Isaac Briggs (1763– January 5, 1825) was an American engineer,

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and manufacturer. He lived much of his adult life with his family in

Brookeville, Maryland Brookeville is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located north of Washington, D.C., and north of Olney. Brookeville was settled by Quakers late in the 18th century and was formally incorporated as a town in 1808. Historic ...

Early life

Isaac Briggs was born in

Haverford, Pennsylvania Haverford is an unincorporated community located in both Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, approximately west of Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) open ...

in 1763 to Samuel and Mary Briggs, two

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

. He studied at the College of Pennsylvania (the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

today), where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1783 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in engineering in 1786.

Personal life

After his graduation, Briggs traveled, moving to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establish ...

He married Hannah Brooke on August 27, 1794 and settled near Brookeville in

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous county in the state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-design ...

in their home ''Sharon'', a estate inherited from Hannah's father, Roger Brooke IV. Together, they had eight children, including Margaret, who married William Henry Farquhar. Additionally, Briggs was a devout

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

and a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was close friends with both

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

and

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

. In keeping with his Quaker beliefs, Briggs was an avid abolitionist and never owned slaves. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery as well as an abolitonist society in Wilmington, Delaware, through which he was active in supporting free black members of his community who were at risk of being kidnapped and sold back into enslavement.

Career

On February 1, 1788, the Georgia legislature awarded Augusta inventor

William Longstreet William Longstreet (1760 New Jersey - 1814 Georgia) was an inventor. He made a steamboat and improved the cotton gin. Born in Allentown, New Jersey, he moved to Augusta, Georgia. On 26 September 1790, he addressed a letter to Thomas Telfair, then g ...

and his associate Isaac Briggs a patent for a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

. It is the only patent issued by the state because this was before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 1807 their engine was used to power a boat on a 5-mile journey against the current on the Savannah River. Only days before,

Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...

had sailed his new steamboat, the Clermont, from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

up the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

to Albany.) Briggs was a renowned surveyor and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. During 1791-1792, he assisted Andrew Ellicott in the survey of the boundaries of the original

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

(see Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia). In 1803 President

appointed him to be the Surveyor General of the Mississippi Territory. In 1814, he relocated to

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

to work as a superintendent of Thomas Little & Company, a textile mill. In 1818, New York Governor

DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely res ...

appointed Briggs as one of the chief engineers of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. He returned home in January 1819 and was appointed by Thomas Moore in March 1819 as a chief engineer in Virginia on the

James River and Kanawha Canal The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for a ...

. He would be promoted to principal engineer after Moore's death in 1822, but did not complete any major portion of the canal. Additionally, he was devoted to developing domestic agriculture and manufacturing. He co-founded the American Board of Agriculture and a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

and manufacturing town at Triadelphia in

in 1809.

Death

Briggs became ill while working on the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia. He died at home at ''Sharon'' near Brookeville on January 5, 1825.

References

External links

Isaac Briggs, Biography
Maryland State Archives

Maryland State Archives
Briggs-Stabler Papers, 1793-1910
Maryland Historical Society, MS 147 {{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Isaac 1763 births 1825 deaths American abolitionists American Quakers American manufacturing businesspeople American surveyors American engineers People from Brookeville, Maryland Quaker abolitionists