A Young Man in A Fine Felt Hat [New York, 1810]

 

. Fur industry, hat-making, Canadian voyageurs. The manufacturing of beaver-hair top hats from Canada-produced pelts. From Charles Knight's Pictorial Gallery of the Arts, England, 1858 (source)

O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou
   didst know how many fathom deep I am in love! But
   it cannot be sounded: my affection hath an unknown
   bottom, like the bay of Portugal. ---Rosalind, As You Like It, Act 4, Scene 1.

1810 Orlando Harriman Sr. (age 19) marries Anna Ingland (age 18). "Some thought [Orlando] rash, but the Harrimans showed a knack for marrying wisely and well that endured for generations." (Klein, Ch. 1)

1809 (Mar. 4) James Madison, Democratic-Republican, is inaugurated as the fourth U.S. President.

c. 1808 Orlando Harriman Sr. joins his father's business in general commerce in New York.

c. 1800-1808 Orlando's brother Alfonso Harriman drowns off the Battery.

c. 1800-1808 Orlando's brother Edward Harriman disappears at sea while on voyage for his father to the West Indies.

c. 1800-1808 Orlando's brother William Harriman Jr., dies in a naval incident between England and France.

c. 1800-1803 ? Orlando Harriman, age. 10-13, begins attending a dancing school in New York, where he meets Anna Ingland.  "the pampered only daughter of a good family, accomplished in needlework and music as well as dance, and surprisingly practical despite having been indulged all her life...." (Klein, Ch. 1)

1801 (Mar. 4) Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third U.S. President.

1800 Orlando Harriman, age 10, moves to New York Town with his family, including his three brothers.  They live in Broome Street, just off Broadway "in a part of the city where many old New Yorkers had their homes." (Kennan, p. 3)

1795-1800 William Harriman, father of Orlando, using money from his successful stationer's shop in London, engages in the West Indies trade while in New Haven. The "well-to-do Englishman" loses most of his money, and moves his family to New York Town.

1795 (Jun 3) Orlando Harriman, age 5, arrives in New Haven, Connecticut New York with his family (father, mother, maternal aunt [who named him after a character in Shakespeare], three brothers [William Jr., Edward, and Alfonso] and two sisters), having finished a 60-day voyage across the Atlantic from Plymouth Bristol, England.a board the ship Portland [left April 4]. After arriving in N.Y., the family goes almost immediately to New Haven, Connecticut (Kennan).

1795 (Apr) William Harriman sells his successful stationer's shop to a man who will go on to become Lord Mayor of London (Kennan).

1794 John Jacob Astor of New York begins importing furs from Canada and exporting them to Europe. By 1800 he has amassed a fortune of quarter of a million dollars, and has become one of the leading figures in the fur trade. His agents work throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition.

1791 (Jan. 15) Anna Ingland is born in New York.

1790 (Jun. 29) Orlando Harriman is born in London, one of four sons of William Harriman,

1784 (Mar) Johann Jakob Astor, born July 17, 1763 in Walldorf, Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire, emigrates to America.

1783 (Nov. 26) Evacuation Day. After a seven-year occupation of the island, the British Army leaves Manhattan by ship, with the last of over 25,000 Loyalist refugees.

1776 (Jul. 4) The Continental Congress in Philadelphia declares the freedom and independence of the thirteen colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1760 (Oct. 25) George III, House of Hanover, becomes King of Great Britain.

Detail of William and Mary as portrayed on the ceiling of the Painted Hall of the Greenwich Hospital (source)

1688 The Glorious Revolution. Overthrow of the House of Stuart. William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland (born 1650 in the Hague), invades England with a Dutch army and is proclaimed king, ruling with his wife as co-monarchs during their lifetimes as William III and Mary II.




1664 New Amsterdam transferred to the English and renamed New York.

1624 Founding of New Amsterdam (Nieuwe Amsterdam) as the seat of Dutch colonial government of New Netherland. The nucleus of the settlement is Fort Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan. Outside its walls, there arises the traditional Dutch factorij, a trading post where the Dutch can purchase goods (in this case mostly lucrative beaver pelts) from native peoples.
 

The 1614 map of New Netherland by Adriaen Block. (source)

1611-1614  Adriaen Block, a private Dutch trader, makes four voyages along the North American coast from Massachusetts to New Jersey, including the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.  He designates the region as on his map as New Netherland.   He confirms the presence of large numbers of beaver in the area and lobbies the States-General of Holland for an exclusive patent on trade in the area. By the winter of 1613, the first Europeans have arrived in Manhattan to begin trading for beaver pelts from the Algonquin and other Indian peoples.

1609 (Sept) Henry Hudson, sailing in the service of the Dutch Republic, as the emissary of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Holland's stadholder,  enters New York Harbor while in search of a Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He drops anchor off across from the Battery at present-day Newport in Jersey City.

1580s Beaver pelts become the standard for hat makers in France. The trend spreads to England soon after. (source)

1578 European fishermen off the coast Newfoundland begin trading their metal implements to the native peoples in exchange for pelts, including beaver and sea otter. (source)

Sources:

Klein (2000),

E. H. Harriman: A Biography, George F. Kennan.