Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Fleury Mesplet

Mesplet, Fleury (1735?-1794), print­er, was born in the parish of St. Vizier, diocese of Lyon, France, about 1735, the son of Jean Baptiste Mesplet and Marie Antoinnette Capeau. He became a printer, and in 1774 migrated to America. He settled first at Philadelphia, but in 1776 he removed to Montreal. Here he set up the first printing office in Montreal, and his productions are among the earliest examples of the art of printing in Canada. After a chequered career he died in Montreal on January 22, 1794 . See R. W. McLachlan, Fleury Mesplet, the first printer at Montreal (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 1906), and Some unpublished documents relating to Fleury Mesplet (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 1920); and E. Fauteux, Fleury Mesplet: Une étude sur les commencements de l'imprimerie dans la ville de Montreal (Papers of the Biographical Society of America, vol. xxviii, part 2, 1934). [Mesplet was the founder of the Montreal Gazette]

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 276.