Francis Peabody, a Massachusetts native who came north following the French and Indian War to settle lands he was granted to form a township in New Brunswick.

The Leavitt family later joined their relations in the shipping business, becoming shipowners, mariners and prominent merchants in Saint John, which following the Revolutionary War had a substantial American Loyalist population.

By 1774, mariner Leavitt was actively engaged in shipbuilding, joining forces that year with brother-in-law Samuel Peabody to order construction of one of the earliest schooners built in New Brunswick, the Menaguashe.

[5] Early in his career, mariner Leavitt grew discouraged with his prospects, fearing that New Brunswick would never support a shipping industry like that of Boston or Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Daniel Leavitt were among those who piloted into Saint John's harbor the fleet of vessels carrying thousands of American Loyalists from New York City in 1784.

[6] The influx of Loyalists stoked the Saint John economy: it would later rank fourth among shipbuilding cities of the British Empire, earning it the sobriquet of "the Liverpool of North America".

[7] By the 1840s Leavitt was firmly established as a major player in the region, acting as agent for the Liverpool Association of Underwriters, and for several New York marine insurance companies.

Early on Thomas Leavitt obtained a perpetual lease on a harborside lot, allowing him to build his own wharf for his shipping interests as well as charging wharfage fees to other merchants.