Private Nicodemus Gigger*

Private Nicodemus Gigger (unknown- 1804), of African heritage, enlisted as a private in Colonel William Prescott’s regiment on October 7, 1775. Little is known of Gigger’s service, but Prescott had led the Provincial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and later saw action defending New York City and at Saratoga. Gigger and his first wife, Jane, had a child in Natick in 1773. Following the deaths of his first two wives, Gigger married an Indigenous woman from Natick,Beulah Speen (Rogers), in 1777. Beulah and Nicodemus died in Natick four months apart in 1802.

Nichodemus Gigger was the brother-in-law of John Chore/Chowen, married to Beulah Speen, sister of John’s wife, Hannah Speen. Both women were the granddaughters of Natick proprietor Josiah Speen with Beulah naming her second son after him. Nichodemus Gigger was born in Lynn in 1751, MA, the son of Simon Jeger, an enslaved man and “Indian” Mary George. Like Chore/Chowen, Nichodemus shared Afro-Indigenous heritage. He married Jane Nimery of Sudbury in 1764. They had one child, Jeney Gedger, born on February 17,1767. In 1773, Nichodemus Gigger and Dinah Day of Medway published their intentions to marry in Natick. On August 14, 1777, Nichodemus married Beulah Speen. The Rev. Stephen Badger officiated the ceremony. The couple’s son, Daniel Speen Gigger, was born on August 22, 1777. Daniel married Lucy Partuck on April 14, 1797. The couple’s second son, Josiah, married Hassanamisco Nipmuc, Lucinda Brown. The descendants of Nichodemus and Beulah Speen Gigger and John and Hannah Speen Chore were recorded in the 1861 Earle Report , a census of American Indians residing within Massachusetts, populating the Hassanamisco and Miscellaneous Indian sections of the report. In the nineteenth century, the Gigger descendants left Natick for Worcester county living in a number of locations while the Chore descendants remained principally in Natick, still living in the town today. Nichodemus Gigger mustered into Revolutionary War service from Sudbury.

Note: More often than not, service, vital, and/or other historical records were created and kept by men of English and European backgrounds. They employed a wide range of descriptive terms, such as "mulatto," negro," and "dark complexion." These terms cannot fully capture any soldier's identity, but they do offer clues. In some cases, the surname of a soldier of color connects him to a Natick family that is well documented. Often, these soldiers are Indigenous men. The biographies in this project make it possible to say more not only about a soldier's identity or background, but also about the life he led in Natick and beyond.