Puritan Minister. Born in Claybrooke, Leicestershire, England, the son of Elizabeth and John Higginson, an Anglican minister. He received his degree from Jesus College, Cambridge in 1610, and married Anne Herbert in Nottingham in January 1615. That same year, he acquired the parish of Claybrooke in Leicester, where he built a strong reputation. He, however, eventually fell away from the Anglican church as he became more inclined to the Puritan teachings, and resigned his living. He refused several lucrative Anglican livings, instead working as a tutor to support himself. In 1628, he accepted an invitation from the Massachusetts Bay Company to join their colony. The Higgenson Fleet was comprised of six ships; George Bonaventure, Talbot, Lion's Whelp, Mayflower, Four Sisters, and Pilgrim. The group of about 350 settlers sailed in spring 1629 and arrived in New England June. He was almost immediately chosen teacher of the congregation along with Samuel Skelton who was appointed pastor. He and Skelton began conducting services immediately. He drew up a confession of faith, which was affirmed in August, by thirty colonists. That winter he succumbed to a fever at the age of 43, leaving a widow and eight children. He was eulogized by Governor John Winthrop as "...one of the ministers of Salem, a zealous and a profitable preacher....” Portions of a diary he kept of his voyage and the first few months in the colony was published as 'New England's Plantation, or a Short and True Description of the Commodities and Discommodities of that Country '(1630). He also wrote also an account of his voyage, later printed in Original Papers (1769). His biography, 'Life of Francis Higginson,' was published by his descendant, Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1891). Other writings were collected and published in 1908; 'New England's Plantation with The Sea Journal and Other Writings.'