George Sylvester Tiffany

Who was George Sylvester Tiffany?

George Sylvester Tiffany was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was born in 1805 at Ancaster, Upper Canada. He married Eliza Anne Strange, and they had one son and four daughters. He was mayor of Hamilton, Ontario in 1848 and died in 1856. He is buried at St. John's Anglican Churchyard in Ancaster.

The Tiffany family was prominent in Ancaster. His father George was a lawyer, his uncle Oliver a physician, and his uncles Sylvester and Gideon were the publishers of the Upper Canada Gazette from 1794 to 1798 and the Canada Constellation, the first independent newspaper in Upper Canada, from 1799 to 1800. Tiffany was educated at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, prior to opening a large practice in Hamilton on Hughson Street S. In 1845 he became a director of the Great Western Railway, whose president was Sir Allan MacNab. He borrowed heavily from his uncle Oliver's estate to finance speculation in real estate related to the railway line and, along with MacNab, profited by buying land along the waterfront where the Great Western yards were established. Tiffany Street, named after him, is located in this area. He was also a stockholder in the London and Gore Railway.