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Biographical Note on High Finlay
FINLAY, HUGH, merchant, office holder, seigneur, politician, Postmaster
and landowner, 1730 -1801). Hugh Finlay sailed from Glasgow for Quebec
early in 1763, bringing several assets that promised him success. He had
family connections in the business communities of both Glasgow and
London and sufficient capital to join a wholesale merchant partnership
at Quebec. His fluency in French would prove helpful, not only in
business but also in launching an administrative career, for bilingual
British immigrants were rare in the colony. Indeed, the beginnings of a
career in government were evident before he left, since Finlay had the
assurance that he would be appointed postmaster of the colony upon his
arrival.
Finlay’s appointment as postmaster at Quebec had been arranged in the
last months of the administration of the Earl of Bute, probably by the
Earl of Egmont, and confirmed on 10 June 1763 by Benjamin Franklin and
John Foxcroft, joint deputy postmasters general of North America, acting
on instructions from London. Local merchants, with the support of
Governor Murray, had petitioned as early as 1762 for a regular postal
service. Finlay soon built a weekly postal service between Quebec and
Montreal via Trois-Rivières and a monthly post south through
Skenesborough (N.Y.) and Albany to meet the mail packet service between
New York City and Falmouth, England. He obtained from the government
directions to the keepers of post houses to provide horses for mail
couriers at one-half the rate to the public and to ferrymen to pass
couriers over their rivers promptly and without charge. In view of the
shortage of currency, Finlay met expenses with “tickets,” payable upon
his announcement that cash had arrived at the Quebec post office. The
posts were unexpectedly successful, returning a profit to the British
Post Office Department and giving Finlay a good income of one-fifth of
the receipts. In less than a decade the system was profitable enough to
support a twice-weekly service on the colony’s post roads, and two posts
a month to New York.
The years of the American Revolution took its toll on Finlay's personal
plans for politics, wealth and power. Less occupied by politics after
1786, Finlay was able to devote more time to the postal service. He had
received the position of deputy postmaster general of the province of
Quebec in 1784. Although he was still anxious to restore the mail
services via New York that had previously been so successful, he was
forced to develop an alternative overland route to Halifax. In 1787 he
undertook yet another postal odyssey, again keeping a journal, and he
ultimately prepared a full report on the roads and post houses between
Quebec and Halifax. Characteristically, he recommended unified authority
over the whole route, and thus obtained his own appointment in 1788 as
deputy postmaster general of British North America with authority over
Joseph Peters of Nova Scotia and Christopher Sower of New Brunswick.
He also obtained a stopover at Halifax of the monthly Falmouth–New York
packets in each direction of their transatlantic voyages, although it
was only practicable eight months of the year. Finlay was able to extend
the postal service through Upper Canada to Detroit (Mich.), and in 1792
he negotiated a landmark postal convention with the United States,
reestablishing postal service with it and providing for passage of mails
between Britain and Lower Canada across American territory in the four
months of each year when the Halifax route could not be used.
Towards the end of his life he became involved with serious allegations
of impropriety, debts and financial disaster. Despite his financial ruin,
however, at his death Finlay remained the respected senior member of the
Legislative Council and loyal Whig office holder, who had earned his
subsequent designation of “Father of the Canadian post office.”
[Extracts from Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online:
I.K. Steele]
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