Bigelow (John P.) is born in Groton.

The son of Timothy Bigelow, a lawyer and legislator, John Bigelow graduates from Harvard College, studies law, and comes to Boston to join his father’s law practice in approximately 1818. Bigelow serves on the Boston Common Council (1828-35), the Massachusetts House of Representatives(1829-36), as Massachusetts Secretary of State, mayor of Boston (1849-51), and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bigelow dies on July 4, 1872.