Private Nicodemus Gigger*

Private Nicodemus Gigger (1751 - 1804), of African and Indigenous heritage, enlisted as a private out of Sudbury in Colonel William Prescott’s Regiment on October 7, 1775. Little is known of Gigger’s service, but Prescott led the colonial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and later saw action defending New York City and at Saratoga.

Gigger was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1751. His father, Simon Jeger, was an enslaved person of African heritage, and his mother, Mary George, was Indigenous. Gigger married Jane Nimery of Sudbury in 1764, and they had a child in Natick in 1767. Following the deaths of Nimery and then a second wife (Dinah Day of Medway), Gigger married a third time in Natick. Reverend Stephen Badger married Gigger and Beulah Speen (Rogers), an Indigenous woman of Natick, in August 1777. They had at least two sons in Natick.

Beulah and Nicodemus died in Natick four months apart in 1802. Their grandchildren were living in Natick and in the surrounding region, Nipmuc Homelands.

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.