Background
Higgons was the son of Review Thomas Higgons, Doctor of Divinity, rector of Westbury, Shropshire, and his second wife Elizabeth Barker, daughter of Richard Barker of Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire. His father died in 1636.
Higgons was the son of Review Thomas Higgons, Doctor of Divinity, rector of Westbury, Shropshire, and his second wife Elizabeth Barker, daughter of Richard Barker of Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire. His father died in 1636.
He matriculated at Street Alban Hall, Oxford on 27 April 1638, aged 14 and was a student of Middle Temple in 1639. He travelled abroad in Italy from about 1643 to 1646 and learned the language well enough to translate an account of Venetian triumphs over the Turks. He was elected Member of Parliament for Windsor for the Cavalier Parliament in 1661.
Also in 1661 he was commissioner for assessment for Shropshire to 1663 and commissioner for assessment for Hampshire to 1680.
He was knighted on 17 June 1663. Also in 1663 he was commissioner for assessment for Westminster to 1669 and commissioner for assessment for Devon to 1674.
In 1668 he became Surveyor-general for the Duchy of Cornwall and was appointed envoy extraordinary to Saxony until 1669. He was envoy extraordinary to Venice from 1674 to 1679.
In 1685 he was elected Member of Parliament for Street Germans.
He was commissioner for assessment for Hampshire from 1689 to 1690. Higgons died of apoplexy in the Court of King"s Bench (England) at the age of about 66 and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Higgons married firstly in about 1647, Elizabeth, dowager Countess of Essex, widow of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex and daughter of Sir William Powlett of Edington, Wiltshire.
They had two daughters and she died in 1656 being buried on 16 September 1656.
She died in 1692.
Cavalier Parliament]
In 1659 Higgons was elected Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in the Third Protectorate Parliament.