Sir Leonard Tilley

SIR LEONARD TILLEY JAMES HA NNAY TORONTO MORANG CO L IMITE D 1911 CONTENTS EARLY LIFE AND B' SINESS CAREER ELECTED T0 THE LEGISLAT' RE CHAPTER III THE PROHIBITORY LI' ' OR LAW 29 CHAPTER VI THE MOVEMENT FOR MARITIME ' NION CONTENTS DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATION CHAPTER I' TILLEY AGAIN IN POWER CHAPTER ' THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT CHA PTER ' I THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA CHAPTER ' II FINANCE MINISTER AND GO VERNOR INDE' CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE AND B' SINESS CAREER HE po lit ic al c aree r of Samuel Leonard Tilley did not begin until the year t hat bro ught the work of L emuel Allan Wilmot as a legislator to a we e elect ed e bers t he close . Both r m m of House of 1 850 t he l ea Assembly in , but in fol owing y r Wil elev t ed t o t he benc h t h t t he mot was a , so a province lost his services as a political refo rmer just as a new t o re t man, who was destined win as g a a reputation t he . as himself, was stepping on stage Samuel l at t he . Leonard Til ey was born Gagetown , on St 8th 1 8 1 8 i -five John River, on May , , just th rty years after the landing of his royalist grandfather at St. - l t . e John He passed away seventy eight years a r, ull t he f of years and honours , having won highest prizes that it was in the power of his native province t o bestow. In these days , when a man becomes eminent an effo rt is usually made to t rac e his descent fro m dis t in uishe d e rl inh abi g ancestors , but most of the a y tants of New Brunswick were t o o careless in such matters to leave much material t o the modern make r of pedigrees . Sir Leonard Tilley was unable t o t rac e r - his descent beyond his g eat grandfather, Samuel Till ey . At one time it was thought that l SIR LEONARD TILLEY l his first ancestor in America was John Til ey, who c e M a lo wer 1 620 am over in the yf in , but a closer search of the records of the Plymouth colony reveals the fact that John Tilley left no sons . But there were persons of the name of Tilley in the 1 640 Massachusetts Bay colony as early as , and ’ there seems to be no doubt that Sir L e o no rd T ille y s e ancestors had been long in America . They b longed to the respectable farming class which has given the Dominion of Canada and the United States so many of their most distinguished sons . Samuel l - Til ey, the great grandfather of Sir Leonard , was a farmer on Long Island at the time of the American Revolution . His farm was then within the boun darie s of the present borough of Brooklyn , and the curious in such matters can find the very lot upon which he resided laid down upon some of the li ancient maps of that loca ty. At the time the ft British occupied Long Island, a er the battle which 1 6 took place there in the autumn of 77 , resulting in k r the defeat of the Americans , the Broo lyn fa mers were called upon to provide cattle for the sus t e nanc e . of the troops Samuel Tilley, being a loyal r man and a f iend of the government, complied, and for this he was made the subject of attacks by the al o disloy element among his neighb urs , and in the course of time was compelled to seek shelter within the British lines . The occupation of Long Island by the British during the whole period of the war ll made it secure enough for Samuel Tilley, as we 2 OF LOYALIST STOCK as for all loyal men who lived in the vicinity of Brooklyn ; but when the war was over it became r necessa y for him to seek shelter in Nova Scotia, the acts of confiscation and banishment against the Loyalists being of the most severe character. Samuel Till ey came to N ew Brunswick with the spring fleet, which arrived in St. John in May, 1 83 Parrt o wn 7 , and was a grantee of , which is c now the city of St . John . He ere ted a house and store on King Street, on the south side, just to the ai east of Germ n, and there commenced a business which he continued for several years . He died at 1 81 5 i St. John in the year . His wife was El zabeth n Morga , who survived him for many years and 1 835 - died in , aged eighty four years . Sir Leonard Tilley was not born when his great d l gran father died, but had a clear recol ection of his - great grandmother, who lived for about four years t l af er he came to reside in St. John . James Til ey, df the gran ather of Sir Leonard, was also a grantee of Parrt o wn fl , he having purchased for a tri ing sum , r when a boy, a lot on Princess St eet, which had been drawn by some person who was anxious to l dispose of it. James Ti ley was a resident of Sunbur y County and a magistrate there for a great many ’ 1 85 1 Till e s years , dying in the year . Sir Leonard y 1 90 father, Thomas Morgan Tilley, was born in 7 , a and served his time with Isr el Gove, who was a - o ine r house j and builder. He spent his early days as a his lumberman, getting out ship timber, opera SIR LEONARD TILLEY T ant iwant tions being carried on mainly at y, in the rear of Upper Gagetown . He afterwards went into business at Gagetown , and kept a store there down 1 8 0 to the time of his death , which took place in 7 . ’ ’ - Sir Leonard s great grandmother, on his father s m side, was Mary Chase, of the Chase fa ily ofMassa c huset t s , she having come from Freetown , in that ’ o state . Sir Le nard s mother was Susan Ann Peters , l daughter of Wil iam Peters , who was for many years a prominent farmer in Queens County, and a l member of the legislative assembly. Wil iam Pet ers owned a large property and had one of the finest tracts of land possessed by any man in the province in his day. But he was unwise enough to sell it for the purpose of obtaining money with which to enter lli into lumbering with Wi am Wilmot , the father of L . A . Wilmot, and , being unsuccessful in his operations , his whole fortune was swept away. The ancestors of William Peters were from New York state, from which they came with the rest of the 8 Loyalists in 1 7 3 . The house in Gagetown in which the future governor of New Brunswick and finance minister o n l of Canada was b r , is stil standing and is now used as a hotel . Gagetown was at that period , and o ne still is , of the most beautiful places in New Brunswick . The river St . John flows in front of it, and Gagetown Creek, which is almost as wide as n the river, laves its shores . The land in the vici ity is fertile, and fine old trees line the streets , giving 4 EARLY EDUCATION an air of beauty and refinement to the locality. t Sir Leonard was named af er his uncle, Samuel Leonard Peters , and the latter was named after o an English sch olmaster named Samuel Leonard , l who was a great favourite with Wil iam Peters , the grandfather of the subject of this biography. ft Samuel Leonard , a er leaving Gagetown , appears to have removed to Nova Scotia, and probably died in that province . When Sir Leonard was five years old he was sent to the Madras School in Gage o f . town , which Samuel Babbitt was the teacher 1 823 1 82 He attended this school from until 7 , when the grammar schoo l was instituted in Gage town . The Madras school system was at that time in high favour with the people of the province, and these schools received large grants from the govern ment, it being thought that this system was more advantageous than any other for the instruction of youth . This idea, however, did not prove to be uni ve rsall in y correct, for the course of a few years we find the legislature declaring that while they be lie ve d the Madras system suitable to towns and populous places , it did not answer so well in di . rural stricts Samuel Babbitt, the teacher of the r Mad as School, was clerk of the parish , and , accord ing to the custom of that day, led the responses in church . The rector of Gagetown at this period was 1 the Rev. Samuel Clark. The teacher of the local grammar school which young Tilley attended from 1 82 1 831 n 7 to was William Je kins , a graduate of 5 SIR LEONARD TILLEY D i . ubl n University Jenkins was a very severe man , and believed in the doctrine that he who spares the r rod spoils the child , and Sir Leonard had a ve y vivid recoll ection of the vigour with which he applied the birch .

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