- Call Number:
- HIL-MICL FC LPR .G7P6N6P3
- Category:
- Great Britain
- Creator:
- Great Britain. General Post Office. North American Service.
- Material Description:
- 10 microfilm textual records (4 volumes) ; 35 mm
- Background:
Thomas (De Grey) Baron Walsingham (1748-1818) was British Joint Postmaster-General from 1783-1790. During these years, post offices and postal service were established in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, as well as between the three colonies and other jurisdictions.
- Contents:
The reels of General Post Office Papers and Correspondence in this collection contain such a diversity of subjects that only a few examples can be included in this brief overview of contents. The records are valuable not only for the history of early postal service in eastern Canada, but as a glimpse into life in the colonies during these formative years. The first three volumes of this collection contain Lord Walsingham's papers from 1783 until 1790, and hold a wealth of information relating to earlypostal service in the years immediately after New Brunswick became a separate colony from Nova Scotia. Letters relating to postal services in 1788 from George Leonard and Christopher Sower to Lord Walsingham are found here.
Other records include: details of routes used by the couriers; distances in miles and the number of days required for a courier to complete each section of a journey, e.g. in 1790 it was 429 miles and took 16 days to travel between Fredericton, New Brunswick and Quebec City; a list of packet vessels; the organization of colonial postal offices; plans for opening a mail service between Quebec and Nova Scotia; a lengthy description of the very primitive road in 1787 between Quebec City and Fredericton, which was only usable in summer; packet reports; post office administration; finances; appointments; staffing; postal rates; circulars to post masters; overseas mails; correspondence dealing with the establishment of post offices in several different locations, and letters concerning the improvement of postal services; payments to couriers; tables of distances and rates for letters; a list of towns with post offices; a considerable amount of correspondence with Hugh Finley, Deputy Postmaster-General of the Province of Canada; and records concerning many other aspects of early postal service in this large and valuable collection.
- Originals:
The original records are most probably held by the Archives of the General Post Office in London, England; although there is no indication of this on the reels, nor is there any indication where the records were microfilmed. In some instances, the material appears to be similar in content to the records at Library and Archives Canada in MG 44, General Post Office.
- Finding Aids:
A microfilm shelf list and table of contents which correlates microfilm reel numbers with volume numbers, where they have been used for the original papers and correspondence, and other records not organized by volume, has been created band and is available in print and as a PDF.
- PDF Finding Aid:
- General Post Office North American Service Papers Document List.pdf