John Briggs

John Briggs lived from 1615 to 16 November 1690. Family material associates him with the 1673 death of Rebecca Cornell of Portsmouth through an account stating that he was her brother and that he reported a posthumous vision of her.

John Briggs was born in 1615 and died on 16 November 1690.

Family notes connect him with the death of Rebecca Cornell, a widow who was described in a local record as having been “killed strangely” at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house. The record says that she was viewed twice by the coroner’s inquest, was dug up, and was buried again beside her husband’s grave on their land.

According to the family material, Rebecca Cornell’s son Thomas was charged with murder on 23 May. John Cornell’s Genealogy of the Cornell Family later described a reported vision in which Rebecca appeared after her death to her brother, John Briggs, saying, “See how I was burned with fire.” John Cornell wrote that this report was used to infer that Rebecca had been set on fire and that Thomas, who had last been with her, had done it. He further stated that Thomas was tried, convicted, and hanged.

The same account also presents an alternative interpretation: that Rebecca had been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe and may have been burned to death after a coal fell from the fire or from her pipe. Family notes characterize the killing as unresolved despite Thomas Cornell’s conviction and execution.

Historical context

The supplied family material describes the case as an infamous murder mystery. It cites Killed Strangely: The Story of Rebecca Cornell by Elaine Forman Crane and reproduces an account attributed to John Cornell’s Genealogy of the Cornell Family. The reported vision and the suggested accidental-fire explanation should be understood as later accounts or interpretations preserved in the family material, rather than as independently verified conclusions.

Sources & research

Elaine Forman Crane, Killed Strangely: The Story of Rebecca Cornell.

Local record quoted in the supplied notes: “Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land.”

John Cornell, Genealogy of the Cornell Family, quoted in the supplied notes.