Franklin B. Briggs & Betsey Ann Pratt

Franklin Benjamin Briggs, my 4th great grandfather and father of Anna Briggs, was born in 1813 in Bridgewater, VT.  Bridgewater is in Windsor county.  Many of the towns in the area were established by charters granted by the colony of New Hampshire in the 1760's.  The "ownership" of the area was disputed by claims made by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York.  New York went so far as to send military forces from Albany to force the grant holders to "repurchase" the land from New York. In 1770, Ethan Allen, along with his brothers Ira and Levi, as well as Seth Warner, recruited an informal militia, the Green Mountain Boys, to protect the interests of the original New Hampshire settlers against the new migrants from New York. A significant standoff occurred at the Breckinridge farm in Bennington, when a sheriff from Albany arrived with a posse of 750 men to dispossess Breckinridge. The residents raised a body of about 300 armed men to resist. The Albany sheriff demanded Breckinridge, and was informed, "If you attempt it, you are a dead man." The sheriff returned to Albany.  Representatives of the New Hampshire Land Grants declared independence on Jan 15, 1777.  The original name of this Republic was "New Connecticut".  Six months later the name Vermont was adopted and a constitution drawn up.  The capitol was Windsor, in Windsor county.  Vermont remained independent until it joined the union in 1791 as the 14th state.  Franklin's parents were both born in pre-statehood Vermont, making him the first generation of Briggs to be born in the state of Vermont.

Franklin married Betsey Ann Pratt on April 30, 1837.  Betsey was born in Vermont in 1819 and married at the age of 18.  They lived and raised children in Bridgewater and later Bridgewater Corner.  They farmed for a living.  The 1883 Vermont Gazette lists Franklin as having 448 acres.

The children were Isaac, Edwin, Sylvester, Jesse F., Amando, and Anna.  Edwin died of disease in the civil war in 1863.  Sylvester died from wounds he received in the battle of Antietam.  He is buried in Antietam National Cemetery.  Both brothers were part of the Vermont 4th infantry regiment.  The Civil war pension petitions help narrow down the year of their deaths.  Betsey petitioned for Edwins's pension in 1870, and Franklin petitioned for the same in Dec 1892.  Both appear in the 1880 census.  So Betsey likely passed away between 1880 and 1892, and Franklin between 1892 and 1900.  Isaac, Anna, and Amando survived the war.  I have not found Jesse F.