hundred years later, in the 1840's, John Finch, an ardent Owenite, 

 unequivocably stated that "tanners, curriers, and leather-cutters 

 will find more employment in the State of Massachusetts than in 



>_U "11 



any other. 



In New York, as in New England, tanning was encouraged — ■ 

 first by the Dutch and later by the English. Ten Eyck is the best 

 known of the early New York tanners, and by the 1660's he and 

 several associates had laid down tanpits and built a bark mill — an 

 adjunct of tanning that begins to be mentioned in the 1660's,^^ 

 although probably in use before that date. 



Laws passed in New York regulated as well as encouraged the 

 tanning trade and Governor Andros in 1676 gave to the colony's 

 tanners and leather workers a trade monopoly stipulating that: 



no butcher be permitted to be [a] currier, shoemaker, or tanner; nor shall 

 any tanner be either [a] currier, shoemaker, or butcher; it being consonant 

 to the hiws ot Enghmd and practice in the neighbor Colonys of the Massa- 

 chusetts and Connecticott.''* 



The endeavors of Ten Eyck and other early tanners were in a 

 locality referred to as the "Swamp" — an area historically associated 

 with the leather trade of New York City.^^ 



In nearby New Jersey the demand for food products in the 

 markets of New York and Philadelphia stimulated stock raising 

 which, in turn, yielded a large number of hides for tanneries at 

 Newark, Trenton, and vSalem. An abundance of hides, plus large 

 quantities of bark, made New Jersey one of the leading leather- 

 producing colonies. As early as 1681 an anonymous account of 

 West Jersey had cited the propensity of the colonists there to 

 "Tan Leather" as well as to "make Shooes and Hats." ^^ 



William Penn's account of the "Province of Pennsilvania" in 

 1681 echoed the sentiments of the region's first administrators, 

 the royal governors of New Sweden. It listed hides among the 

 "Commodities that the Country is thought to be capable of" and 

 tanners among the several representatives of the "Laborious Handi- 



'' Commons, ed., Documetitary History of American Industrial Society, vol. 7, p. 65. 



'- Bishop, vol. 1, p. 440. Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, 6 vols. In- 

 dispensable guide to location, dates and owners of early New York City tanneries and bark mills. 



^^ Bishop, vol. 1, p. 441. See also Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution, 

 vol. 1, pp. 71-73, 193, 266-268. 



'■' NoRCROSs, History of the New York Swamp. 



15 Myers, ed., "Present State of the Colony of West-Jersey, 1681," p. 191 in Narratives of Early 

 Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707. See also Weiss, Early Tanning and 

 Currying in New Jersey. 



