Briggs Bridge Builders

The name Briggs is toponymic, the original bearers being those who "resided by the bridge", and from the canal bridges built in Yorkshire and Lancashire by my great-great-great-grandfather James (1764 - 1846), through the railway bridges built all over England by my great-great-grandfather Isaac (1815 - 1910), to the army road bridges built in Burma during the 2nd World War by my father Martin (1915 -), at least three generations of my branch of the Briggs family have been associated with bridge building.

The earliest direct Briggs ancestor of mine I have identified is Joseph Briggs, who was a wool comber from Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Joseph's date of birth is not known, but his sons by his wife Anne, James and John were born in Hainworth, Parish of Bingley, and christened in Keighley, in 1764 and 1770 respectively.

Joseph’s son James Briggs (1764 - 1846), my great-great-great-grandfather, became a canal engineer, working mainly in Lancashire and Westmorland. Joseph's grandson Isaac Briggs (1815 - 1910) was one of the first railway contractors, working with engineers such as Stevenson and Brunel. Joseph's great-great-great grandson Martin Briggs (1915 -) is a civil and structural engineer who, stationed in the Far East from 1941 to 1945, designed a miltary bridge known as the Briggs Bridge.

Joseph’s second son John Briggs (1770 - 1853) was a clock and watchmaker in Gargrave and Skipton, who had two sons, Joseph a watchmaker and Leonard a mechanic, both believed to have emigrated to America around 1850.