1864 CANADA SAMUEL TILLEY - FATHER OF CONFEDERATION
AN IMPRESSIVE NEW BRUNSWICK COVER ex MOULTON

Item Ref:  BSL - 1864 Tilley

Samuel Leonard Tilley

Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley
Father of the Confederation
Provincial Secretary 1854-1861
Premier of New Brunswick 1861-1865
 Lt. Gov. of New Brunswick 1873 to 1878
Lt. Gov. of New Brunswick 1885 to 1893
Knighted in 1879
 

An interesting cover and Bond to Samuel Tilley (acting as both Premier and Provincial Secretary during this time) from a County Commissioner of Roads for Victoria County, New Brunswick dated July 2, 1864. The Bond is signed by one George Wright of Grand Falls, Victoria County and he pledges to pay to "Our Sovereign Lady Victoria" £180 in the event he does not discharge his duties as a Commissioner of the Roads and properly expend £90 which has been given him for the task of repairing certain roads in the County. A very nice historical New Brunswick piece with an attractive philatelic story. The cover has been marked as 7¢ postage due (McManus type O) in black for the unpaid rate - red would have meant it was paid). This was a cancellation that was normally used on books and packages and hence its use on an official letter is scarce. There is also an eleven barred oval grid cancel (Argenti Type 8). On the reverse of the cover we can track the letters progress through Andover (now Perth-Andover) which was then the county seat for Victoria County, then south to Woodstock and finally east to Fredericton, the Provincial Capital where Mr. Tilley was acting as Provincial Secretary. This cover is ex Moulton, the well known and regarded collector of Canadian Philately. It includes his notes. An interesting aside, the Bond was notarized by a Charles Beveridge and a search of the records indicates that a W. Beveridge was at this time the Postmaster for Andover, sounds like a family connection. It is also interesting to note that Tilley was shortly to leave for the first of the Confederation Conferences in Charlottetown in September 1864.

From a Postal History perspective it has three nice black double split ring (DSR) cancels for Andover (McManus Type DSR9), Woodstock (McManus Type DSR10), and Fredericton (McManus Type DSR13). Moulton's notes that the unpaid rate went to 7¢ per ½ ounce on June 1, 1861. In the event it is an exciting and unusual philatelic item to a Father of Canadian Confederation!

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, PC, KCMG (1818-1896)

Samuel Tilley was descended from United Empire Loyalists on both sides of his family. A pharmacist, he went into business as a druggist. Born in Gagetown, New Brunswick, Tilley was the son of Thomas Morgan Tilley, a storekeeper, and Susan Ann Peters. On May 6, 1843 he married Julia Ann Hanford in Saint John, New Brunswick. Together with her, they had eight children. Hanford died in 1862. On October 22, 1867, he married Alice Starr Chipman in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and they had two children, including future New Brunswick Premier Leonard Percy de Wolfe Tilley.

Tilley was an activist in the temperance movement and this brought him to politics. He became an advocate for responsible government as a result of the 1848 recession which was caused, in part, by Britain's economic policies. Tilley joined the New Brunswick Colonial Association which advocated that the colony have control over its public expenses, that a public school system be established, government control of public works and "honest government". First elected to the New Brunswick Assembly as a Liberal in 1850 he sat in opposition until the 1854 election swept the reformers to power. Tilley became Provincial Secretary in the government of Richard Fisher, and it is in that capacity that he received this letter. At this same time, in 1861, he went on to serve as Premier of the colony of New Brunswick until his government was defeated in the election of 1865. As Premier he supported the New Brunswick's entry into Confederation and the construction of an inter--colonial railway.

Tilley was a strong supporter of Confederation, and a delegate to all three of the Confederation Conferences:  Charlottetown Conference, Québec Conference, and London Conference. Although he supported the Québec Resolutions, after returning from Québec City, Tilley discovered that the Resolutions, and union in general, were highly unpopular in New Brunswick. Tilley's support of union was a factor in his loss of an 1865 election to Albert Smith, who headed an anti-Confederation coalition. Within the year, however, the coalition proved unstable. In a controversial action, Lieutenant-Governor Arthur Hamilton Gordon forced the Smith government to resign. A new general election was held, and Tilley was returned to power in 1866. That summer, with a changing tide in public opinion, he passed a resolution in the assembly supporting Confederation.

At the London Conference, Tilley is generally credited with suggesting "Dominion" as the new nation's title, after a passage from Psalms 72, verse 8: "He shall have Dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." The Fathers of Confederation had been discussing what to prefix Canada with, Kingdom of Canada being MacDonald's preference. However, with the United States just recently out of the Civil War, there was some concern that the use of Kingdom or Empire of Canada might make the surly elephant to the south a bit nervous. During morning devotions, Tilley read Psalm 72:8, that states "He shall have dominion from sea to sea", and presented his inspiration to the others, being as it was their ambition to stretch the new nation to the Pacific Ocean. The proposal was adopted unanimously; the term "Dominion" was also used by Australia and New Zealand.

Tilley entered federal politics with Confederation in 1867 and served in the federal Macdonald Cabinet as Minister of Customs. He became Minister of Finance in 1873 until the defeat of the government later that year. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick in 1873 and served until 1878 When Macdonald's Tories returned to power in 1878, Tilley again became minister of finance and served until his retirement from politics in 1885 to become Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick for a second term until 1893. He is interred in the Fernhill Cemetery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Document Specifications: Cover measures 170mm wide x 90mm tall when folded. It is blue unwatermarked batonne laid paper.

 Offered by Berryhill & Sturgeon, Ltd.

End of Item - BSL - 1864 Tilley

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