The death is announced today of David TAPLEY, a well known resident of Portland (St. John) and a member of an old New Brunswick family. Mr. Tapley was born at Sheffield (Sunbury Co.) 12th April 1820. His father, David Tapley, sr., a farmer and lumberman, was born in the same county and his grandfather, James Robert TAPLEY, was one of the early settlers on the St. John River from the United States. His mother, whose maiden name was Hannah FLETCHER, was from the same country and many of her relatives are still living in New England. Mr. Tapley had a common English school education, farmed till he was of age and then moving to St. John, commenced lumber surveying and the general lumber business, which he followed until 1856. In that year he was elected to the local legislature for the County of Sunbury, where he still owned a farm and his family resided in the summer time. He was again elected and served until 1861 when his second term expired. Mr. Tapley belonged to the Liberal party of that day. After retiring from the Legislature Mr. Tapley lived three or four years longer on the farm at Sunbury and about 1864 was appointed the first Police magistrate and Judge of the Civil Court of Portland, In 1876 he commenced the formal study of the law and in October 1880 was admitted an attorney and the following year was called to the bar. By the union of the two cities in 1889, the office of Magistrate ceased to exist. Mr. Tapley married in 1841 Miss Margaret Ann DALTON and they had seven children, but only two sons survive. One of them, Frederick TAPLEY, chief clerk in the Intercolonial freight dept. here, is well known. - 'St. John Globe'