Canadian Postal Guide

Excerpt

The earliest records of the administration of the post office in Canada bear date 1750, at which period the celebrated Benjamin Franklin was Deputy Postmaster General of North America. At the time of his appointment the revenue of the department was insufficient to defray his salary of £300 per annum; but under his judicious management not only was the postal accommodation in the Provinces considerably extended, but the revenue so greatly increased, that ere long the profit for one year, which he remitted to the British treasury, amounted to £3000.

In the evidence given by Franklin before the British House of Commons in the year 1766, in regard to the extent of the post office accommodation in North America, he made the following statement:—

"The posts generally travel along the sea coasts, and only in a few cases do they go back into the country. Between Quebec and Montreal there is only one post per month. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country that the posts cannot be supported amongst them. The English colonies, too, along the frontier are very thinly settled."

Franklin was removed in 1774. War broke out a few months afterwards between the North American Provinces and the Mother Country; and the charge of the post office in Canada was assumed by Mr. Hugh Finlay, who, it appears, had under Franklin performed the duties of postmaster at Quebec.

Mr. Finlay is designated in his commission as Deputy Postmaster General of His Majesty's "Province of Canada," from which it would seem that the Lower Provinces were not included in his charge.

An Almanac published in Quebec in the year 1791 thus describes the condition of the Department:—

Hugh Finlay, Esq.,      Deputy Postmaster General      Quebec,L. C.Wm. E. Edwards,PostmasterMontreal, "Samuel Sills,      "Three Rivers, "Louis Aime,      "Berthier, "Hugh Munroe,      "Bai edes Chaleurs,       "Samuel Anderson,      "Cornwall,        U. C.John Munroe,      "Matilda, "John Jones,      "Augusta, "Peter Clarke,      "Kingston, "Joseph Edwards,      "Niagara, "George Leitch,      "Detroit, "—— Mitchell,      "Mickelmackinac,     "

There were thus five post offices in Lower Canada, and seven post offices in Upper Canada.

Between Quebec and England mails were despatched once per month; between Quebec and Halifax, twice per week in summer, and once per week in winter; between Quebec and Montreal, twice per week; and between Montreal and the offices above Montreal, once per month; between Quebec and Baie des Chaleurs mails were despatched "as occasion offered."

In the year 1792, 1793, and 1794, the mail was carried once per month between Montreal and Kingston by a French Canadian named Morisette; between Kingston and York it was carried by Alex. Anderson; and between York and Niagara by a Mohawk Indian. The rate of travel was probably about 20 miles per day; the route being either by a path through the woods or along the shores of the River St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario: no regular road having been at that time in existence.

In the summer season the mail was carried between Kingston and Niagara by the Government vessels,—

Caldwell,Mohawk,Oneida, andSpeedy.

Between Canandaigua, in the State of New York, and Niagara, the mail was carried once per week at a cost of $200 per annum.

In the year 1796 there were precisely the same number of offices, and generally the same amount of mail accommodation, as in in 1791....