THE HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE IN

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

C. F. CLAY, Manager

LONDON :   FETTER LANE, E.C. 4

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE HISTORY

OF THE POST OFFICE IN

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA


1639-1870

BY

WILLIAM SMITH

SOMETIME SECRETARY OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF CANADA

CAMBRIDGE

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1920

Printed in Great Britain by
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
brunswick st., stamford st., s.e. 1,
and bungay, suffolk.

PREFACE

My purpose, in the searches for material which led to the present volume, has been to give as complete an account as it lay in my power to do, of the beginnings and growth of the Canadian post office, with which I was associated for thirty-six years. As my studies progressed, however, I found it would be necessary to widen my field.

The Canadian post office did not come into being as an independent organization. It was but the extension into newly-acquired territories, of a system which had been in operation for nearly three-quarters of a century, with well-established modes of administration. Obviously, either reference should be made to well-known works on the older colonial postal system, or an account of it must be attempted in this volume.

Although careful studies of some aspects of this history have been made, this part of colonial history has, on the whole, received less of the attention of students than has been devoted to throwing light upon other phases of that history; and, what was important for my purpose, little has been done in the way of describing the relations between the colonial postal system and the general post office in London, to which it was subordinate.

The materials for this portion of the history are to be found in the records of the general post office, London, the British Museum, and in the journals of the colonial legislatures. A very interesting document is Franklin's Account Book, which is in the Boston Public Library.

The materials for the history of the post office in the provinces now composing the Dominion of Canada, are in the records of the general post office, the larger portion of which have been transcribed for the Public Archives of Canada; in the correspondence between the colonial governors and the colonial office, which can be found either in the original or in transcripts in the Public Archives, and in the Journals of the Provincial Legislatures.

In the preparation of the chapter on the postal service of Newfoundland, I had the advantage of a rather close acquaintance with that service, due to my having had charge of it some years ago for a period of several months. The material on which the chapter is founded has been gathered from the records of the general post office, and the legislative papers of the colony.

In collecting my material, I have received ready assistance from all to whom I have applied. To all these my hearty gratitude is tendered. A word of special acknowledgment is due to Mr. Edward Porritt, author of The Unreformed Parliament of Great Britain, who kindly read the manuscript, and to whose experience I am indebted for many valuable suggestions.

William Smith.

August 1920.

CONTENTS