biography of William Satchwell LENEY (1769-1831)

Birth place: London

Death place: Longue Pointe, near Montreal, Canada

Profession: Engraver

Studied: trained with engraver Peltro W. Tompkins in England

Comments: Worked in London until 1805 when he emigrated to America and settled in NYC. Leney was one of the most successful engravers of the period in America, working in line and stipple on portrait, landscape, and subject plates as well as banknotes. He retired about 1820 to a farm near Montreal, but continued to do some engraving, including a series of views of the French-Canadian city and the first notes issued by the Bank of Montreal.

Sources: G&W; Stauffer; DAB; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; DNB; Rutledge, PA; NYCD 1806-18; Thieme-Becker.