When Erastus Higley was born on 16 May 1772, in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America, his father, Brewster Higley III, was 37 and his mother, Esther Owen, was 32. He married Esther Anna Guernsey on 9 October 1798, in Castleton, Rutland, Vermont, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. He died on 3 September 1861, in Castleton, Rutland, Vermont, United States, at the age of 89, and was buried in Castleton, Rutland, Vermont, United States.