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Le Facteur | The Postman 

A facteur, or postman, was a person who collected, transported and delivered letters and packages. He could also be called a courrier.

In New France, mail arrived from France in the spring (due to the freezing of the St. Lawrence River). Boats generally left La Rochelle and arrived in Québec. It was not unusual to see settlers rowing out to these boats to receive their mail and news from the home country. Eventually, a process was put in place by the intendant Hocquart to establish rules on the unloading of mail.

For mail within the colony, a messager system was used. In 1693, Pedro (“Pierre”) da Silva, a settler of Portuguese origin, was charged with transporting letters between Québec and Montréal. He was the colony’s very first postman, having been commissioned by Intendant Jacques Raudot in 1705. [Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in June 2003 honouring Pedro da Silva. Read his mini-biography here.] His stepson Jean Moran replaced him as a postman when he died in 1717.

The construction of the "chemin du roi" (the king’s road), bordering the St. Lawrence river between Québec and Montréal, was completed in 1737. This route made it easier for letter carriers and brought regularity to the delivery of mail. Along the way were relays, under the authority of a postmaster, where letter carriers could sleep and eat. In addition, these relays also provided horses, vehicles or arranged for river crossings via ferry. In 1753, with New France now in British hands, Benjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster general of British America. He opened a post office in Halifax, then in Québec, Montréal and Trois-Rivières.

Known persons who had this occupation: Louis Asselin, Maurice Bosqué, Charles Comtois, Pedro (« Pierre ») da Silva, Michel Desorcys, Jean Moran, Nicolas Philippe dit Trudel, Louis-Antoine Séguin, James Thomson, Joseph Trudel 

Sources:

• “Facteur”, Portail lexique du Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/facteur.

• Ripaux, Alain, “Les Postes canadiennes de la Nouvelle-France à nos jours”, 2002, La Commission franco-québécoise sur les lieux de mémoire communs (https://www.cfqlmc.org/bulletin-memoires-vives/bulletins-anterieurs/bulletin-n-23-decembre-2007/les-postes-canadiennes-de-la-nouvelle-france-a-nos-jours).