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THE HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE
From Its Establishment Down to 1836
by
HERBERT JOYCE, C.B.
Of the Post Office
[Illustration: Publisher Logo]
London
Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1893
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Introduction--Master of the Posts--Posts centred in the Sovereign--
Instructions for their Regulation--Travelling Post--Object of the Post
Office Monopoly Page 1
CHAPTER II
The Post through the County of Kent--This Post put under the care of De
Quester--Stanhope of Harrington, as Master of the Posts, asserts his
Rights--Vacillating Decisions of the Privy Council--Sir John Coke--Thomas
Witherings 8
CHAPTER III
Decadence of the Posts--Witherings's Plan--Introduction of Postage--
Concessions to the common Carrier--Post-haste--Witherings appointed
Master of the Inland as well as the Foreign Posts--His Dismissal--Philip
Burlamachi--Dissensions between the Lords and Commons--Edmund
Prideaux appointed Witherings's Successor 15
CHAPTER IV
Prideaux's Activity--Unauthorised Post set up to Scotland--System of
Farming--Prideaux ceases to be Master of the Posts--Secretary Thurloe--
The Posts become the Subject of Parliamentary Enactment--Rates of
Postage--Letters circulate through London--The Travelling Post not a
Source of Revenue--Clement Oxenbridge 24
CHAPTER V
Frequent Change of Farmers--Tediousness of the Course of Post--Existence
of the Posts not a matter of common Knowledge--Dockwra's Penny
Post--Introduction of Postmarks--Penny Post incorporated into the
General Post--Dockwra's Dismissal 33
CHAPTER VI
Posts regarded as Vehicles for the Propagation of Treason--Wildman--
Cotton and Frankland--Post Office Establishment--Revenue--Building in
Lombard Street--Dispersion of Letters--Salaries and Wages--Newspapers--
Drink and Feast Money--Post-horses--Quartering of Soldiers--
Postmasters' Emoluments--Scotland--Ireland--Bye-letters--Illicit
Traffic--Treasury Control--Post Offices grouped together and let out to
farm--Stephen Bigg--Expresses--Flying Packets--State of the Roads--
Progress of the Penny Post--Appointment of Secretary and Solicitor--
Purchase of Premises in Lombard Street 43
CHAPTER VII
State of the Packet Service--Ship Letters--Special Boats built for the
Harwich Station--M. Pajot, Director of the French Posts--Establishment
of West India Packets--Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy--Regulations
for the Management of the Packet Stations--Conditions of Employment--
Smart and Bounty Money--Passes required for Passengers--and for Goods--
Regulations habitually infringed--Smuggling--Packets forbidden to give
Chase--Practice on Capture of a Prize--Packet Stations at Falmouth and
at Harwich conducted on different Principles--Packets employed to carry
Recruits--Letters not to be carried in Foreign Bottoms--Court-Post--
Restoration of Packet Service with Flanders--John Macky, Packet Agent at
Dover--The Postmasters-General act as Purveyors of News to the Court--
Their Interview with Godolphin--Posts set up for the Army in Flanders--
Packet Establishment placed on a Peace Footing--Dummer's Bankruptcy and
Death 72
CHAPTER VIII
American Posts--Thomas Neale--Andrew Hamilton--Ocean Penny Postage--Posts
transferred to the Crown--Become self-supporting 110
CHAPTER IX
Condition of the Post Office in Scotland at the time of the Union--
Inaction of the English Post Office--Charles Povey--William Lowndes--
Diversion of Postage from the Crown to the Public--Postage Rates
increased--Electoral Disabilities--Restrictions on the common Carrier--
Modification of the Penny Post--Post-horses--Franking--Illicit Traffic in
Letters--Treasury Inconsistency--Post Office Farmers converted into
Managers--Treaty with France--Matthew Prior--Single and Double Letters--
Change of Postmasters-General--Disagreements with Merchants--Twopenny
Post--Comparative Statement of Revenue--Gross and Net Revenue confounded
117
CHAPTER X
Allen's Contract--General Review--The Secretary's Dismissal--Earl of
Abercorn's Complaint--Sketch of Allen's Plan--His Qualifications for
carrying it into effect--His local Knowledge--His Difficulties with
Postmasters--Post-boys--Illegal Conveyance of Letters--Contrast between
Allen's Mode of Procedure and that of the Post Office--Posts increased
in Frequency--Opening of Letters--Falmouth Packets--Late Delivery of
Foreign Letters--Erection of Milestones--Letters containing Patterns
and Writs--Apertures to Letter-boxes--Expresses--Highwaymen--Bank Notes--
Decadence--Allen's 146
CHAPTER XI
Penny Post--Franking--Newspapers--Clerks of the Roads--Numbering of
Houses--Scotch and Irish Posts--Receiving Offices--Gratuities on
Delivery--Appeal to the Courts--Appointment of Letter-carriers--Attempt
to curtail the Limits of the Penny Post frustrated--Benjamin Franklin--
Post Office Monopoly in matter of Horses abolished--Disfranchising Act--
Causes of Disquietude 187
CHAPTER XII
Palmer's Plan--Objections--First Mail-coach--Post-coach--Increase in
Rates of Postage--Restrictions upon Franking--Obstruction alleged--
Anthony Todd--Transitional Period--Stages--Earlier Closing of the General
Post Office--Emoluments from Bell Ringing--Internal Dissensions--
Tankerville's Dismissal--Corruption--Surveyors--Conditions of Palmer's
Appointment--Abuses--Fees and Perquisites--Expresses--Registration--
Palmer's Improvements--Packet Service--Smuggling--Flagitious
Expenditure--Todd's Emoluments--Pitt's Indisposition to expose Abuses--
Lord Walsingham--Daniel Braithwaite--Essays in Cause of Economy--Milford
Haven and Waterford Packets--Pitiable Condition of the Clerks
of the Roads--The King's Coach--His Illness and Prayer for his Recovery--
Strange Treatment of Official Papers--George Chalmers--Palmer's
Jealousy--Mail Guards--Creation of a Newspaper Office--Walsingham
attempts to check Irregularities--His inveterate Habit of Scribbling--
Exposes an Attempt at Imposition--Curious Practice as regards the
Delivery of Foreign Letters--Earl of Chesterfield--Insubordination on
Palmer's Part--Appeal to Pitt--Charles Bonnor--Palmer's Suspension--
Chesterfield's Letter--Interview with Pitt--A Second Interview--Palmer's
Dismissal--Bonnor's Promotion 208
CHAPTER XIII
Model of Mail coach--Patent Coaches--Thomas Hasker--His pithy
Instructions--Roof-loading--The King's Interest in his Coach--General
Result of Palmer's Plan--Condition of the country Post Offices--Francis
Freeling--Enlargement of the General Post Office--Communication with
France--Bank Notes cut in half--Letter-carriers put into Uniform--Grant
to Post Office Servants--Development of the Penny Post--Edward
Johnson--Excessive Absence among the Letter-carriers--By the Penny
Post prepayment ceases to be compulsory--The Ten-mile Limit--Origin
of the Twopenny Post--Dead Letter Office--American and West Indian
Correspondence--Correspondence for the India House--Post with the
Channel Islands--Further Restrictions on Franking--Bankers' Franks--
Patterns and Samples--Metropolitan Cart Service--Horse and Cross
Posts--Rates of Postage increased--Mysterious doings of the Packets--
Brilliant Engagements--Post Office Usage--Counsels' Fees--New Years'
Gifts--Todd's Indifference to Censure--His Death 281
CHAPTER XIV
Ship-letter Office--Increase in Rates of Postage--Abolition of the Penny
Post--Invoices and Bills of Lading--Convention Posts--Prosecutions--
Auckland's Pleasantries--Repressive Powers--Guarding the Horse-mails--
Recovery of stolen Mail Bag--Troubles with Contractors--Surveyors
deprived of their Post Offices--Rates of Postage again increased--
Threepenny Post--Post Office Revenue--William Cobbett--Early or
Preferential Delivery--Treatment of Foreign Newspapers--Newspaper
Summaries--The _Times_--Olney Post---Death-blow to Convention Posts--
Turnpike Trusts--Exemption from Toll--Roads discoached--Yet further
Increase in Rates of Postage--Bewildering Complications--Want of
Publicity--Exemption from Toll abolished in Scotland--Returned-letter
Office--New Ship-letter Act--Mail Service to India and the Cape--
Generosity of the East India Company--Eulogistic Letter 328
CHAPTER XV
The Irish Post Office--British Mail Office--Earl of Clancarty--Edward
Smith Lees--Abuses--Express Clerks and Clerks of the Roads--Alphabet--
Provision for Soldiers' Wives--Thomas Whinnery, Postmaster of Belfast--
Charles Bianconi--Holyhead Packets--Opposition Packets started by
Lees--Steam Packets--Competition--Land Communication with Ireland--London
and Holyhead Coach--Sir Arthur Wellesley--State of the
Roads--Road between Holyhead and Shrewsbury--Thomas Telford--John
London Macadam--Road between Shrewsbury and London--Postage
over the Conway and Menai Bridges 366
CHAPTER XVI
Appointment of Second Postmaster-General abolished--Other Economies--
Transfer of the Falmouth Packets to the Admiralty--Speed of
Mail-coaches--Mail-coaches the Disseminators of News--Newspapers--Sir
Henry Parnell--Royal Commission--General Review--Gerrard Street--
Headquarters of the General Post Office removed to St.
Martin's-le-Grand--Branch Offices--Morning Delivery expedited--First
Mail sent by Railway--Duke of Richmond--Incorporation of the Irish
Post Office with the Post Office of Great Britain--Lord Althorp--
Limits of the General Post Delivery--Packet Service put up to public
Competition--Abolition of the Newspaper Privilege--Dissatisfaction
with the Post Office--Money Order Office--Unsatisfactory Returns to
the House of Commons--Indisposition to carry out Reforms--More
unsatisfactory Returns--New Contract for Mail-coaches--Freeling's
Despondency--and Death 396
APPENDIX 429
INDEX 439
ERRATA
[see Transcriber's note at the end of the book.]
Page 324, sixth line from bottom, _for_ 1713 _read_ 1703.
" 339, first line, _for_ 1892 _read_ 1802.
HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE
CHAPTER I
EARLY POSTS
1533-1609
The early history of the posts is involved in some obscurity. What
little is known on the subject is touched upon in the first Annual
Report of the Post Office, the Report for 1854; but the historical
summary there given is, as it purports to be, a summary only. The object
of the following pages is nothing more than to fill up the gaps and to
supply some particulars for which, though not perhaps without interest,
an official report would be no fitting place. The origin and progress of
an institution which has so interwoven itself with the social life of
the people as to have become one of the most remarkable developments of
modern civilisation can hardly, we think, be considered a subject
unworthy of study.
It seems almost certain that until the reign of Henry the Eighth, or
perhaps a little earlier, no regular system of posts existed in England,
and that then and for some considerable time afterwards the few posts
that were established were for the exclusive use of the Sovereign.
"Sir," writes Sir Brian Tuke to Thomas Cromwell in 1533, "it may like
you to understonde the Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes, ne of
many days hathe had, but bitwene London and Calais ... and sens October
last, the postes northewarde.... For, Sir, ye knowe well that, except
the hakney horses bitwene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche
usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as is in the accustumed
places of France and other parties." Sir Brian Tuke held the appointment
of Master of the Posts, and he had received the King's commands to set
up posts "in al places most expedient."
Before Henry's reign the only letters of which any record exists,
letters to or from the Court and on affairs of State, were sent by
couriers employed for the particular occasion. These couriers, styled
"Nuncii" and "Cursores," appear to have answered to the Queen's
messengers of our own time, and, as is evident from records still extant
and dating back to the reign of Henry the Third, must have formed an
important branch of the royal establishment.
To establish posts and to control them when established was not all or
nearly all that Brian Tuke had to do. He had also to see, even where no
posts existed, that the royal couriers were not kept waiting for horses;
and this probably was his original function. The horses were provided by
the townships, and the townships were kept up to their duty by the
Master of the Posts. In some cases, indeed, special provision appears to
have been made. At Leicester,[1] for instance, the members of the
Corporation bound themselves under penalty to keep four post-horses in
constant readiness for their Sovereign's use; but this can hardly have
been a common practice. Where horses were not provided voluntarily, the
magistrates and constables had orders to seize them wherever they could
be found.
[1] 9 April, 17 Elizabeth.--Further att the same Common Hall [of the
town of Leicester] it was for dyuers cawses thought good and mete for
the service of the Prince to have at the chargies of the Towne certen
poste horses kepte, whearevppon theare was appoynted foure to be kepte,
which, thees persouns vnderwritten have vndertaken to kepe, and to serve
from tyme to tyme so oft as nede shalle requier, for and dureinge the
space of one wholle yeare nexte after the date hereof, viz. Mr. Roberte
Eyricke, one; Fraunces Norris, chamberlayn, twoe; Thomas Tyars, one. For
the which theyre is allowed vnto them of the towne for euerie horse
thurtie-three shillinges and foure pence, that is to say for foure
horses vili. xiiis. iiiid. Provyded always that if theye the said Robert
Eyricke, Frauncis Norrys, and Thomas Tyars doe not kepe good and able
horses for that purpose and to be readie vppon one half howres warnynge
to forfitt, lose, and paye for euerie tyme to the Chamber of the Towne
of Leycester the somme of fyve shillinges. For the payement of the said
xxli. nobles it is further agreed vppon, in the manner and forme
followinge, That is to saye, the Mayor and euerie of his bretherene
called the xxiiii. to paye iis. a pece, and euerie of the xlviii. xiid.
a pece, and the Resydue that shalbe then lackinge to be levied of the
commonaltie and inhabitantes of the said towne and the liberties
thereof.--Appendix to the Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on
Historical Manuscripts, p. 425.
The close connection between the posts and the Sovereign continued long
after the reign of Henry the Eighth. In 1572 Thomas Randolph, Master of
the posts to Queen Elizabeth, rendered an account of the charges to
which he had been put in the execution of his trust during the preceding
five years; and in this account, which is given in considerable detail,
not a single post is mentioned without some qualification identifying it
with the person of the Sovereign--a post daily serving Her Majesty, a
post for Her Majesty's service and affairs, a post during the time of
Her Majesty's progress, a post for the conveyance of Her Majesty's
letters and those of her Council. As late as 1621 all the posts of the
kingdom, which even then were only four in number, started from the
Court. I. "The Courte to Barwicke," _i.e._ the post to Scotland. II.
"The Courte to Beaumoris," _i.e._ the post to Ireland. III. "The Courte
to Dover," _i.e._ the post to the Continent. IV. "The Courte to
Plymouth," _i.e._ the post to the Royal Dockyard.
The setting up of a post for a particular purpose and letting it drop as
soon as the purpose had been answered was another peculiarity of these
early times. The post to Plymouth, ordained in 1621 to be one of the
standing posts of the kingdom, had been dropped since 1611, having then
been declared to be unnecessary except in time of war. Even the post to
Ireland had at one time been dropped and was not revived until 1598. In
the same year a second post to Ireland, Irish affairs being then
considered to require "oftner dispatches and more expedition," was set
up by way of Bristol, and this in its turn disappeared. Indeed, it would
probably not be too much to say that at the beginning of the seventeenth
century no post set up in England during a war had lasted longer than
the war itself. This practice of dropping a post as soon as it had
served its purpose, a practice which must almost necessarily have
existed from the earliest times, would seem to explain Brian Tuke's
meaning when, after stating that in 1533 except those he mentioned "the
Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes," he adds, "ne of many days
hathe had."
For the regulation of the posts the earliest instructions of which we
have any record were issued by Queen Elizabeth. Every "post" was to keep
and have constantly ready two horses at least, with suitable
"furniture." He was to have at least two bags of leather well lined with
baize or cotton, and a horn to blow "as oft as he meets company" or four
times in every mile. He was, after receiving a packet, to start within
fifteen minutes, and to run in summer at the rate of seven miles an hour
and in winter at the rate of five. The address of the packet and the day
and the hour at which he received it were to be carefully entered in a
book to be kept for the purpose. But the packets which were thus to be
treated were only such as should be on the Queen's affairs or the
affairs of State. "All others" are dismissed in a word. These, the
instructions state, are "to passe as by-letters." To pass as by-letters
probably means that the letters were to go when and as best they might,
but that the post was not to go for the purpose of taking them. This
view is confirmed by an order of the subsequent reign, that "no pacquets
or letters," except such as were on the King's affairs, should "binde
any poste to ride therewith in post." But be the meaning what it may,
the expression seems to shew that even in the reign of Elizabeth letters
other than State letters had begun to be sent to the post-houses, and
that such letters, if barely recognised, were yet not excluded.
But the conveyance of the Sovereign's letters was not the only purpose
which the posts as originally established were designed to serve.
Another and hardly less important purpose was that there should be
stationed and in constant readiness, at given distances along the chief
roads of the kingdom, a relay of horses by which persons travelling on
their Sovereign's concerns, even though not the bearers of letters,
might pass between one part of the country and another. Of this second
purpose a few words implanted in the English language, such as
post-horse, post-boy, and travelling-post, are all that we have now left
to remind us. But long after the public had been admitted to the free
use of the post, the two objects of providing for letters and providing
for travellers continued to be treated as inseparable. Hence the history
of the posts during the seventeenth century and far into the eighteenth
becomes complicated with the history of travelling.[2]
[2] The two posts were, at first, distinguished by different names. The
travellers' post was called "The thorough poste," and the letter post
was called "The Poste for the Pacquet."
Indeed, there can be little doubt that it was as a means of travelling
and not as a means of correspondence that the post first came to be used
by others than those employed on affairs of State. Writing, during the
sixteenth century, was an accomplishment possessed by comparatively few,
whereas any one might have occasion to travel; and the resources of
travelling, so far as these partook of an organised system, were in the
hands of the Sovereign. Wherever there were posts, it was at the
Sovereign's charge and for the Sovereign's use that horses were
maintained; and where there were no posts, it was only for the use of
the Sovereign that the townships were under obligation to supply horses.
The natural consequence followed. People pretended to be travelling on
their Sovereign's affairs who were really travelling on affairs of their
own, and so procured the use of horses which would otherwise have been
denied them. The horses, moreover, were overridden and overloaded, and
the persons by whom they were hired not rarely forgot to pay for
them.[3]
[3] Austria, in the infancy of her post office, appears to have had much
the same experience. "The postmasters," writes M. Laeper, Director of
Posts at Markirch, "were in no way protected from the most outrageous
behaviour on the part of travellers, and were unable to prevent them
from overloading the horses and vehicles with unreasonably heavy things,
chests, boxes, and similar articles, by which the conveyance of the same
was delayed. They could not hinder many travellers from riding
heavily-laden horses at full speed over hill and dale without drawing
rein, so that the animals were crippled, disabled, or even ridden to
death, and in consequence the postmasters were frequently unable to
carry out the service for want of horses. The worst treatment, however,
which the postmasters experienced was at the hands of cavaliers and
couriers, who often demanded more horses than they needed, took them by
force, overloaded the coaches with two or three servants, and with an
immoderate quantity of luggage, and paid an arbitrary sum, just whatever
they pleased, often not half what was due."--L'Union Postale of October
1, 1885.
No sooner had James the First come to the throne than he issued a
proclamation having for its object to check these abuses. Only those
were to be deemed to be travelling on public affairs who held a special
commission signed by one or more of the principal officers of State. No
horse was to be ridden, in summer, above seven miles an hour, and in
winter above six; nor yet, without the knowledge and consent of the
owner, beyond the next stage. The load, besides the rider, was not to
exceed thirty pounds in weight. Persons riding with special commission
were to pay for each horse 2-1/2d. a mile, besides the guide's groats,
and "others riding poste with horse and guide about their private
businesses" were to make their own terms. In all cases payment was to be
made in advance. The proclamation contained another and most important
provision, the effects of which were felt far into the next century.
This was that, wherever posts existed, those who had the horsing of the
posts were also to have the exclusive letting of horses to travellers.
If the post-houses could not supply horses enough, the local constables
with the assistance of the magistrates were to make good the deficiency.
The proclamation of 1603 was soon followed by another, prohibiting all
persons not being duly authorised by the Master of the Posts from being
concerned in the collecting, carrying, or delivering of letters. The
effect, therefore, of the two proclamations together was that, except by
private hand, no letter and, except along the bye-roads where posts did
not exist, no traveller could pass between one part of the kingdom and
another without coming under the observation of the Government. It has
been suggested that the State monopoly of letters had its origin in a
desire on the part of the Sovereign to reserve to himself the revenue
which the letters brought; but in 1609, when the monopoly was created,
the posts were maintained at a clear loss to the crown of L3400 a year,
and this loss, as matters then stood, the erection of every fresh post
would serve to increase. However it may have been in after years, the
original object of the monopoly, the object avowed indeed and
proclaimed, was that the State might possess the means of detecting and
defeating conspiracies against itself. A system such as this object
implies is absolutely abhorrent to our present notions; and yet it is a
fact beyond all question that the posts in their infancy were regarded
and largely employed as an instrument of police. It was not until the
reign of William the Third that they began to assume their present shape
of a mere channel for the transmission of letters.
But we are anticipating. In 1609 the cloud which obscures the earlier
history of the posts begins to break, and from that year it is possible
to present a tolerably connected narrative of their progress.