Tannery

• By the early 1840s, Englishman Richard Paxman (written ‘Pexham’ in some documents) a shoemaker by trade, had built a log house and an outbuilding in which he was operating a tannery ¹
  
• The buildings were on a parcel of land along the north shore of the Humber River, part of George Bolton’s mill site. George Bolton was generous in allowing skilled workers to set up shop and pay for their property as they worked ²
  
• In 1845, Richard fulfilled his financial obligations and ownership of the property was transferred to him ³
• The plentiful supply of hemlock trees in the vicinity provided an ample source of bark that, when dried and ground up, was used in the tanning process that converted raw animal hides into leather
• Dealing with the hides was a messy, unpleasant job which no doubt polluted the river and fouled the air, but the resulting leather was used to make many early necessities including shoes, boots, saddles, straps, belts, seats, satchels, hats, harnesses and the like 
• In 1848, Richard sold the tannery business and property to James Clarke Warbrick ⁴. As background, James C. Warbrick, an early adopter of steam-driven looms in Bradford, UK, gave up his woollen mill in the early 1830s after labour unrest over mechanization.  He then emigrated to Canada with his wife Maria Firth and their family.  In 1841 and 1844, James Warbrick purchased two plots of land in what would became the commercial core of Caledon East ⁵
• For a time, he is also thought to have operated a saw mill north of Bolton ⁶
  

• The Warbricks built a 1½ storey frame house with roughcast exterior for themselves, their son Joseph and two daughters, Sarah Jane and Maria. By 1851, their oldest son John C. Warbrick MD. (1818-1854) was also living in Bolton and was coroner ⁷
  
• The house, situated adjacent to the Congregational Church on the hillside slope on the north side of the river, was later enlarged with a two-storey rear addition.  
• By 1851, Joseph Firth Warbrick is recorded in that year’s census as the tanner, assisted by a 17 year old Englishman named James Best.  Joseph, then 26 years old, had first operated ‘Warbrick Brothers’ tannery and saddlery in Weston in the mid-1840s. His building there was washed out in a major flood in 1850 at which time he relocated to the tannery property in Bolton ⁸.  His father James died in 1852
• Under Joseph’s management, the Bolton tannery grew substantially and developed into a large, lucrative business employing eight men.  There were other buildings on the property including a large store house, an office as well as housing for employees
• By 1861, two additional tanners lived on the site: Robert Miligan, his wife Jane and five children as well as Gilland Kennedy.  Joseph married Mary Brown Paul of Weston that same year.  By 1871, Joseph Warbrick was employing both Gill Kennedy and Robert Elliott as ‘curriers’ and providing housing for their families ⁹
  
• Robert Elliott Jr., schooled by Samuel Walford in Bolton’s 1842 school, later became a shoe maker ¹⁰
  
• The tannery operation continued into the 1880s and closed down when the supply of local hemlock bark was exhausted.  Joseph Firth Warbrick died shortly after in 1889

A currier is a specialist in the processing of leather hides.  After tanning, the currier applies techniques of dressing, finishing and colouring to the tanned hide to make it strong, flexible and waterproof. The leather is stretched and burnished to produce a uniform thickness and suppleness, and dyeing and other chemical finishes give the leather its desired colour — from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia