Anthony Dey (ca. 1777–1859), attorney, was born in Bergen County, New Jersey, and studied law in New York City, where he was practicing his profession by 1799. From 1801 to 1803 Dey served as the first attorney of the city corporation. Granted a partial interest in a large tract of land in Texas, he was an attorney for the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company. Dey invested his earnings in New Jersey real estate and was a director of the New Jersey Railroad, but in 1842 he filed for bankruptcy. He continued working as an attorney in New York City until at least 1854. Dey was living in New Jersey by 1850 and owned real estate valued at $6,000. He died in Hudson City (later Jersey City), New Jersey (George H. Farrier, ed., Memorial of the Centennial Celebration of the Battle of Paulus Hook. August 19th, 1879; With a History of the Early Settlement and Present Condition of Jersey City, N. J. [1879], 154–5; New York Commercial Advertiser, 18 Feb. 1799; Longworth’s New York Directory description begins Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory, New York, 1796–1842 (title varies; cited by year of publication) description ends [1799]: 209; DNA: RG 29, CS, N.Y., New York, 1800–40, N.J., Hudson Co., North Bergen Township, 1850; John H. Greener, comp., History of the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York [1907], 35–6; New York Chronicle Express, 27 Feb. 1804; Dey to Andrew Jackson, 22 Jan. 1830 [DLC: Jackson Papers]; Mary Virginia Henderson, “Minor Empresario Contracts for the Colonization of Texas, 1825–1834,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 31 [1928]: 305–6; New York Herald, 12 Dec. 1842; H. Wilson, comp., Trow’s New-York City Directory for 1854–55 [1854], 200; New York Evening Post, 10 Oct. 1859).

Unretted (unrotted) flax or hemp has not undergone the maceration process by which fibers are separated from the woody stem (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ; American Farmer 3 [1821]: 301).

Dey was a partner and backer of James Macdonald, who invented the flax-processing machine described here. In 1822 the pair petitioned the United States Congress for a patent lasting twenty years, rather than the standard fourteen. After a favorable report from the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, the petition was referred to the Judiciary Committee along with a competing claim. Following a report from that committee, the matter was tabled. In the spring of 1822 Dey donated his right to the machine to Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, New York. Macdonald was granted a standard patent for the invention that August (American Farmer 3 [1821]: 301, 305–6; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States description ends , 15:294, 386, 511 [28 Feb., 25 Mar., 29 Apr. 1822]; ASP, Miscellaneous, 2:928–9; New-York Evening Post, 10 Apr. 1822; List of Patents description begins A List of Patents granted by the United States from April 10, 1790, to December 31, 1836, 1872 description ends , 242).