Sir John Higgins of Montoge (1678-1729) was a descendent of the O'Higgins of Montiagh an Irish noble family who lost their lands in Sligo under the English Crown about 1649[1]. His parents were a Dr. Patrick Higgins of Limerick City and his wife Mary Loftus of Annacotty. He was born in 1678 but after the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 he left Ireland to live in exile with his family at the Court of James II at St. Germaine in France[2]. In 1700 he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Montpellier and went to Spain where he served in action as medical officer to the combined French and Spanish forces.
In in 1712 he married the daughter of John Baptiste de Courtiade, the town doctor of Bayonne. In 1714 Higgins worked unsparingly for the relief of the soldiers in the Siege of Barcelona. In 1717 he received the highest medical post in Spain, the office of Proto-médico de Camera. The following year he was elected President of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Seville. Higgins remained a good friend to Ireland and the Irish in Spain and when war was declared on England in 1718 he was instrumental in preventing the confiscation of the goods and property of the Irish merchants.
In 1721 the Duc de Saint-Simon fell ill with smallpox while he was French Ambassador to Spain. The King sent Higgins to care for him and the Duc recovered. In 1722 Higgins received the title Councillor of Castille from Philip V of Spain, and in 1723 he corresponded Sir James Terry who was Athlone Herald to the exiled Stuarts in France and Italy regarding a confirmation of his family's Arms[3]. In 1724 James III made him a Knight and Baronet for his services to France. John Higgins died in Seville at the age of 51 but his descendants continued in Spain.