Tilley, Sir Samuel Leonard

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: C. M. Wallace, “TILLEY, Sir SAMUEL LEONARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tilley_samuel_leonard_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Druggist, politician, and lieutenant governor; b. 8 May 1818 at Gagetown, N.B., eldest son of Thomas Morgan Tilley, a storekeeper, and Susan Ann Peters; m. first 6 May 1843 Julia Ann Hanford in Portland (Saint John), N.B., and they had eight children; m. secondly 22 Oct. 1867 Alice Starr Chipman in St Stephen (St Stephen-Milltown), N.B., and they had two children; nominated kcmg 24 May 1879; d. 25 June 1896 at Saint John.
    • A descendant of loyalists on both sides of his family, Samuel Leonard Tilley received his first four years of education at the Church of England’s Madras school in Gagetown. In 1827 young Lennie or Leonard, as he was called, moved on to the local grammar school, where four more years completed his education. He was 13 in 1831 when he left to live in Portland with relatives and apprentice as a druggist in adjoining Saint John. In May 1838, a certified pharmacist, he went into partnership with a cousin, Thomas W. Peters, to open Peters and Tilley, “Cheap Drug Store!” When Peters retired in 1848 it became Tilley’s Drug Store, one of the more successful commercial operations in the city. By 1860 politics had taken over Tilley’s life, however, and he sold the business.
    • Tilley and Harrison were part of a growing body of opinion that viewed liquor as the major social evil. Despite appearances, Tilley was not a temperance fanatic. His family and his religion always took precedence in his life, and politics would eventually replace temperance as his passion. Although he attacked the inherited and acquired privileges of the gentry, he was against giving the vote to men who did not own property. He was a member of that new class of successful New Brunswickers who, while not democratic, rejected the loyalist tradition of obedience to established authority.
    • The provincial election of 1854 returned Tilley and a majority of like-minded members from across the province. Head and Medley and all they represented had been the catalyst that united the reformers behind Charles Fisher. On 1 November the Reform government was in place, with Attorney General Fisher the leader and Tilley his provincial secretary. The office of provincial secretary was the most demanding in the Executive Council. It reached into every corner of the province and most directly affected the people. All matters of roads and bridges, all aspects of finance and revenue, education, health, industry and trade crossed Tilley’s desk.
    • The most important election campaign in New Brunswick’s history began on 9 May. Everything went Tilley’s way. Roman Catholic bishop James Rogers of Chatham came out strongly for confederation. Money flowed to New Brunswick from Canada to help in the conversion of the uncertain. Had Tilley wished to create an accomplice to swing the doubtful he could not have improved on the Fenians, who invaded Indian Island near the mouth of the St Croix River on 14 April, thus revealing the necessity of the larger union for national defence. 
    • As he matured, Samuel Leonard Tilley had risen above the narrowness of his early disposition and become a highly successful pragmatic politician, a classic trimmer. During his active career he never achieved wide popularity. There was a streak of self-righteous stubbornness, and he had neither Macdonald’s flair nor his earthiness, though he did look after his friends perhaps too well. None the less, because his political capacities were accompanied by superior financial skills he had emerged as the essential man in New Brunswick before confederation and come close to achieving this rank again in Canada after 1878.
  • Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8440
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8170623/samuel-leonard-tilley