When William Prentiss Waite was born on 28 February 1840, in New London, New London, Connecticut, United States, his father, Prentice Avery Waite, was 28 and his mother, Esther Mason, was 24. He married Caroline Tilden Carpenter on 5 May 1867. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He lived in Connecticut, United States in 1870. He died on 9 May 1874, at the age of 34, and was buried in East Hampton, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States.
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U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.
In 1840, the American Anti-Slavery Society split and slavery started being outlawed in the state. In Canterbury, Connecticut, Prudence Crandall started a school for young African American girls. The people got mad and Crandall was taken to court. The case was lost and that was the beginning of many other cases that would be lost, but it was also the start of having slavery abolished.
Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.
English (of Norman origin): occupational name for a watchman, either in a town or castle, from Anglo-Norman French waite ‘watchman, member of the watch’ (of ancient Germanic origin; compare Wachter ). In the Middle Ages the town waits typically combined the functions of watchmen and musicians through being trumpeters or pipers. There may also have been some late confusion with White or Wheat .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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