service of the English East India Company as a writer, and sailed for Fort Saint George, Madras, where he arrived on March 19, 1684. From this date till October 23, 1692, when he became president of Fort Saint George, his promotion was rapid.
He was appointed an assistant custom and warehouse agent on July 3, 1684; in 1685 he became a factor at 0815 a year; in February 1686 the president appointed him to his council at a salary of 4040; and on July 10 made him an assistant to Judge John Gray of the Admiralty court; to these duties, October 11, 1686, Higginson added that of one of the three municipal judges.
Sir Josiah Child, governor of the board of directors of the East India Company, advanced Higginson, at the age of thirty-five, to second in Elihu Yale's council, and wrote "let none of you think much or grudge at the speedy advancement of Mr. Higginson".
James II granted to the East India Company, December 30, 1687, a municipal charter for Madras, and on September 29, 1688, Higginson was sworn in as first mayor of the municipality, an office later held by his son Richard. In this year he was not only second in the president's council, mayor, paymaster, justice of the peace, chief accountant and bookkeeper, and mint master, but he was also in charge of the mayor's court, and commissioner of customs. In 1689 he resigned as mayor, left the East India Company's service, and proceeded to Bengal.
Three years later he returned to Madras, was reinstated on the council, and October 23, 1692, assumed the governorship, in place of Elihu Yale who had been removed because of disputes with the council.
While president of Fort Saint George, Higginson sent Doctor Samuel Browne to Gingee, August 7, 1693, and received from Zulfiqar Khan six villages, and in 1695, the village of Catawuk, but, owing to troubles with the Great Mogul and Mahrattas, the new territories were not occupied. These troubles led the Company in March 1694 to appoint Higginson lieutenant-general of India. He was able to get confirmed the perwanna issued by Baksh, February 25, 1693, for the villages of Tondiarpelt, Pursewaukum, and Egmore. In spite of the confirmation of the Grand Vizier of the Grand Mogul, Khan, March 19, 1694, the dispute over these and other villages, tribute's, and supplies of powder and shot led to further trouble and desultory warfare from October 12, 1697, to February 22, 1698.
Such disputes, controversy with the Catholic bishop of Saint Thomas over the appointment of priests to towns within the confines of the Company's territories, opposition from his council, and the still unsettled disagreement over the affairs of Elihu Yale who did not leave India until February 22, 1699, led to Higginson being succeeded by Thomas Pitt on July 6, 1698. From July 6 to September 12, 1698, he served in Pitt's council, but on February 25, 1700, finally left for England. Here Higginson took up his residence in Charterhouse yard, London. With nineteen others he presented a petition to Queen Anne, June 10, 1706, for the removal of Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts;
His death, from smallpox, occurred in Soper Lane, Pancreas Parish, and he was buried in Bow Church, Cheapside.
Achievements
Membership
Higginson was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.
Connections
In May of 1692, Higginson married Elizabeth Richardson, the orphan daughter of John Richardson, chief of the Ballasow factory in Bengal, who had died in 1681. By his wife he had five children, three sons and two daughters.