BIGGS, JOHN (17??-18??)

BIGGS, JOHN, first stonecutter on the Miramichi.

The few records which exist suggest that John Biggs was spending much of his time in the 1790s cutting millstones. However, he is best known to Miramichi history as the man who did the lettering and engraving on William Davidson's grave stone in the cemetery at Wilson's Point. He and his wife, Louisa Ann, later bought a property at Douglastown. In 1816 they sold this to Lewis Biggs, who was probably their son, in return for their lifetime maintenance.

Biggs survived until the 1820s and is no doubt the stonecutter "B" who is profiled in Robert Cooney's Autobiography. "B" was "a canny Scotchman" who wore a tartan jacket and "knew how to take care of himself." He "did a good deal in the epitaph line" and wanted to be regarded as an artist rather than a tradesman.