"There was a Henry Briggs who was an active member of the London Company in 1619.  He had a son Henry who came to America and a son Thomas who remained in England.  A letter from Henry was written to Thomas complaining of the hardships in Virginia.  The relationship of this family to Henry Briggs of Surry is uncertain.  Henry Briggs, the famous mathematician, was born at Worley Woods, Yorkshire in 1561 and died in 1631. He may have been the same man as the Henry Briggs of of the London Company which was dissolved in 1624."     
 

            Henry Briggs (? -1681), the immigrant of this family, first appears in the Charles City County, Virginia records in 1656 with a Gabriel Briggs as witnesses.  In 1662 Henry was administrator of Gabriel Brigg's estate.  Henry moved to Surry County before November, 1662 when he appears on a jury and he lived in that county until his death in 1686. About 1661 he married Mary ________, a widow who had been married three times previously ( to Richard Blunt, Charles Ford and John Washington). His second wife's name was Margerie _____ Gillam, also a widow. There were no children by the second marriage. The children mentioned in his will were Henry (below), Charles, Samuel (m. Mary Bailey), George (unmarried) and Mary.

       Their son, Henry Briggs (1662-1739), was interpreter to the Nottoway, Meherrin and Nansemond Indians from 1705 until 1726.  In a Virginia-North Carolina border dispute, he testified that he had been familiar with these Indians since he was 13 years of age.  He served in the Surry Count Militia in 1687 and was married, somewhat late in life,  Elizabeth Lucas, the daughter of William and Grace ______ Lucas. The children named in his will were Mary (Bedinfield), Ann  (Barton), Jane (Day), Hannah (Hill), Priscilla (Barker) and Elizabeth (Chappell).

       In Isle of Wight County, prior to 1721, the daughter Elizabeth Briggs married James Chappell. Their children were James, Thomas, Elizabeth (Mason), Mary (Gee), Sarah (Mason), Rebecca (Northington), Amy (Smith), John (who married MaryHines), Ann (Tatum?), Lucretia (Carter), and Howell.

           Samuel and Mary Briggs (above) had a son William Briggs, who married Mary Cooke. They had three daughters who married sons of James and Elizabeth Chappell, their second cousins:

                        Elizabeth Briggs married James Chappell II
                  Mary Briggs married Thomas Chappell
                        Rebecca Briggs married Howell Chappell