Hon. George Frederic Hill

George Frederic Hill was born February 19, 1832 at St. Stephen, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. He was of Colonial English ancestry, the son of the Hon. George Stillman Hill and his wife, Sarah Upton Hill, of St. Stephen, N.B. George Frederic Hill's father, George Stillman Hill, was for many years a member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick and served on both the Executive Council and the Legislative Council. The paternal grandparents of George Frederic Hill were Abner and Mary Hill.

George Hill was educated at the St. Stephen public school and in the United States. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar of New Brunswick as an attorney in April 1854.

He located at St. Stephen and engaged in the mercantile business. He established a successful business which he continued to manage until his retirement in 1882. He never returned to the practice of law but his early legal training served him well in his business and political career.

He was official assignee for Charlotte County under the old bankruptcy law from 1869 until the law was repealed in 1878.

He was unmarried.

George Hill was first elected to the House of Assembly of New Brunswick as a member for Charlotte County at the general election of March 16, 1865, on the issue of Confederation, to which he was opposed. At this time, there was intense excitement over the scheme of the confederation of the provinces. Many able politicians succumbed to the varying successes of the two parties over this question. Mr. Hill sat the two sessions of that Legislature until its dissolution in 1866.

At the general election of June 12, 1866, again on the issue of Confederation, he was defeated. He was elected to the House of Assembly again at the general election of June 13, 1878. On May 25, 1882, he was called to a seat in the Legislative Council and continued a member of that body until its abolishment in 1892. At the general election of October 22, 1892, he was again elected to the House of Assembly. He was re-elected at the general elections of October 9, 1895; February 18, 1899; February 28, 1903 and sat continuously as a member until the dissolution of the Legislature in 1908, when he declined re-nomination and retired from active political life.

On March 23, 1899, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Assembly and held this position until his resignation in August of 1900.

On September 1, 1900, he was sworn in as member of the Executive Council of New Brunswick and received the appointment of Minister Without Portfolio in the administration of the Hon. Lemuel J. Tweedie. He held this position until February 1903, when he resigned from the Executive Council.

He died October 21, 1910 at his residence, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, at the age of 78. The Daily Gleaner, October 22, 1910, described Hon. Mr. Hill:

Mr. Hill was a man of wide reading, and a public speaker of great power and eloquence. A man of independent spirit and stern ideas of duty. His impatience of the restraints of party prevented him from obtaining more high offices which his natural abilities and extensive information on many subjects would have enabled him to adorn. No government that strayed in the slightest degree from the straight and narrow path of rectitude escaped his trenchant criticism.

Source - Speakers of the Legislative Assembly, Province of New Brunswick, 1786-1985. 1985, Legislative Assembly, Province of New Brunswick, Office of the Clerk, Fredericton, N.B.