James P. Allaire

James Peter Allaire was a noted master mechanic and steam engine builder, and founder of the Allaire Iron Works , the first marine steam engine company in New York City, and later Howell Works , in Wall Township, New Jersey. His credits also include building both the first compound steam engine for marine use and the first New York City tenement structure.

Allaire was born either in his familys ancestral home city of New Rochelle, New York, or under selfpreserving exile in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada. A large number of Tory Loyalist individuals and families fled New York to Canada during the British evacuation of New York after the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 ended the United States War of Independence, including branches of the Allaire Family that took residence in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Petitions to the Continental Congress in 1784 by a Peter A. Allaire of New York, a Colonial American Loyalist, indicates a high probability that the relevant branch of the Allaire family may have remained in New York during and after the British evacuation. Sometime after 1793, the Allaire patriarch purchased a house in New York City, and found work as a livery stabler.

Source: Wikipedia