Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/142

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118
TILLEY
TILLINGHAST

Prince Edward island, to attend the conference of maritime parliamentarians, with a view to forming a legislative union of the three provinces by the sea — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward island. Several members of the Canadian government, among whom was Sir John A. Mac- donald, being on a visit to the lower provinces and hearing of the proposed meeting, expressed a de- sire to be present. Invitations were sent to them ; they attended, and succeeded in inducing the dele- gates to abandon the smaller scheme and meet later in the year at Quebec, where a grander union would be proposed and discussed. The greater assembly accordingly met on 10 Oct., and sat with closed doors until the 27th of the month, when the famous " Quebec scheme " was completed. In the framing of those resolutions, which now form the basis of the British North America act, Mr. Tilley took an active part. In March, at the general elections, Mr. Tilley submitted the question to the people ; but he and his party suffered defeat. Notwith- standing the premier's strong personal popularity in his own constituency, the majority of votes cast against him in 1865 was very large, but in the fol- lowing year the new government resigned, and the majority was reversed. Delegates from Onta- rio, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were sent to London to complete the terms of union, and at this conference Mr. Tilley ably represented his province. For his services he was made a com- panion of the Bath (civil) by the queen, and on resigning his seat in the New Brunswick house of assembly for a seat in the house of commons at Ottawa he was sworn in as a member of the Cana- dian privy council, and appointed minister of cus- toms in the first cabinet of the Dominion. From November, 1868, till April, 1869, he was acting minister of public works, and on 22 Feb., 1873, he was made minister of finance in succession to Sir Francis Hincks. This important portfolio he held until the fall of the Macdonald government on 5 Nov. of the same year. Before leaving office Sir John Macdonald appointed his colleague lieutenant- governor of New Brunswick, which office he filled with great acceptance until 11 July, 1878, and though it is said a second term was offered to him by the MacKenzie administration, he declined it, and accepted the nomination of the Conservative party for a seat in the house of commons. He ran in his old constituency, St. John, and narrowly escaped defeat, his majority being but nine votes. This was doubtless due to the stand that he took on the tariff question, which was declared to be a high protective one, and framed to protect the Canadian manufactures. The platform of the Con- servatives obtained throughout the country, and Sir John Macdonald, on being asked to form a gov- ernment, invited Mr. Tilley to resume his old post. On presenting himself for re-election, he was re- turned by acclamation. In due time he formulated the national policy of the ministry on the floor of the house in one of the ablest speeches that he had ever made. Though the measure was hotly dis- cussed, it finally passed, and has ever since been the policy of the country. On 24 May, Mr. Tilley was created a knight commander of St. Michael and St. George by the Marquis of Lome, then governor-general of Canada He also holds a pat- ent of rank and precedence from the queen as an ex-councillor of New Brunswick. He held the office of finance minister of the Dominion until October, 1885, when his health failed, and he re- tired from parliament and the ministry to accept, for a second term, the less laborious office of lieu- tenant-governor of New Brunswick, which post he still holds. As a speaker he is fluent and elo- quent. Many important public measures owe their inception to him, chief of which, however, is the act dealing with the readjustment and reorgani- zation of the customs tariff.


TILLINGHAST, Nicholas, educator, b. in Taunton, Mass., 22 Sept., 1804; d. in Bridgewater, Mass., 10 April, 1856. He was the son of Nicholas Tillinghast, who was several times representative to the general court of Massachusetts between 1795 and 1816. The son was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1824, and entering the U. S. army as 2d lieutenant in the 7th infantry, served for two years on garrison duty at Fort Gibson in the Indian territory. Afterward he returned to the military academy, where, in 1827-34 he was successively assistant professor of chemistry, min- eralogy, and geology, and of geography, history, and ethics. He was promoted captain on 1 June, 1835, and joined his regiment at Fort Gibson, but resigned on 31 July, 1836. Capt. Tillinghast then settled in Boston, where he received pupils in mathematics. In 1840 he was appointed principal of the state normal school at Bridgwater, and he continued to fill this post until failing health com- pelled his resignation in July, 1853. His only publications were " Elements of Plane Geometry " (Concord, N. H, 1841) and " Prayers for Schools " (Boston, 1852). — His son, William Hopkins, b. 20 March, 1854, was graduated at Harvard in 1877, and since 1882 has been an assistant in the li- brary of Harvard university. He has published a translation, with additions, of Carl Ploetz's " Epit- ome of Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History " (Boston, 1884).


TILLINGHAST, Pardon, clergyman, b. in Seven Cliffs, near Beachy Head (now Eastborn), Sussex, England, in 1622 : d. in Providence, R. I., 19 Jan., 1718. He was a soldier under Cromwell, and a participant in the battle of Marston Moor. He settled in Providence, R. I., 19 Nov., 1645, was admitted a resident of the town with a quarter interest of the original proprietors of the Providence purchase, and founded a numerous family, whose members are now found in nearly every state and territory of the United States. He was pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Providence from 1678 till his death, preaching and officiating in that capacity for about forty years without remuneration. At his own expense, in 1700, he built the first meeting-house of this religious society, the oldest in America of its denomination. Mr. Tillinghast in 1711, " for and in consideration of the love and good-will " he bore the church over which he was then pastor, executed " to them and their successors in the same faith and order " a deed of the meeting-house and the lot on which it stood. In the deed of conveyance he describes the faith and order of the church by quoting Hebrews vi., 1, 2, showing it to be the same as that now held by the Six Principle Baptists. In addition to his pastoral duties and his occupation of a merchant, he found time to serve the infant colony many times as member of the house of deputies, and the town of Providence twenty-five years, in various posts of honor and trust. — His great-grandson, Thomas, jurist, b. in East Greenwich, R. I., 21 Aug., 1742; d. in East Greenwich, L. I., 26 Aug., 1821, was a member of the legislature from 1772 till 1780, and one of the committee that it appointed in 1777 to estimate the damage done by the British soldiers on the islands of Conanicut and Rhode Island during the war of the Revolution. In 1779 he was elected judge of the court of common pleas for Kent county, and a member of the council of war.