Benjamin Sawyer & Aletta Hayward, STG, gent., sell house to John & Mary Fisher, merchant for £650. North: “Burying ground” (but Widow Wright hadn’t sold her house yet — another part of the church grounds?). West: House and lot of John Zuill. East, South: Streets.
The widow Miriam (“Meriam”) Briggs’s will (drawn up on 17 Nov. 1718) was proven. Children: James Briggs, Judith Briggs, John II Briggs, Elizabeth Briggs; cousin: Mary Minors, with daughters Hannah and Elizabeth Minors. Her grandsons James Briggs and Robert Burchall were the executors. She left land, the “Little Garden,” and one Indian female slave to grandson James. She left another female Indian slave to “Sister Judith Briggs or her Lawful Heir.” Miriam ordered her Indian slave Joan to be sold in order to pay for the funeral.
REGRANTED to John Briggs, mariner [N:57', S:42' Parade, E:86':W:86']. Joseph Outerbridge owned the lot to the west at this time. Jonathan Burchall lived to the north. The street to the east was said to run from the house of Andrew Auchinleck, Clerk, to the home of Robert Burton.
House in poss. of John Briggs II (CV4: 340).STG Tax List Compilation: The mariner John Briggs II, who lived at 39 York St., was the son of John I and Miriam. Note: BAH: STG, 66, mentions a John Briggs who owned the eastern Samaritan’s Cottage on York St. until 1676, but the years don’t quite align for the Briggs family at 39 York.
Zachariah Briggs’s will was proven. His widow was Charity, who served as his executor, and his sister was Hannah Croskeys. He gave his wife an Indian man slave, Andrew, and an Indian slave woman named Jenny, who was Andrew’s wife; they had a daughter, Nanny. Briggs also gave Charity a Negro slave woman, Susan [best guess], and her daughter, Mary or Mall, plus a Negro man named Jack, a Negro man named Burzus [best guess] and his son James/Jonny — and possibly more slaves, as well. Humphrey Burchall was a witness. Estate inventory.
“P. of Atty from James Briggs to mother Miriam Briggs to get a bequest given to him by grandmother Eleanor Briggs, dec’d, from his uncle Zachariah Briggs. 26 Aug. 1702” [for 39 York St.].
EXPLANATION: Grandmother Ellen's full name was Eleanor Briggs. James and John Jr. were the sons of the mariner/out-of-wedlock-fathering John Briggs. The younger John’s son, also called James, is the person concerned here. James received a sizable inheritance from grandmother Miriam when she died.
BAH: STG, 36: Again, Miriam Briggs owned several lots along Clarence Street, one of which became the site of the future YMCA (corner of York and Clarence) in 1862.
(New?) House already standing when granted to Zachariah Briggs, pilot, [N&S:50', E&W: 94', front on Parade]. Henry Burchall lived to the north at this time. Leonard White’s house was to the west.
Accounts diverge slightly about Briggs's death.
W2,2: 107: “D. int. 1694; wife: Miriam; children: John, James; son of James I & Ellen."
Hallett Early Bermuda Wills, 59: John Briggs, a mariner, had his will proven on 28 Aug. 1694. He made his widow Miriam the administrator of his estate. (Hallett cites the will code: W2,2: 107.)
WILL of James Briggs, grants life tenure in his house to his wife Ellen (full name actually Eleanor), and then to sons Nathaniel and Zachariah, on the condition that they look after her in her old age; if they do not, it is up to Ellen who gets the house (pr. 29 April 1696).
The 1943 sewer map is strange because, while the Sunday School is pictured, and 39 York Street appears with another building to its west, the old house at 37 York, set back from the road, does not appear.
When was 37 York St. demolished?
John Brownlow Tucker dies.
"Will (Cigar Box transcription) — Tucker, John Brownlow:
Property: 1827–30
House + Lot (Ben. Higgs): 100
House + Land (North Side): 500 [added 1829]
Mdze: 1000 [0 by 1829]"
I do not know how this Ben Higgs house figures into the block's layout. It merits future study.
Darrell’s survey of St. George’s clearly shows the Sunday School facing York Street and the house at 37 York Street, which was set back from the road, northeast of the school. Note: The buildings at 22 Clarence and 39 York appear connected in Prof. Jarvis’s file called 1854 Darrell_1876Barracks.pdf.
John Brownlow Tucker, esq., with Susan Todd Tucker, wf., owned 37 York St. Tucker sold part of the old Zuill grant for £25 to “Rev. Richard Thomas Tucker, Rector of STG and trustee for Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel + Foreign Parts,” for the new Sunday School. This land for the school bordered the churchyard to the north, Tucker’s remaining lot to the east, York Street to the south, and more church property to the west. Sale dimensions: N: 51’, E: 34’, S: 5’, S–to–W: 53’, W: 10’.