Date Published:
June 2005

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

Hugh Finlay

Finlay, Hugh (1732-1801), deputy postmaster-general of British North America (1774-99), was a young Scotsman who came to Canada about 1760. In 1765 he was appointed a member of the governor's council; and about the same time he became postmaster at Quebec. In 1774 he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British North America ; and he occupied this post, which was an imperial appointment, until 1799. During this period he played an important part in the government of Canada ; and in particular he laid the foundation of the Canadian postal services. He died on December 26, 1801. A journal kept by him when surveyor of post roads in 1773-4 has been edited and published by F. H. Norton (Brooklyn, 1867) ; a journal in which he described the siege of Quebec in 1775-6 has been printed in the Manuscripts published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 4th series (1875); and a number of his letters dealing with political affairs in Canada have been printed in A. Shortt and A. G. Doughty, Documents relating to the constitutional history of Canada (2 vols., Ottawa, 1918). See J. G. Hendy, Hugh Finlay, pioneer of Canadian posts (Empire Review, 1902).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II. Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 336.