Remininces of Barnabas TILTON - 'A branch of my family emigrated from Tilton, Lancashire, England to America in 1640', remarked Barnabas Tilton to a SUN reporter, pointing to a large photograph of Tilton church, a handsome stone structure that adorned the wall of one of the sitting rooms of his old family mansion on Lancaster Heights; 'and I was born at the North End, Boston near the spot now occupied by the wharves of the International S.S. Co. in 1801.' Mr. Tilton stirred the anthracite and resumed 'I was the youngest of a family of five, two daughters and three sons and am the only survivor. It was in 1812, I think, that one of my brothers, James TILTON, established himself in Halifax in the picture frame and looking glass business. I have a distinct recollection of the excitement occasioned by the war of that year and on the 11th of April, 1815, I set out to join him, taking passage by the schr. "Leonard". One hundred sail of vessels cleared from Boston on that day. I remained with my brother till 1820. I saw the embarkation of the ten regiments that left that place for Waterloo in May 1815. At Halifax I visited the grave of Capt. LAWRENCE, the residence of the Duke of Kent and Lord Anson's ship "Centurion". Halifax had then about ten thousand inhabitants, but the city was without a bank.' Mr. Tilton reflected for a few minutes and then continued. 'On a matter of business I went to the Miramichi in October 1820. It was a small place doing little business except in lumber and fish. I saw one weir there in which 800 barrels of salmon had been taken that season which sold for $8 a barrel. After a short stay I returned to Halifax where I loaded the schr. "Betsey Elizabeth" with flour and provisions and set out on a trading voyage to the Magdalen Islands in the spring of 1821 and arrived there on Sunday 1st May. The fishery treaty of 1818 was hardly more satisfactory to the Nova Scotians than it is to the Americans now. My brother had a fishing establishment at the Islands, but he had to up killoch and leave, because every American fisherman was a smuggler and the waters were full of them. 'I was always hostile to the sale of liquor', continued Mr. Tilton, 'but my brother had a puncheon of rum on board the "Betsey Elizabeth", and as sort of an offset I shipped one cask each of lime juice and honey. When we arrived at the Island we found the inhabitants in great destitution, many of them having subsisted for weeks wholly on mussels. Though it was Sunday, they insisted on our discharging at once. We did so, and before sundown the entire cargo was disposed of. Then we rolled out the lime juice and honey and I distributed it gratuitously to those by whom I thought it was most needed. The people were all French and I could not understand a word they said, but their eyes told me their gratitude. Five days later the sealing schooners came in. They at once commenced trying out the oil and we were paid in full for our cargo in oil. There were then 300 families residing on the Islands, about 1500 souls all told. Fish was very abundant at the Islands at this time, but there was no salt, so we left our oil and sailed at once for Miramichi where we took in a cargo of that commodity which we sold to good advantage on our return, and then took in our oil and sailed for Halifax, where we arrived in June. The oil brought a handsome price and with another cargo of flour and provisions we returned to the Magdalen Islands calling at Port Hood, where we purchased 100 gallons of dog oil. At this time Port Hood was a hamlet of only four or five houses. We arrived at the Islands on the 18th July (1821) and our voyage was a fairly successful one. I met here a Frenchman 90 years old, who told me that when he was a boy the gulf was well stocked with sea cows, yielding 100 gallons of oil each, worth $1 each, but they had been destroyed by the Americans. I saw scratched on a window pane with a diamond the statement that a sloop had visited Amherst harbor in 1750 in search of the animals, whose tusks were not unfrequently ploughed up on the Islands at the time of my visit. Again in 1822 I again returned to the Islands with goods and spent the summer there, doing a very successful business.' Again Mr. Tilton stirred the fire and gazing steadfastly at the glowing coals seemed conjuring up pictures of the past. 'In the summer of 1822 reports reached me of the business advantages of Quebec and I had pretty nearly made up my mind to locate in that city when Mr. KAULBACH, a nephew of Sir Isaac COFFIN, gave me a description of St. John which he had several times visited and urged me to cast my lot with its people. So strong were his predelictions in its favor and his friendship for myself, that he offered me transportation for my goods and myself in a vessel he was loading for that port, in consideration of my acting as her supercargo. His generous proposition was accepted and I landed here on the 15th September. At the suggestion of Hugh CHISHOLM, father of Capt. CHISOLM who was then in business here, I opened a grocery store at No. 18 South Market wharf. At this time the wharf was covered with wooden buildings and had an appearance similar to that which it presented up to the fire of 1877. St. John had about 10,000 inhabitants, but was without a grocery store up to the time that mine was opened. Then the Barbours, Sands & DeVeber, Wheeler & Co., T.E. Millidge, Crookshank & Walker, J.S. Bedell, Alex. Edmonds and others were in the West India business, but if you wanted flour you had to go to the bakers for it and if you wanted oatmeal, you had to by it at the drug store, paying the rate of ten cents a pound. I imported a cargo of the latter which I sold at six cents a pound and realized a handsome profit. I married Miss THEAL of Carleton in January 1824. She died in Nov. of the same year, leaving one child who still survives. In 1826 I experienced considerable difficulty in getting my stock from the American markets, so I built a schooner of 128 tons in Carleton which I named the "Sarah Ann" and put her under the command of D.W. CRONK. I went in her on her first trip to New York and Philadelphia and purchased a cargo of general groceries at the latter place, reserving room for 300 bbls. to be taken in at New York on our return. Grocery stock was much cheaper in Philadelphia than in New York in those days. In fact I could lay down many articles purchased there in St. John cheaper than I could buy them in New York. On this trip I bough fresh beef in Philadelphia at $1.50 per cwt. and 1,600 barrels of rye flour at $3 per barrel. I bought Newtown pippins in New York at $1 per bbl. and nuts at 25 cents per bushel. I continued in business on the South Wharf until 1835 when I removed to the site now occupied by Turnbull & Co. and retired in 1860. Alex. JARDINE, founder of the house of Jardine & Co., was in my employ for a considerable time at 60 pounds a year.' Mr. Tilton married his present wife, Miss Ann SCAMMELL in 1830, six of whose children are still living. To procure the marriage licence in Fredericton (York Co.) he paid a messenger $40; the trip to and from that place was made on horseback. His residence, which was built in 1840, was the first two story house ever erected on the heights. Mr. Tilton showed the reporter a silver watch made in London which he has worn constantly since 1827 and a perfect time keeper; and an American half cent of the year 1804. He was a passenger with his wife on the first steamer that ever sailed direct from New York to Great Britain, the "Great Western", Capt. Hodgson. The trip was made in 12 days and 18 hours.