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106:. Higgins passed his early years in menial employments, became an attorney's clerk, was converted to Protestantism, and, by practising gross deception, married a respectable lady, whose relatives in 1766 prosecuted him for fraud. Higgins was convicted, and was for some time imprisoned. To this incident was attributed Higgins's sobriquet of the ‘Sham Squire.’ After his release he formed lucrative connections with lottery-offices and gambling-houses. He was admitted an attorney at Dublin in 1780, and secured the posts of deputy-coroner and under-sheriff. Higgins became owner of the newspaper styled ‘
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146:, with whom he had had previous relations, Higgins secretly communicated to the Irish government in 1798 particulars as to persons connected with the revolutionary movements in Ireland. The governmental account of secret service money, under date of 20 June 1798, contains an entry of a payment of 1,000l. to ‘F. H.’ for the discovery of
134:, earl of Clonmel, lord chief justice, he obtained, by authority of that court, writs styled ‘fiats,’ under which the defendants were liable to imprisonment till they found surety for the entire amount claimed as damages. These proceedings formed the subject of discussion in the House of Commons of Ireland.
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to appropriate a pension of 300l. per annum to
Higgins, on the ground that he had given him much information and all the intelligence which had enabled him to effect the arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Higgins died in affluence at Dublin on 19 January 1802, and was buried in the cemetery of
130:. Magee exposed Higgins's antecedents, and denounced him as a venal journalist, a corrupt magistrate, and a proprietor of houses of ill-repute. In 1790 Higgins prosecuted Magee for libel in the court of king's bench. Through Higgins's alleged influence with
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removed
Higgins from the magistracy in 1791, and in 1794 he was struck off the roll of attorneys. In 1795 he warned the government of a projected attack on the new lord-lieutenant,
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denounced in parliament the mendacities and unscrupulous conduct of the journal. In 1788 Higgins was appointed a magistrate by
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86:", (1746 – 19 January 1802) was an Irish newspaper proprietor and spy.
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Higgins was the son of humble parents, who migrated from
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