 George Nixon Briggs was born in Adams , Massachusetts on April 12 , 1796 . He was the eleventh of twelve children of Allen Briggs , a blacksmith originally from <unk> , Rhode Island , and Nancy ( Brown ) Briggs , of Huguenot descent . His parents moved the family to Manchester , Vermont when he was seven , and , two years later , to White Creek , New York . The household was religious : his father was a Baptist and his mother was a Quaker , and they gave their children religious instruction from the Bible . 
