Briggs Wait

     Briggs Wait was born on 26 February 1778 at Canaan, Columbia Co, New York.¹ He was the son of George Wait and Elizabeth (?) Briggs Wait married Mary Sheer/Shier, daughter of Jacob John Sheer/Shier and Anna Emigh, circa 1798. Briggs Wait was baptized on 6 August 1815 at Caldwell's Manor, Missisquoi Co, Quebec; Enoch and Briggs Salls were witnesses.² He married Jane Longeway, daughter of Remie Longeway and Marie Geneviève Raimond, on 11 October 1821 at Clarenceville, Missisquoi Co, Quebec.³ Briggs Wait died on 6 November 1869 at age 91; This date comes from the Tryon Family Bible held by Janice Fraser, 1990. He died on 7 October 1870 at Quebec at age 92; A death record or notice has yet to be found for Briggs Wait. His date of death is taken from his gravestone, also saying he was 98 yrs old. This contradicts the date given in the Wait family Bible that Janice Fraser holds.⁴ He was buried at Marlington Cemetery, Stanstead, Stanstead Co, Quebec.⁴
     He appeared on the census of 1800 at Clinton, Dutchess Co, New York;
     Briggs Wait is located in the 1800 census of Clinton, Dutchess County, New York. At this time there was Briggs, under 26, his wife Mary under 26, and one daughter under 10, presumably Elizabeth who was born 1790.⁵
     One can only speculate what brought Briggs Wait and his new family to Quebec. There has been a long standing relationship between the Waits and the Salls found within church records at Clarenceville as well as the fact that both families must have lived at Canaan at approximately the same time. But the Salls family moved to Canada by the 1780's and Briggs Wait was still in New York as a child at that time. Was word sent back by the Salls to the Waits in Canaan that there was plenty of land available and that prompted Briggs to leave New York about 1801? We shall probably never know.⁶ He appeared on the census of 1825 at St Georges de Clarenceville, Missisquoi Co, Quebec;
     Briggs was enumerated at Bridge Wait, with a family of seven. There was one child under 6, one 6-14, one 14-18; one married male 25-39; one married male 60 and over; one female under 14, and one married female over 45.⁷ Briggs Wait and Jane Langevin (Longeway) made a donation to Daniel Noakes and wife Angelina Keet. It was a lot #3, 3rd Concession, lying on the south side of the South River, that they had been living on for the previous 14 years. Both Briggs and Jane were to be allowed a carriage and horse to come and go, as well as assistance as needed. They and others were to provide Matilda Jane Wait a comfortable home as well.⁸ He left a will on 4 August 1856 at Quebec; It was noted he was of good health of body and mind, but knowing the certainty of death had called for his Will to be written. He left a parcel of land in the 1st Concession of Noyan, east of South River, "containing four arpents in front by 28 arpents in depth, bounded northerly by Willard Nichols...southerly by John Allen, or Brown Point, easterly and westerly by the channel of South River" with all buildings, to his son Enoch Wait.
     He wished Enoch to give Briggs' granddaughter, Emerline Almira Wait during her lifetime, "good and sufficient board, meat, drink, lodging in the house on the premises above given and to provide decent wearing apparel for Sundays & week days, mending and washing her clothes in general to maintain her decently and comfortably as well in health and sickness and at her death to have her decently interred in a Christian like manner". This was dictated by Briggs to the notary in the precense of David S. Clark, hotel keeper, and Daniel Colton, farmer, both of Clarenceville.⁹ He appeared on the census of 1861 at Stanstead, Stanstead Co, Quebec; Briggs Wait was aged 83 years, born US. The census showed him as head of the household, next to the minister Peake, and then his daughter Almeda and her husband, Daniel Tryon, and family.¹⁰