Jonathan Cilley - Biography

Biography

Jonathan Cilley was a member of one of the leading families of northern New England. A grandson of Major General Joseph Cilley and nephew of Bradbury Cilley, he was born in Nottingham, New Hampshire. He attended Bowdoin College and was a member of the famed class of 1825, which included future literary giants Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While at Bowdoin he also became close friends with future President Franklin Pierce, a member of the class of 1824. Deciding to stay in Maine, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1828, practicing in Thomaston, Maine.

In 1829 he married Deborah Prince, the daughter of local businessman Hezekiah Prince. Jonathan and Deborah had five children, two of whom died very young. Their surviving children were Greenleaf (b. 1829), Jonathan Prince (b. 1835). and Julia (b. 1837). Cilley edited the Thomaston Register from 1829–1831 and represented Thomaston in the Maine Legislature from 1831–1836, serving as speaker of the state House in his final two years of service there. He was then elected to the United States Congress, but did not complete his first term.