Biggins Family

https://www.peterspioneers.com/biggins.htm

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1782 inscription on stone at archway at the beginning of Ballyglass Rd.

From Biggins Family website

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Family members outside Biggins Pub Bowgate Street, Ballinrobe

From Biggins website

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Biggins family rugby player

Donor

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Caste iron plaque of Gerald Cuff 1720 in Biggins Bar

Averil Staunton

A comprehensive article on the Biggin’s Family caught my eye recently.  In it Peter Biggins from the US writes:

Biggins name

“As children growing up with Irish Catholics in the Chicago area in the 1950s, we were never quite sure we were one of them.   My Dad said we were Irish, but the name Biggins just did not sound Irish compared with Murphy, Kelly, O’Connor, Maguire, etc.  When you told people your name, they would ask how to spell it, or say it sounded English.

Through my whole life, I only met one Biggins who wasn’t a relative: John Biggins, an executive with the Elgin Watch Company, whom I caddied for around 1953 when he was a guest at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka”.

Name in family Bible

In 2002, Peter retired and got hooked on genealogy. “The first eye-opener was my great, great grandfather’s first name in the family Bible–Patrick. That sounded real Irish.  I found books in the library by MacLysaght and Woulfe that not only listed the name Biggins but, said it came from the Irish word beag which, ironically, means small.

The U.S. census of 1850 said Patrick’s wife was Bridget and the two of them were from Ireland.  I found two other Biggins families living across the road from Patrick and Bridget.  An 1890 biography for one of them said they were from County Monaghan but did not mention Patrick. One of their descendants, Cathi Biggins, said the name was not Biggins originally. My cousin Dan Biggins said we came from County Mayo.”……………

2006 Trip

Peter goes on, after extensive research, to say:

“Research prior to my 2006 trip to Ballinrobe indicated that there was a Biggins Bar in Ballinrobe. The existence of this establishment was a major reason for selecting Ballinrobe as a base for Biggins family research. Biggins Bar is on Bowgate Street, which is an informal section at the south end of Main Street. The first night I went to Biggins Bar and introduced myself to John Biggins, the proprietor. I also met a first cousin of John Biggins, known as John Joe Biggins, who had returned not long ago from working in Dublin at The Stephen’s Green Hibernian Club founded in 1840 by Daniel O’Connell and others….”

I did research at Biggins Bar every night for six nights, enjoying a couple pints of Guinness each night. I was able to verify what my brother Bill had always told him, that Guinness tastes best in Ireland. Bill had travelled to Co. Mayo following his discharge from the Navy during the Vietnam conflict.

Biggins Bar

“Biggins Bar is a favourite place to purchase flies for fly fishing. John’s father Sean was an avid fly fisherman.  After his father’s death in a car accident in 2003, John established the Sean Biggins Memorial Cup for the best Ballinrobe angler in the annual World Cup Trout Fly Angling Championship at Lough Mask, a few miles west of Ballinrobe”.  Peter continues…..

Oldest Bar

“John Biggins says that Biggins Bar is the oldest continuously operating bar in Ballinrobe. As indicated on the sign, it was established in 1863. It originally was in the Farragher family. The first Biggins proprietor was John Biggins, grandfather of the current owner, who married Mary Farragher.  According to a 1987 guide to the history and folklore of Ballinrobe, Itchy Feet & Thirsty Work, by Bridie Mulloy, Biggins Bar “is possibly the oldest license in town. The license was originally for a house in Brewery lane – off Bridge Street – but through the goodwill of Colonel Knox, for whom Sean’s maternal great grandfather was gardener, a house was leased in Bowgate Street which still prospers.”

This was a very interesting article on the Biggin’s family and can be viewed at http://www.peterspioneers.com/biggins.htm