 While at Sewanee, during the summer of 1901, Finlay met his future wife, Lucy Reed of St. George; they married on April 22, 1903 in Clemson, South Carolina.Finlay's first cure was Holy Trinity, Clemson; additionally, Finlay was responsible for St. Paul's, Pendleton; Ascension, Seneca; and St. John's, Walhalla.The couple's first son, James Alexander Finlay, was born in 1906, but died in October, 1907.