Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/434

 BRIGGS.

BRIGHT.

Question f<n- the Times" (1889); " HoW? A Series of Essays on the Revision Question " (1890); '• Autliority of the Holy Scripture" (1891); "The Bible, the Church, and the Reason" (1892): "The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch" (189:J): "The Messiah of the Gos- pels" (1894); "Tlie ^lessiah of the Apostles" (189.")); "tJeneral Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture" (1899). Ho was ordained a priest in tlio Protestant Episcopal church. May 14. 1899. and received the degree DA). Ironi Glas- gow and Oxford in 1901.

BRIGGS. Charles Frederick, author, was horn at Nantucket. Mass.. in 1S04. Though following a journalist's life from his early youth, his first business venture on his own responsibility was in liis fortieth year, when he became etlitor and proprietor of the Broad irai/ Journal, in New York city, of which Edgar Allan Poe became associate editor in 1845. Mr. Briggs was later associated with Parke Godwin and George William Curtis in editing Putnam's Magazine. He contributed to several of the more prominent New York jour- nals, and wrote many very popular letters over the name of " Fernando Mendez Pinto. " His last po.sition was on the staff of the New York Inde- pendent. which he lield from 1874 until his death. His published works include: " Harry Franco; a Tale of the Great Panic " (1839); " The Hamited Merchant," one of a series of " Bankrupt Stories," written under the pseudonym " Harry Franco " (iat3); '-Working a Passage" (1844); "Trip- pings of Tom Pepper " (1847), and in conjunction with Augustus Maverick, " The Storj' of the Tele- graph, and the History of the Atlantic Cable " (1858). He assi.sted G. P. Palmer in editing wrote a volume of poems entitled, " Seaweed from the shoras of Nantucket." He died in Brooklyn. N. Y., June 20, 1877.
 * ' Homes of American Authors " (1853), and also

BRIGGS, George Nixon, governor of Massa- chusetts, was born at Adams, Mass., April 13, 1796. His father was a soldier under Stark at Bennington, and when the son was seven years of age. he removed to Vermont. Later the fam- ily went to White Creek, Washington county, N. Y., where George learned the hatter's trade. Returning to his native place he studied Law, and in 1818 was admitted to the Berkshire bar, where he won especial renown as a criminal law- yer. In 1824 he was chosen registrar of deeils for Berkshire county, and held the office seven years. He was elected a Whig representative to the 22d Congress and was five times re-elected, serving from Dec. 5, 1831. to March 3, 1843. In the latter year he was chosen governor of Massachusetts, and remained in office by succe.s.sive re-elections from 1843 to 1851, when he was made judge of the court of common pleas, remaining in this p<jsi-

tion until 1856. He was also a member of the Mas.sacliusetts constitutional convention, 1853. In 18l he was appointed a commissioner to adjust ditferences between the United States and New Granada. He held many positions of trust, and was universjilly respected by the people of the state. For sixteen years he was a trustee of Williams college, and he declined the chancellor- ship of Madison universitj*. Governor Briggs was a proniinent advocate of total abstinence. He was one of the foremost laymen in the Baptist denomination, holding the presidency of the Mis- sionary union of the American tract society, and of the American temperance union. He was acci- dentally killed at Pittsfield, ]\lass., Sept. 12, 1861.

BRIGGS, Joseph William, postal reformer, was born in Clermont, N. Y., July 5, 1813. He was a nephew of Gov. Geo. Nixon Briggs, and being left an orphan while very young was brought up with his uncle's family. After serv- ing an apprenticeship to a harness-maker he fol- lowed the trade for many years. In 1838 he patented a stitching machine which he had invented, and he claimed to have been the first to make a lockstitch by using a pointed needle with a grooved eye. He became interested in the free delivery of letters, and obtaining from Post- master-general Blair in 1861 the appointment of superintendent of the system, establisiied free delivery stations in the United States. He died in Cleveland. Ohio. Feb. 23. 1872.

BRIGGS, Le Aaron Russell, educator, was born in Salem, Mass., Dec. 11. 1855; son of George Ware and Lucia Jane (Russell) Briggs; grandson of William and Sally (Palmer) Briggs; and a descendant of Nathaniel and Martha (Le Baron) Russell and of Gov. William Bradford and John Howland, Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1620. He was graduated from Harvard in 1875; was a tutor there, 1878 -'81; in.structor in English, 1883-'85; assistant professor of English, 1885-'90; full pro- fessor in 1890, and dean of the college in 1891. He received the degree A.M. from Harvard in 1882.

BRIGHAM, Amariah, physician, was born at New Marlborough, Mass., Dec. 26, 1798. He pra(.-tised medicine at Endfield, Mass., 1821-'23; Greenfield, Mass., 1823-'30; and Hartford, Conn., 1831-'42. He spent one j-ear in Europe and served as superintendent of the Hartford Insane asylum, 1840-'42. and of the New York state lunatic asy- Inm. 1S42-'49. He published " Influence of Men- tal Cultivation on the Health " (1S:J2): " Influence of Religion upon the Health and Physical Wel- fare of Mankind " (1835); " Diseases of the Brain " (is:ir)). anil founded and edited the Journal of Jusa^iUji. He die.l in Utica, N.Y., Sept. 8, 1849.

BRIGHT, Edward, editor, was born near Kingston* Herefordshire. England, Oct., 8, 1808, son of Edward Bright, who when the son was