A1-The Great North Road
Honeybone records early days of The Post in his history of Grantham:
By 1600 the main road to London certainly went through Grantham. There is evidence for this in a letter written by Lord Scrope to Sir Robert Cecil in 1603. He wrote on the outside of the letter: ‘For the King’s special affairs: at Langer the 28th April at 6 before noone. Hast post for life, life, life. Th. Scroope.’ As the letter was carried south by post- boys so the post-masters endorsed it: ‘Grantham the 28th at past 7 in the morning the sele craked afore it came to me. Witham the 28 at ix in the morning. Stamford the 28 at x in the forenoon. Stilton the 28th at past 12 in the at noone. Huntingdon the 28 at 3 afternoone Caxton the 28 at 4 afternoone. Ware at 8 in the evening’. This letter moved fast: doubtless the Grantham postmaster was being careful as he (or his predecessor) had been charged with negligence in 1589 in transmitting the dispatch from Berwick to to London. The postmaster in 1642 was Richard Leeming, the tenant of the Angel Inn and Alderman in 1666. He was appointed to serve ‘the King’s through post at Grantham’ at a salary of 1s 8d a day.
Let's take a quick look through the history of The Post:
There are two ways of getting a written message from one person to another; either get someone to carry it all the way or set up a relay system in which the letter is passed from one person to another with each person only travelling a short distance while the letter goes all the way. The first method has the advantage that it is as secure and reliable as the person you chose to employ as your courier. Its disadvantage is that it can be slow and expensive. Slow because the courier needs to sleep, expensive because the courier may be employed for a long time to carry just one letter. The second method has the advantage of speed. Each message carrier, or his horse, can sprint a short distance and then, when tired, hands on the letter to the next stage in the relay. The message travels at the speed that a horse can travel a short distance. A further advantage comes with the economies of scale if it can be arranged that several letters are carried together. The disadvantage is the organization required. Each link in the relay needs to be ready and waiting. The cost of employing all the stages to be on standby is only realistic if a lot of letters are carried.
The word 'post' comes from the Roman system that involved a relay of messengers waiting at their positions or 'posts', but the idea had been around long before the Romans. Posts were used in Ancient Egypt and developed in Syria where they outlasted civilizations. According to the International Museum of the Horse, Caesar once covered 800 miles in ten days on one of the Roman roads, and a courier on horseback could cover 360 miles in two and a half days. Horse and mule carts averaged five to six miles per hour. Mail carts and wagons conveyed the post from town to town. This speed of transportation remained unequalled until the 19th century. Some of the roads, for instance, the Appian Way in Italy, are still in use today. Roman mail coaches were often covered so that the officials who travelled in them could sleep inside. In Britain, after the Romans left at the start of the 5th century, there was no organization capable of running a post and probably not much demand for one, throughout the Dark Ages. With the establishment of Norman rule messages still had to be sent by an individual courier and it was not until Tudor time that we see the beginnings of a post. Perhaps surprisingly, it was often found that a foot messenger could travel faster than a horse. Horses are quick over short distances but do not have much stamina and over long distances are slower. If a messenger could requisition a series of horses maximum speed could be achieved.
The Tudor kings took the power to demand that a message be carried. The citizens along the route were compelled to provide horses and were compensated by a payment, typically of 1d per mile. A disadvantage of this system was that it only worked one way, from the King and court outwards. Officials around the country did not have the power to send a message back in a similar way and there was nothing in it for the ordinary people. At first the systems were set up temporarily, at times of crisis but the foundations of a permanent postal system were laid by Henry VIII around 1512 when he appointed sir Brian Tuke his 'Master of the Posts' and began to maintain relays of horses and messengers on important routes. Officially only the court could use them, so Robert Aske, the leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a catholic uprising in Yorkshire opposed to the dissolution of the monasteries, on being summoned to London in 1536 laid private relays at Ware, Huntingdon and Lincoln, in order that, if he were arrested, news might be sent at once to his adherents. Aske was executed so it didn't do him much good. Sir Robert Cary, in anticipation of Queen Elizabeth's death, had evidently laid private stages all the way to Edinburgh, in order that he might be the first to hail her successor. Cary reached Edinburgh in about 48 hours and fared rather better than Aske. Increasing numbers of private letters were carried as the Tudor era progressed.
A problem was the cost. The rate of 1d per mile was insufficient to maintain a horse (or the two or three horses demanded as traffic increased). The post men needed to enhance their living by taking on private work. This was gradually acknowledged during the Elizabethan era and legislation allowed the carrying of private mail so long as the royal mail took precedence. Charles I opened his posts to the public in 1635, partly as a means of raising money, and founded the 'Letter Office of England and Scotland'. To develop the network he appointed Thomas Witherings as Postmaster. Progress was interrupted by the Civil War but then Cromwell restored and improved the system. Charles II's Postmaster General, Henry Bishop, timed the progress of mail by using postmarks; at each stage the postmaster marked the letter with the time and place and entered details in a ledger. Thereby the Post Office could detect inefficient posting stages and slow carriers. Legislation to make the Post Office the monopoly carrier of letters had by now also been developed, allowing the system to run at a profit or, as some would argue, to be a form of taxation.
The Post Office Act of 1660 was a key piece of legislation. Here is the pertinent, if lengthy, sentence from Douglas's English Historical Documents.
An Act for Erecting and Establishing a Post Office
Whereas for the maintenance of mutual correspondencies and prevention of many inconveniencies happening by private posts several public post offices have been heretofore erected for carrying and recarrying of letters by posts to and from all parts and places within England, Scotland and Ireland and several parts beyond the seas, the well-ordering whereof is a matter of general concernment and of great advantage as well for preservation of trade and commerce as otherwise, to the end therefore that the same may be managed so that speedy and safe dispatches may be had, which is most likely to be effected by erecting one general post office for that purpose, be it therefore enacted that there be from henceforth one general letter office erected and established in some convenient place within the city of London, from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent unto any part of the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland or any other of his Majesty's dominions, or unto any kingdom or country beyond the seas, at which said office all returns and answers may be likewise received, and that one master of the said general letter office shall be from time to time appointed by the king's Majesty, his heirs and successors, to be made or constituted by letters patents under the great seal of England by the name and style of his Majesty's Postmaster General, which said master of the said office and his deputy and deputies by him thereunto sufficiently authorized, and his and their servants and agents and no other person or persons whatsoever, shall from time to time have the receiving, taking up, ordering, dispatching, sending post or with speed and delivering of all letters and packets whatsoever which shall from time to time be sent to and from all and every parts and places of England, Scotland and Ireland and other his Majesty's dominions, and to and from all and every the kingdoms and countries beyond the seas where he shall settle or cause to be settled posts or running messengers for that purpose, except such letters as shall be sent by coaches, common known carriers of goods by carts, waggons or pack horses, and except letters of merchants and masters which shall be sent by any masters of any ships, barques or other vessel of merchandise, and also except letters to be sent by and private friend or friends in their ways of journey, or by and messenger or messengers sent on purpose for or concerning the private affairs of any person or persons, and also except messengers who carry and recarry commissions or the return thereof, affidavits, writs, process or proceedings or the returns thereof issuing out of any court.
The same Act also set various postage rates. There seems to have been a basic rate of two pence for distances under 'fourscore English miles' and three pence for greater distances. The Great North Road gets a special mention with: And for the port of every letter not exceeding one sheet from England unto the town of Berwick, or from thence to the city of London, three pence of English money...
In 1680 a London Businessman, William Dockwra, started a Penny Post within London and Westminster. There were fifteen deliveries a day but letters posted after nine at night would not be delivered until next morning. Tell that to Consignia. The service was soon seen as a rival to the state monopoly and was absorbed into the Royal Mail.
Until the early 18th century the Post was still based on the Tudor post routes, radiating from London to Dover, Plymouth, Holyhead, and Berwick, via York, the Great North Road. Many important towns were not directly linked, the mail between them went going via London. The network was greatly expanded during the 18th century but letters were still carried by postboys, who were not always as reliable as required. In 1784 the Post Office replaced them with fast, efficient, well-guarded mail coaches. This allowed the carriage of four passengers and parcels as well the letters, now kept securely in a locked box at the feet of an armed guard. John Palmer, a theatrical manager who ran his own private stage coaches between London and Bath, introduced the changes though not without some considerable controversy and opposition from those whose interest lay in the status quo. Here is a letter of the time.
The cost of sending letters was based on the mileage and the number of sheets of paper. Envelopes were not used, the paper being folded, addressed on the outside and sealed with wax. Members of Parliament had the right to 'frank' their letters allowing them to be carried free. This was a greatly abused privilege as all the MP's friends and relations sent their post similarly franked. Early in the 19th century, local delivery networks grew, mail collection points increased and many local Penny Posts were established. The payment was usually collected from the recipient.
In 1839 Rowland Hill proposed a system of uniform penny postage. Franking was ended and letters were charged by weight at a flat rate, regardless of distance. The sender paid and soon the method of indicating that payment had been made was established. The adhesive postage stamp, firstly the Penny Black, officially came in to use on 6th May 1840.
There is lots of information about letterboxes from Paul Wicks at PULP and loads of photos and useful links to other post related websites.
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2002