I have learned more since my post. There were shoe makers in NYC but the 'heavy shoe making' was nearer grazing land. It was easier to transport shoes than animals dead or alive.

Well there were more than a few Meads in the 'horseneck' of Greenwich. Meads and Knapps were the most common name in the town and most were related. Well most everyone in Greenwich who had lived there a few generations were related. Many of the Knapp and Mead settlers were in in very large extended families and came from the same town in England and followed this one minister who moved from location to location and died or was recalled to England. His last stop was Long Island.

The 'horseneck' was the leather district of Greenwich. It produced most of the exports for Greenwich which was a busy port. They sold salted meat and leather goods. They salter the meat with sea salt. When the British attacked Greenwich in the R-War the strategic target were the 'salt pans'. After the attack they told the newspapers that they destroyed Greenwich's ability to produce salt. The horseneck was all pasture in the 1600-1700s now it is forest. Some of the Greenwich settlers moved from there to long island. Some of my ancestors are Meads. A large portion of what we know about colonial Greenwich was kept by Mead historians. They had a knack for chronicling events then passing that information down from generation to generation.