Posting a letter in Regency England was not as simple as walking down to the local post office and dropping off a stamped letter. Prior to January 10, 1840, stamps did not exist. Inked hand stamps applied to the letter indicated such information as whether it had been sent POSTPAID, UNPAID, PAID AT (city), PENNY POST, TOOLATE, 1dDUE or FREE, or what post office had collected the letter and what mileage it would cover. The 'letter box' itself only came into use after 1794, and did not become compulsory until after 1811. (The box consisted of a slit in the wall of the receiving house, which opened into a locked box. Private boxes could be hired in some towns for as little as 1/2d per letter to 4d per letter.)
The letter itself differed from its
modern form. The letter usually
comprised a single sheet (sometimes folded once in the middle to make a
booklet-like page). This was folded in
thirds, then the ends were folded together, with one end tucked inside another. Hot wax dripped onto the joining ends sealed
the letter. The address or direction
would be written on the front and rarely went beyond Name, Town (or house
name), County. In London, a street might be indicated.
To save money, correspondents often
wrote down the page, then turned it and wrote across their previous writing. Thrifty souls would turn it yet again and write diagonally across everything
else, producing a nearly illegible mess. This was called crossing and recrossing one's lines. The postmaster receiving the letter would
write on the envelope the postage due by whoever received the letter.
On Monday August 2, 1784, the Post began to change when John Palmer's first Mail Coach left the Rummer Tavern in Bristol at four o'clock PM, carrying the mail and four passengers (which later became seven passenger, with four inside). Palmer had long advocated postal reform and expansion. Increases in commerce, industry and population demanded it. After his friend William Pitt became Prime Minister, Palmer got authority to try his reform ideas.
Palmer's Mail Coach reached Bath at
five-twenty PM, and arrived in London at the Swan with Two Necks well before
eight o'clock the next morning to deliver mail to the Chief Post Office in
Lombard Street. The coach had traveled
119 miles in under sixteen hours, an incredible feat. Palmer received public acclaim and
bureaucratic stone-walling, including a record of criticism which ran to three
volumes of copperplate. However,
Palmer's Mail Coaches began to take hold.
By 1811, approximately 220 mail
coaches ran on regular schedules from London to various major cities. These coaches used the post roads and cross
post (post roads that did not pass through London), which could support the
light, fast coaches. The Post Office
continued its custom of farming out the job of postmaster, and letters still
had to make their own way between post towns. Coffee houses, inns along these routes, and even carriage makers, held
contracts to provide both horses at each stage, coaches and coachmen.
London had had its own General Post with local delivery since 1635 when Charles I opened the Royal Mail. In 1680, William Dockwra began his private Penny Post, named for the penny charge to mail any letter up to a pound. Two years later, the government took over and continued operation of the Penny Post. It comprised the cities of London and Westminster and the Borough of Southwark, covering letters received and delivered within ten miles, while the General Post serviced both London and the country side.
From 1680 to 1794, letters for
London's General Post had to be prepaid 1d.
This relaxed after 1794, with the condition that letters put into the
Penny Post for delivery by the General Post still had to be prepaid. Letters from the General Post for Penny Post
delivery were charged 1d on delivery, plus the General Post charge. In 1794, Parliament also lowered the weight
limit to four ounces for any 1d letter.
The General Post and Penny Post
remained separate organizations with their own letter carriers and receiving
houses (a large number of which happened to be stationers' shops). The only point of exchange came at the Chief
Post Office.
In 1792, Parliament gave letter
carriers for the General Post uniforms of scarlet coats with blue lapels, a
blue waistcoat and a tall hat with a golden band. Walking back from a delivery, the carrier
rang a large handbell to indicate he could collect letters for an extra charge
of 1d postage. The letters went into the
slit of a locked pouch for delivery to the Chief Post Office.
In 1794, London's five post offices
(Lime street, Westminster, St. Pauls, Temple and Bishopsgate) became two: the Chief Office in Abchurch Lane, Lombard
Street, and the Westminster Office in Gerrand Street, Soho. All London mail now passed through the Chief
Office. In addition, service expanded to
cover the seven rides surrounding London:
Mortlake, Woolwich, Woodford, Edmonton, Finchley, Brentford and Mitcham.
London post offered six collections
(at 8, 10 and 12 AM; 2, 5 and 8 PM) and daily deliveries. The clerk stamped letters received after
seven o'clock PM with that time or a TOO LATE stamp, for the window closed at
seven forty-five so that mail could be shorted and bagged by eight for the last
collection. The Chief Office charged an
extra sixpence for such letters, with other receiving offices setting their own
fee. Letters received at the Chief
Office on Lombard Street on Sunday were sorted and posted on Monday as there
were no Sunday deliveries.
From the Post Office on Lombard
Street, the blue and orange Mail Coaches departed every evening at eight. Passengers assembled at various inns
throughout London for departure at half past seven. The coaches then stopped in Lombard Street to
collect the mail and the guard, and departed London at eight PM. Lombard Street became so congested that by
1795 the six Western Road coaches began to leave from the Gloucester Coffee
House in Piccadilly at eight-thirty, with the guard and mail traveling to this
point from the Post Office.
In 1812, Cary's Itinerary listed 37
inns with stage and mail coach departures. By 1815, this grew to 44, with inns having as few as 3 or as many as 35
coaches departing. In 1815 alone, of the
20 coaches leaving the Angel Inn, St. Clement's, Strand in London, five are
daily post coaches and four are daily Royal Mail coaches.
The Bull and Mouth, Bull and Mouth
Street, boasted the record of having thirty-five coaches departing, including
the Royal Mail to Edinburgh, while the Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, listed
the original Bath and Bristol coach, the Royal Mail to Bath, the Brighton Post
Coach, and the Prince Regent coach to Dover and Paris.
POSTAL
RATES - LONDON
1794 1801 1805 - 1831
Within
Town Area 1d 1d 2d
Town
to Country,
or within Country 2d 2d 3d
Country
to Town 1d 2d 3d
Town
to General Post 1d 1d 2d
Country
area to General Post 1d 1d 2d
General
Post
delivered by P.P. in town free free free
General
Post
delivered in Country free 1d 2d
Since the post office's beginning, its revenues went to the crown, which held the right to grant the privilege of signing a letter and having it posted for free. This practice, known as franking, extended to both Houses of Parliament and certain officials.
In 1764, postal revenues were given to
Parliament in return for the crown being able to submit a Civil List to award
honors. Thereafter, Parliament
authorized Free Franking. Letters were
stamped FREE when franked. Nearly
everyone abused the privilege. Most
considered a stack of signed blank sheets from a Member of Parliament's to be a
common present after a short visit. Franks
could also be issued, by law, by certain public offices both in London and
abroad.
To curb abuse, Parliament made forgery
of franks a felony, punishable by transportation for seven years. As of 1784, reforms required all franked
letters to have the signature, as well as the place and date of posting written
at the top by the person franking it.
Limits on the numbers of letters that could be franked were imposed, but
how could a lowly postmaster tell an undersecretary not to frank more than ten
letters a year?
During these years, 1780's to early
1800's, it became a hobby among some well-bred ladies to collect franking
signatures from letters. Rather the
Regency equivalent of collecting autographs. Some ladies strove for a broad collection, while others specialized in
particular friends, MPs or relatives.
Prior to 1836, newspapers and some
other printed material such as charity letters and educational materials
could be also franked for free postage to postmasters by the six Clerks of the
Road. A tax of 4d had been imposed to
cover the cost to handle newspapers.
However, publishers were not shy about franking their own
newspapers. Booksellers, after
Parliament imposed higher postage rates in 1711, also wrote the names of
Members of Parliament for free postage, with the approval of the postal
Surveyors appointed in 1715, who administered function and facilities of the
postal roads.
In addition to franking, from 1795,
Parliament granted privileged rates to those serving in the Army, Navy and
Militia, with no letter charged a rate higher than 1d. Over the year, this extended to every branch
of military service, including, in 1815, the soldiers and seamen employed by
the East India Company.
While privileged rates continued for
the armed services, all free franking was abolished with the introduction of
the penny postage stamp in 1840, which marked the beginning of the modern post
office as we know it.
REFERENCES
The
Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland (1980)
R.M
Willcocks & B. Jay ISBN: 0-9502797
English
Provincial Posts (1633-1840) (1978)
Brian
Austen ISBN: 0-85033-266-4
England's
Postal History to 1840 (1975)
R.M.
Willcocks ISBN: 0-9502797-1-4
British
Postal Rates, 1635 to 1839
O.R.
Sanford and Denis Salt ISBN:
0-85377-021-2
The
Postal History Society
United
Kingdom Letter Rates 1657-1900 Inland & Overseas
C.
Tabeart ISBN:0-905222-58-X
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