Family and Education

s. of Miles or Michael Briggs of Kirby in Kendal by Mabill, da. of William Wilson of Bugill, Westmld. educ. Clement’s Inn; M. Temple 1568, called 1575. m. (1) Elizabeth, da. of James Bellingham of Garthorne, Westmld.; (2) Mary, da. of Charles Tinkelden of Surrey.1

Offices Held

J.p.q. Yorks. (N. Riding) and Westmld. from c.1583; commr. musters, Yorks. (N. Riding) by 1595.2

Biography

Briggs was a lawyer from a minor gentry family. Though he played a part in the administrative and military affairs of Yorkshire and Westmorland, he kept a chamber at the Middle Temple at least until 1605. He seems to have speculated in land. In 1575 he and his first wife sold a house and lands in Pontefract, next year selling another house with lands in Wakefield and Sandall and, in 1578, some pasture in Thorne and Wakefield. A few years later he bought 20 houses, 20 cottages, a watermill and lands in Old Malton, Wicombe and Pickering and free fishing in the Derwent and Rye. The purchase was effected in two parts: first he bought a two-thirds share and, later in the same year, acquired the third part. This property was not far from Boroughbridge, which he represented in Parliament Parliament two years later, probably having been nominated by the council in the north. In 1590 or 1591 he bought a house with lands in Ebberston and in 1602 another house with lands in Ryton. He died intestate at Thorne in the West Riding, probably in 1615.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes

• 1. Foster, Vis. Yorks. 497.
• 2. Lansd. 737, ff. 178v, 182; 121, f. 71; CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 167.
• 3. Yorks. Fines (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser.), ii. 80, 88; iii. 20, 28, 121, 145; iv. 186, 188; York Wills (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xxviii), 17.