Background
He was born in Scotland and emigrated to Quebec shortly after the capitulation of the country to General Amherst in 1760.
He was born in Scotland and emigrated to Quebec shortly after the capitulation of the country to General Amherst in 1760.
He entered business as a merchant, and was appointed a justice of the peace, an office of great importance at a time when there was a mere handful of English people in the midst of a large French community.
He had the valuable qualification of understanding and speaking the French language. When Benjamin Franklin, deputy of the postmaster-general of England, decided after the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to extend the limits of the Colonial Post-Office to include the newly acquired territory, he came to Quebec, opened post-offices in that town, at Three Rivers, and at Montreal, and placed the Canadian section under Finlay.
In 1765 Finlay was appointed to a seat in the Governor's Council, and, being a public-spirited person, fell into the position of "general-utility" man for the government. Among the services which he undertook to manage was the control of the roads and the transportation system.
His zeal in the public service having attracted attention, in 1772 he was appointed post-office surveyor or inspector. In this capacity he explored in 1773 the uninhabited country between Quebec and Falmouth, Maine, to ascertain the practicability of a post-route between Canada and New England.
The expedition was so successful that the governor of New Hampshire was induced to open a road along the Connecticut River, where connection could be made with the country on the watercourse of the St. Francis, which emptied into the St. Lawrence.
On October 2, 1773, Finlay set out from Falmouth on a more extended tour, embracing the whole postal system from Maine to Georgia. His report is a valuable survey of the condition of the country on the eve of the Revolution.
On his return to New York, he learned of Franklin's dismissal on January 31, 1774, and of his own appointment on February 25 as joint deputy postmaster-general with Thomas Foxcroft of Philadelphia. The recognition of the independence of the colonies, however, made a readjustment necessary, and in July 1784, Finlay was appointed deputy postmaster-general of Canada.
In 1792 he concluded a convention with the postmaster-general of the United States, the chief object of which was to provide for the conveyance to and from New York of mails between Canada and Great Britain.
In 1799 disaster fell upon him. Owing to defalcations on the part of a postmaster for whom he was responsible, Finlay was dismissed from his office as a defaulter. That he was not regarded as blameworthy by the governor-general or his associates in Quebec is shown by the fact that he retained all his provincial offices, including that of legislative councilor until his death.