Thomas Hill

1807-1860

Thomas Hill was born in Cornwall, England in 1807, and then sailed from Plymouth to Quebec City early in 1831. He travelled around Canada and the US until December 1839, leaving his family behind in Maine, Hill packed his tools and headed back across the border to New Brunswick, where he spent the rest of his life. For a year and a half, he lived in Woodstock practicing his craft and developing his reputation as a writer of songs, a musician, and a wood carver. After this, he moved to Saint John where he worked once again as a carpenter. He became editor of the weekly newspaper the [Saint John] Loyalist in 1842, a position he held for ten years. In September 1842, he was responsible for the launch of the tri-weekly Aurora (Saint John), but it only lasted for one issue. In Fredericton in 1845, Hill and his partner James Doak (a printer), started The Wreath, which also only lasted for one issue. Throughout the 1840s, he was a legislative reporter in the province, and many of the reports published in newspapers other than the Loyalist were often credited to him, especially reports from the House of Assembly.  Provincial Association: Or, Taxing Each Other was his first play, written in 1845.  In 1845, Hill compiled a collection of songs entitled The Constitutional Lyrist: A Collection of National Songs…Adapted to the Use of the Loyalists of New Brunswick. A second work was released five years later, entitled A Book of Orange Songs. Hill is also the author of two poems that both appeared in New Brunswick newspapers. “The Bluenose Boys” was printed anonymously in his newspaper the Loyalist and Conservative Advocate (Fredericton) on 18 July 1844, and “The Emigrants Christmas Song” was published under his name in the New Brunswick Courier on 26 December 1844. Hill died in Fredericton on 13 October 1860.

Source: Mountain, Melissa. “Thomas Hill” New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia, Fall 2010. Accessed 18 April 2023.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Fredericton, Woodstock, Saint John