became
necessary for him to seek shelter in Nova Scotia, the acts of
confiscation and banishment against the Loyalists being of the most
severe character. Samuel Tilley came to New Brunswick with the spring
fleet, which arrived in St. John in May, 1783, and was a grantee of
Parrtown, which is now the city of St. John. He erected a house and
store on King Street, on the south side, just to the east of Germain,
and there commenced a business which he continued for several years. He
died at St. John in the year 1815. His wife was Elizabeth Morgan, who
survived him for many years and died in 1835, aged eighty-four years.
Sir Leonard Tilley was not born when his great-grandfather died, but had
a clear recollection of his great-grandmother, who lived for about four
years after he came to reside in St. John. James Tilley, the grandfather
of Sir Leonard, was also a grantee of Parrtown, he having purchased for
a trifling sum, when a boy, a lot on Princess Street, which had been
drawn by some person who was anxious to dispose of it. James Tilley was
a resident of Sunbury County and a magistrate there for a great many
years, dying in the year 1851. Sir Leonard Tilley's father, Thomas
Morgan Tilley, was born in 1790, and served his time with Israel Gove,
who was a house-joiner and builder. He spent his early days as a
lumberman, getting out ship timber, his operations being carried on
mainly at Tantiwanty, in the rear of Upper Gagetown. He afterwards went
into business at Gagetown, and kept a store there down to the time of
his death, which took place in 1870. Sir Leonard's great-grandmother, on
his father's side, was Mary Chase, of the Chase family of Massachusetts,
she having come from Freetown, in that state. Sir Leonard's mother was
Susan Ann Peters, daughter of William Peters, who was for many years a
prominent farmer in Queens County, and a member of the legislative
assembly. William Peters 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 into lumbering with William 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 Loyalists in 1783.
{EARLY EDUCATION}
The house in Gagetown in which the future governor of New
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