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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58717 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+ POST IN GRANT AND FARM
+
+
+[_All Rights Reserved_]
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+
+ EARLY HISTORY OF THE POST
+
+ IN GRANT AND FARM
+
+ BY
+ J. WILSON HYDE
+ CONTROLLER IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH
+
+ AUTHOR OF
+ "THE ROYAL MAIL: ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE"
+ AND "A HUNDRED YEARS BY POST"
+
+ LONDON
+ ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
+ 1894
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+There has not hitherto been published any detailed account of the
+first establishment, in this country, of the Post Office as a public
+institution; nor does it appear that anything has been made known of
+the men who were instrumental in building up this useful fabric, in the
+years of its infancy, beyond the barren mention of their names. In some
+cases, moreover, in such bald notices as have been given of the early
+posts, important names are wholly omitted, and in others the names of
+men are associated with events in which they had little concern. What
+is disclosed in the following pages is an attempt not only to give
+a fairly full and true account of the first forty years' existence
+of the Inland Posts in Britain, but to tell something of the men to
+whom the credit is due of contriving and bringing into working shape
+this great machine of public convenience and utility. The facts here
+narrated are collected from the Public Records, original documents,
+and other authentic sources. In the extracts which have been made from
+original papers, modern orthography, as being more convenient for the
+reader, has been generally employed; but in a few cases the tone and
+flavour of the antique have been retained in the original spelling.
+
+I have to acknowledge with gratitude the very kindly assistance given
+me by librarians, not only in Edinburgh but elsewhere, and by other
+gentlemen in public positions, who have assisted me in clearing up
+points of difficulty.
+
+ Edinburgh, 1894.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER I
+
+ PAGE
+
+ The King's Post--John Stanhope's patent, 1590 1
+
+ Wages of Chief Postmaster--Confusion of terms
+ "post," "packet," etc. 2
+
+ Charles I. in need of money--Offices bought and sold--Scope
+ of Lord Stanhope's patent 4
+
+ New office created of Postmaster for Foreign Posts,
+ out of the king's dominions 5
+
+ De Quester and his son appointed Foreign Postmasters 6
+
+ Contest between Stanhope and the De Questers--Who
+ the De Questers were 7
+
+ William Frizell and Thomas Witherings succeed the
+ De Questers 8
+
+ Letters for the public carried by the Foreign Postmasters--Delays
+ of the posts 11
+
+ Philip Burlamachi, subsequently Acting Postmaster--Who
+ he was 13
+
+ Orders for the Foreign Posts drawn up by Secretary
+ Coke 14
+
+ Witherings visits the Continent 15
+
+ Posts by estafette, or fixed stages, established--Dover
+ packet 16
+
+ Quarrels between Witherings and others--Witherings
+ suspended from office 17
+
+ Witherings and Frizell contend for possession of the
+ office 19
+
+ Sir John Coke, Witherings' patron 21
+
+ Conflicting opinions of Witherings 22
+
+ Merchants petition in favour of Witherings 23
+
+ Attempts to set up rival posts 24
+
+
+ CHAPTER II
+
+ Witherings recovers his office 27
+
+ Settlement of accounts during period of sequestration 28
+
+ Post stages in France 29
+
+ Robberies of Channel packets 30
+
+ Measures taken to resist attacks--More outrages 33
+
+ People of Calais attack the English packet boat 39
+
+ Armed packet boat, the _Speedy Post_, provided 42
+
+ Witherings' family connection 43
+
+ Stated to have been a papist, and Gentleman Harbinger
+ to the Queen 44
+
+ Probable interest at Court--Said to have been a mercer
+ of London--His wife--She assists in purchasing
+ his office--Value of money in middle of seventeenth
+ century 45
+
+ Corruption and Court favouritism 46
+
+ Inland Posts 47
+
+ Means for sending inland letters--Probable conveyance
+ by postmasters on their own account 48
+
+ Conveyance by carriers 49
+
+ Postmasters on Western Road set up a chain of posts
+ for letters of the public, 1630--Foot post from
+ Barnstaple to Exeter to work into the London
+ posts 50
+
+ Project for Inland Public Posts, 1633--Estimated
+ number of letters then reaching London 52
+
+ Troubles with postmasters and hackneymen on Dover
+ Road as to charges 53
+
+ Pressing of horses--Difficulties between postmasters
+ and public 54
+
+ Stanhope interferes with the public conveyance of
+ letters by the Western postmasters--He tries to
+ raise the price of purchase of their offices 57
+
+ Petition of Foreign Post messengers dismissed by
+ Witherings 59
+
+ Foot post between London and Dover--Carrying gold
+ out of the realm 60
+
+ Speed of posts, 1633 62
+
+ Condition of roads and difficulty of travelling 63
+
+ Quality of English horses and riders 68
+
+
+ CHAPTER III
+
+ Witherings propounds a scheme of Inland Posts for
+ use of public, 1635 69
+
+ Proclamation issued for giving effect to his proposals 75
+
+ Probable difficulties of working 77
+
+ Deputy postmasters unable to supply fit horses 78
+
+ Arrears of deputies' pay 80
+
+ Stanhope's removal from office, 1637 85
+
+ He petitions for arrears of pay 86
+
+ Reasons for his removal suggested 88
+
+ The manner of his removal 90
+
+ Patent granted to Witherings for Foreign Letter Office 91
+
+ Stanhope's place granted to Secretaries Coke and
+ Windebank 92
+
+ Witherings appointed their Deputy--Claim to Stanhope's
+ late office by Endymion Porter 93
+
+ Servile language of the period 96
+
+ William Lake applies for some benefit in the Post Office 100
+
+ Deputy Postmaster of the Court 101
+
+ Scale of wages allowed to deputy postmasters 104
+
+ Direct courses of old roads 107
+
+ New regulations for the posts, July 1637 108
+
+ The king's troubles in Scotland 121
+
+ The mails run _thick_ 122
+
+ Women oppose the introduction of the Service-Book 122
+
+ Plague at Hull, 1637 125
+
+ Method of disinfecting letters 126
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV
+
+ The Secretaries consider as to the removal of Witherings--Reasons
+ for proposed removal 127
+
+ Troubles with public carriers--Carriers contend for
+ their right to convey letters 129
+
+ They are supported by the Norwich merchants 131
+
+ Concessions made to the carriers 133
+
+ Jason Grover, carrier, imprisoned 135
+
+ Proclamation settling Witherings' office 138
+
+ Complaints made by postmasters 140
+
+ Demands for horses 145
+
+ Complaints against postmasters made by the public 146
+
+ Traffic in postmasterships 153
+
+ More petitions from postmasters 155
+
+ Witherings quarrels 156
+
+ Difficulty with the Earl of Northumberland 158
+
+
+ CHAPTER V
+
+ Sickness of Witherings and his reported death--Philip
+ Burlamachi applies for Witherings' office 161
+
+ Divisions in the kingdom 163
+
+ Proposed opening of post letters 164
+
+ Burlamachi's services to the King's party 165
+
+ Fight for the possession of a post letter 166
+
+ A proposed duel over the seizing of post horses 169
+
+ Packet boat employed between Whitehaven and
+ Dublin--Witherings' office sequestered 173
+
+ Attacks upon Witherings 175
+
+ Nature of charges made against him 177
+
+ The Secretaries of State try to undo Witherings--Witherings
+ imprisoned--Assigns an interest in his
+ place to the Earl of Warwick 179
+
+ Committee of the House of Commons to consider
+ question of the Posts--Deliverance in favour of
+ Witherings as regards the Foreign Letter Office 181
+
+ Deliverance respecting the Inland Posts 182
+
+ Decision against Witherings, Coke, and Windebank,
+ in regard to imprisonment of carriers 183
+
+ Rough treatment of Witherings 185
+
+ Earl of Warwick urges ejection of Burlamachi 186
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI
+
+ Inland Letter Office to be delivered to Earl of Warwick 187
+
+ Burlamachi required to produce accounts 188
+
+ Mails to be seized and delivered to the Earl of
+ Warwick 189
+
+ Burlamachi imprisoned--He produces accounts 190
+
+ Foreign Letter Office remains with Witherings, the
+ Inland Letter Office with the Earl of Warwick 191
+
+ James Hickes, clerk in the Foreign Letter Office--Goes
+ over to the King at Oxford 192
+
+ King Charles sets up an independent system of Posts 193
+
+ Imprisonment of Hickes 195
+
+ Witherings assessed by Committee for Advance of Money 196
+
+ Earl of Warwick removed from the Post Office, and
+ Mr. Prideaux ordered to settle post stages 197
+
+ Orders to search the mails--Witherings to prosecute
+ Wilkes for seditious speeches 198
+
+ Witherings prosecuted on a charge of taking part in
+ an insurrection in Essex 199
+
+ He is acquitted--Has a serious illness, and makes his
+ will 200
+
+ Packet boat taken by the Irish--Irish packets in 1650 201
+
+ The Council recommend that the Posts be in the sole
+ power and disposal of Parliament 202
+
+ Council of State place Mr. Prideaux, Attorney-General,
+ in charge of the Inland Posts--Witherings still
+ enjoys the Foreign Letter Office 203
+
+ Serjeant-at-Arms ordered to search the mails 204
+
+ Vigilance of the Council 205
+
+ Council consider the question of the Foreign Letter
+ Office 206
+
+ Renewed charges of delinquency against Witherings 207
+
+ Witherings alleges malicious prosecution--He is
+ acquitted 209
+
+ Contributes £1000 "to the going-away of the Lord-Lieutenant
+ for Ireland" 210
+
+ Witherings' death--Epitaph to Witherings in church at
+ Hornchurch, Essex 211
+
+ His character and work 213
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII
+
+ Council of State to consider question of the Inland
+ and Foreign Posts 216
+
+ Foreign Letter Office carried on for behoof of Witherings'
+ son and nephew 217
+
+ Rival claimants for possession of the Posts, Inland and
+ Foreign 218
+
+ Suggestions made by the Committee for the Management
+ of the Posts--The Posts to be farmed and
+ tenders called for 219
+
+ Tenders 222
+
+ Council of State let the Posts--Inland and Foreign--on
+ farm to John Manley 223
+
+ Rival posts 224
+
+ The "first undertakers" for reducing the postage 225
+
+ Prideaux's agents murder a post-boy 228
+
+ The "first undertakers" drive Prideaux out of the
+ field 229
+
+ Council furnish Manley with warrant to take possession
+ of the Posts 231
+
+ His method of taking possession 232
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII
+
+ Manley at the head of the Posts--Who he was 234
+
+ John Thurloe, Secretary of State, to manage the Post
+ Office 235
+
+ Act passed for Post Office, 1657 235
+
+ Postage rates 236
+
+ Post Office farmed to Thurloe--Interception of letters 237
+
+ Mails violated 238
+
+ Mails searched for counterfeit gold--Value of Post
+ Office to ruling powers 240
+
+ Thurloe removed from the Post Office 241
+
+ The Farm passes to Dr. Benjamin Worsley 243
+
+ His previous employments 244
+
+ Worsley turned out of the Post Office 245
+
+ Thomas Scott controls the Post Office 246
+
+ Scott a regicide--His execution 247
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX
+
+ Colonel Henry Bishop obtains the Farm--Who he was 249
+
+ His burial-place--Some conditions of the Farm 250
+
+ Clement Oxenbridge's influence at the Post Office 251
+
+ Scramble for places at the Restoration 252
+
+ Some petitions 253
+
+ Disaffected staff in the Post Office 256
+
+ Number of officers 258
+
+ Letters first stamped 260
+
+ Charges against Bishop 262
+
+ Bishop ceases to be Farmer 264
+
+ Colonel Dan. O'Neale succeeds to the office 266
+
+ O'Neale's previous career 267
+
+ Attempts to put down irregularities 269
+
+ Independence of the Edinburgh Deputy 271
+
+ Profits of Post Office settled on Duke of York 272
+
+
+ CHAPTER X
+
+ Music at the Post Office 273
+
+ The Plague of London 277
+
+ Petition of James Hickes 280
+
+ The Great Fire of London 282
+
+ Locations of the Post Office 283
+
+ Labels or post-boys' way-bills 284
+
+ Stages from London to Berwick 286
+
+ Times of transit of Continental Mails 287
+
+ News collected through the Post Office 287
+
+ Rate of travelling by post-boys in 1666 291
+
+ Notice taken of neglects 291
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI
+
+ Lord Arlington becomes Postmaster-General 293
+
+ His Deputy Postmasters-General 294
+
+ Country deputies pay a fine for continuance in office 296
+
+ Reduction of salaries 297
+
+ Early post-office letter-books preserved 300
+
+ Colonel Roger Whitley appointed Arlington's Deputy 300
+
+ Wages further reduced--Exemptions enjoyed by
+ Deputies 305
+
+ Dilatoriness of the deputies in making payments 307
+
+ Delays of mails in Wales 308
+
+ Advantages of farming the Post Office 310
+
+ Conciliatory character of Whitley 311
+
+ Whitley pushes business 313
+
+ By-letters 315
+
+ Whitley's opinion of attorneys 317
+
+ On Conformity 318
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII
+
+ Caustic correspondence 319
+
+ Liverpool's first horse-post 320
+
+ Circulation of Irish letters 321
+
+ One delivery a day in London 322
+
+ The Packet Service 323
+
+ An express way-bill 325
+
+ Ship letters 325
+
+ Irregular conduct of masters of packet boats 327
+
+ Tonnage of packets 329
+
+ Proposed transit through England of letters from
+ Flanders and Holland to Spain and Portugal 330
+
+ Whitley's sympathy for his seamen 331
+
+ Want of accommodation for letters at the post-houses 332
+
+ Careless treatment of the mails 334
+
+ Young post-boys 336
+
+ Lame horses 337
+
+ Whitley's care for Members of Parliament 338
+
+ Foreign craftsmen brought over in packet boats 339
+
+ Salary of post-master of Edinburgh 340
+
+ Accidents to post riders 341
+
+ Treatment of Dead Letters 341
+
+ Whitley's obliging nature 343
+
+ His views of the wicked rebellion 344
+
+ Presents made to Whitley 345
+
+ Whitley's love of oysters 349
+
+ Delayed payment for conveying expresses 350
+
+ Duke of York a Postmaster-General 351
+
+
+
+
+THE POST IN GRANT AND FARM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+In order to understand the circumstances under which the public postal
+service in England was first established, it is necessary to go back
+to an earlier period, and look at the patents granted to the Chief
+Postmasters, whose duties did not then go beyond the forwarding of
+despatches for the monarch or his government. A patent granted by
+Queen Elizabeth in 1590 to John Stanhope, as Master of the Posts, was
+surrendered to James I. in 1607, and (with the view, no doubt, of
+securing the succession to Stanhope's son) a new patent was granted
+to Stanhope, now Lord Stanhope of Harrington, and to Charles, his son
+and heir-apparent. The appointment was as "Master of the Messengers and
+Runners, commonly called the king's posts, as well within the kingdom
+as in parts beyond the seas, within the king's dominions." The nominal
+wages or fee attaching to this office amounted to £66, 13s. 4d. per
+annum, being the same as was granted to the Postmasters Sir William
+Paget and John Mason in the year 1545. But there were casualties
+attaching to the office, yielding a more certain income, which were
+doubtless the sums paid by the deputies for admittance to their
+employments. This will be referred to hereafter.
+
+In studying the post-office history of this early period, the inquirer
+is apt to be misled by some of the terms used; for the words "post,"
+"postmaster," "pacquett," and the like, were not always applied in the
+modern sense, the word "post" sometimes serving to designate common
+carriers, and "postmaster" being used indifferently to indicate the
+Master of the Posts and the postmasters on the roads. The word pacquett
+was also applied to common carriers. An instance of the last mentioned
+is given in M'Dowall's _Chronicles of Lincluden_. A letter was written
+from the abbey on the 24th August 1625, to the "richte noble and verrie
+guid Lord the Earl of Nithisdaill," in which the following words
+appear:--They "intreat the richt guid lord to help them suddenly--at
+once; and more especially that he would procure an order from the
+King's Treasurer to stay the legal proceedings directed against them,
+until His Majesty's pleasure in the matter shall have been made known.
+Because of the urgency of their case, the noble lord is requested to
+favour them with an answer by a bearer of his own in the event of the
+ordinary 'pakett' being unavailable." Now the word "pakett" here does
+not refer to the post, but to the packman--the carrier--with his pack
+of goods. In what follows we shall endeavour, as far as possible, to
+use terms that will prevent any confusion of the kind indicated.
+
+The reign of Charles I. was one full of abuses. The king required
+money to maintain the excesses of his Court; his ministers were called
+upon to find the money; they themselves had to wring it out of the
+pockets of the people; and its passage through their hands produced
+such attenuation that but a small portion reached the royal coffers.
+Clarendon says that of £200,000 drawn from the subject in a year by
+various oppressions, scarcely £1500 came to the king's use or account.
+Monopolies in trade were granted for lump sums paid down, offices were
+bought and sold, no man seemed secure without support of a patron, and
+patronage was a marketable commodity.
+
+It will be remembered that Lord Stanhope's patent covered not only the
+control of the inland posts, but the posts in foreign parts, _within
+the kings dominions_. Although Stanhope was not by patent specifically
+empowered to send or work posts in foreign parts, _out of the kings
+dominions_, it appears to have been his practice to do so, undertaking,
+as may be supposed, all the various duties of conveying the king's
+letters and packets to whatever parts they might be directed.
+
+A somewhat similar condition of want of funds as that existing in the
+reign of Charles distinguished the reign of his father, James I.
+
+Now it is quite probable that, for the sole purpose of raising money by
+the sale of a new office, advantage was taken by James of an opening
+in Stanhope's patent, to make a new appointment of Master of the Posts
+in Foreign Parts, _out of the kings dominions_. By the recital of a
+patent bearing date the 30th April of the seventeenth year of James I.,
+we learn that the king "appointed that there should be an office or
+place called Postmaster of England for Foreign Parts, being out of the
+king's dominions; that the office should be a sole office by itself,
+and not member or part of any other office or place of Postmaster
+whatsoever; and that there should be one sufficient person or persons,
+to be by the king from time to time nominated and appointed, who should
+be called the Postmaster or Postmasters of England for Foreign Parts,
+etc.; and, for the considerations therein mentioned, the king appointed
+Mathew de Quester, and Mathew de Quester, his son, to the said office;
+to hold to them the said Mathew de Quester, the father, and Mathew de
+Quester, the son, as well by themselves, or either of them, as by their
+or either of their sufficient deputy or deputies, during the natural
+lives of Mathew de Quester, the father, and Mathew de Quester, the
+son, the said office of Postmaster of England for Foreign Parts, for
+their natural lives and the life of the survivor," etc.
+
+On the setting up of the De Questers, Stanhope was naturally unwilling
+to surrender part of the service which he had hitherto undertaken, and
+a long contest took place between Stanhope and these men, resulting, as
+it would appear, in confirming the latter in their new office, and in
+the discomfiture of Stanhope.
+
+Thus from the seventeenth year of the reign of James I. down to the
+period upon which we are about to enter, commencing in 1632, and for
+some years thereafter, there were in England two distinct Masters of
+the Posts--one for places within the kingdom itself and in foreign
+parts, within the king's dominions; the other for foreign parts, out of
+the king's dominions. Stanhope filled the one office, the De Questers
+the other.
+
+It is interesting to know who the people were that are now passing in
+review before us at this distant date. A return made to the Council
+by the Lord Mayor in 1635, of strangers inhabiting London, tells us
+something of the de Questers. It is this:--"In ward of Billingsgate,
+St. Andrew's parish. Mathew de Quester, late Postmaster, born in
+Bruges, of 64 years' continuance in London; naturalised by Act of
+Parliament. All his family English born." He was probably one of the
+many foreign merchants who at that period were gathered together in the
+neighbourhood of Lower Thames Street.
+
+By letters patent, dated 15th March 1632, the office of Master of the
+Posts for Foreign Parts, out of the king's dominions, was made to
+devolve upon William Frizell and Thomas Witherings. Mathew de Quester
+the younger had died, and the elder de Quester being stricken in age,
+"the king ... declares his will and pleasure, that the office shall
+have perpetual continuance, and grants unto William Frizell and Thomas
+Witherings, gentlemen, the office of place of Postmaster of England for
+Foreign Parts, out of the king's dominions; to do all things to the
+said office belonging and appertaining; to hold, exercise, and enjoy
+the said office of Postmaster of England for Foreign Parts, out of the
+king's dominions, together with all powers, etc., by themselves or
+either of them, or their or either of their sufficient deputies, during
+their natural lives and the life of the survivor, from and after and
+so soon as the said office shall become void by the death, surrender,
+forfeiture, or other determination of the estate of Mathew de Quester,
+the father. The king prohibits all persons other than the said William
+Frizell and Thomas Witherings from intruding themselves in the said
+office after the determination of the estate of Mathew de Quester;
+and the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports,
+the Secretaries of State, etc., in their several jurisdictions and
+places, are not only to be aiding and assisting the said Frizell and
+Witherings, but to the utmost of their power to repress all intruders."
+
+The patent, it will be observed, only vested the patentees in the
+office as from the death of de Quester; and de Quester the elder was
+still living. Accordingly, with a view to Frizell and Witherings being
+at once admitted to the active management of the place, a proclamation
+was issued, on the 19th July 1632, to the following effect:--
+
+"The late king appointed Mathew de Quester, the father, and Mathew
+de Quester, the son, Postmaster for Foreign Parts for their lives.
+Mathew de Quester, the son, being dead, and the father aged and infirm,
+he (that is, de Quester) has appointed William Frizell and Thomas
+Witherings his deputies. The king approves this substitution, and
+charges all his subjects that none of them, other than the said Frizell
+and Witherings, presume to take up or transmit foreign packets or
+letters."
+
+Thus Frizell and Witherings entered upon their office as Foreign
+Postmasters on the 19th of July 1632.
+
+It must be understood that, though there was no authority for carrying
+letters of the public at this time by the inland posts, it was the
+practice of the foreign posts to carry the letters of merchants and
+others to and from the Continent,--and the posts who actually conveyed
+the packets would seem to have been men engaged in mercantile traffic.
+The following letter, dated Westminster, 16th October 1632, from
+Humphrey Fulwood to Sir John Coke, Principal Secretary to His Majesty
+at Court, throws a good deal of light upon the subject:--
+
+"Upon inquiry of Mr. Burlamachi, what should be the cause why letters
+have not of late come from Germany, the Hague, and Brussels, as
+usually, he entered into a large relation of the present disorder of
+the posts. He imputed the fault merely to the posts who have heretofore
+bought their places. They more minding their own peddling traffic
+than the service of the State or merchants, omitting many passages,
+sometimes staying for the vending of their own commodities, many
+times through neglect by lying in tippling-houses. The opinions of
+Mr. Burlamachi and Mr. Peter Rycaut favourable to Mr. Witherings and
+Frizell in their places of Postmasters. For reformation they both agree
+in one, and that with the proposition wherewith Mr. Witherings hath
+formerly acquainted your honour. The displacing of these posts, and
+laying of certain and sure stages whereby His Majesty will save, as Mr.
+Burlamachi will make appear, above £1000 or £1500 yearly, now expended
+for expresses," etc.
+
+Mr. Burlamachi, whose Christian name was Philip, and Peter Rycaut were
+merchants in London, and would no doubt be well informed as to the way
+in which the mail service was conducted. In the Lord Mayor's return
+of foreigners residing in London in 1635, Burlamachi is described as
+follows:--"In the ward of Langbourne, in St. Gabriel, Fenchurch. Mr.
+Philip Burlamachi, merchant, naturalised by Act of Parliament. He was
+born in Sedan in France, and has been in England this thirty years
+and more. He hath certain rooms at Mr. Gould's house in Fenchurch
+Street, for his necessary occasions of writing there some two or three
+days in the week; but his dwelling-house, with his wife and children
+and family, is at Putney." Burlamachi, besides being a merchant, was
+a great financier, and, as will be seen hereafter, he had intimate
+relations in money matters with the Court.
+
+Not very long after the date of the letter above quoted, namely, on
+the 28th January 1633, the following orders for the Foreign Postmasters
+and packet posts were drawn up by Secretary Coke:--
+
+"In consequence of complaints, both of Ministers of State and
+merchants, it is thought fit to send no more letters by carriers who
+come and go at pleasure, but, in conformity with other nations, to
+erect 'staffetti' or packet posts at fit stages, to run day and night
+without ceasing, and to be governed by the orders in this paper. Among
+these it is provided that the Foreign Postmasters shall take the oaths
+of supremacy and allegiance, shall have an office in London, and
+shall give notice at what time the public are to bring their letters.
+A register is to be kept of the writers or bringers of all letters,
+and of the parties to whom they are sent. The letters are to be put
+into a packet or budget, which is to be locked up and sealed with the
+Postmasters' known seal, and to be sent off so that it may reach Dover
+while there is sufficient daylight for passage over sea the same day.
+Various other minute regulations are laid down, both for the carriage
+of the packet to Dover, the sending of the passage-barks to Calais, and
+the transmission from stage to stage. The course to be adopted with
+letters received from beyond seas is laid down with equal minuteness.
+Letters for the Government and foreign ministers residing here were to
+be immediately delivered to them, after which a roll or table of all
+other letters was to be set up in the office for every man to view and
+demand his letters."
+
+In pursuance of the scheme here sketched out, Witherings appears
+to have been sent to the Continent shortly thereafter; for on the
+8th April 1633, he writes from Calais (to Sir John Coke probably)
+describing the steps then taken in the business:--
+
+"Right honourable and my good patron, I found here the Countess Taxis'
+secretary with the postmaster of Ghent, they having settled stages
+betwixt Antwerp and Calais for the speedy conveyance of letters;
+they have placed a postmaster at Dunkirk, having dismissed all their
+couriers, and seven days hence they intend to begin by the way of
+'staphetto' (_estafette_) from Antwerp to London; their request is
+we shall do the like, which accordingly I have ordered my man to do,
+having taken order at Dover for the passage. The governor of this place
+promiseth me all favour.
+
+"The boatmen of this place who take their turns for Dover I find
+unwilling to be obliged to depart upon the coming of the portmantell.
+But upon the advice of Mr. Skinner and other merchants of our nation
+in this place, I have found out a very sufficient man, who will oblige
+himself, with security, that for forty shillings he will wait upon the
+coming of the packet, upon sight whereof he will depart, engaging
+himself to carry nothing but the said packet. Asks directions, and will
+stay till the first packet shall come by 'staphetto' from Antwerp."
+
+This then was the commencement of the forwarding of the continental
+mails by fixed and regular stages, instead of by carriers proceeding
+through the whole way, and engaged in other kinds of business.
+
+Witherings had not long entered upon his office, jointly with Frizell,
+when troubles began. In the year 1633, a curious complication came
+to light, in which not only Witherings and Frizell, but two or three
+other persons were involved, and which resulted in the temporary
+suspension of the Foreign Postmasters from their functions. The matter
+is referred to in a memorandum from the king to Secretary Windebank,
+dated August 1633. It runs thus: "The king having granted the place of
+Foreign Postmaster to his servant William Frizell, he has given the
+king to understand that, whilst he was beyond seas, Thomas Witherings
+endeavoured to defraud him of that place, the examination whereof
+the king has referred to Secretary Windebank. The king understands,
+moreover, that the place has been mortgaged for money, both by Frizell
+and Witherings, which he condemns in them both; and has therefore
+thought good, for the present, that the place shall be sequestered into
+the hands of Mathew de Quester, the king's ancient servant in that
+place. Windebank is therefore to send for John Hatt, an attorney, in
+whom the legal interest of that place, for the present, is vested, and
+to will him to make an assignment thereof to de Quester."
+
+Although the question of this sequestration was not finally disposed
+of till the year 1634, the period during which Witherings was removed
+from the active management and possession of the place was from
+the 4th September to the 28th December 1633. The details of the
+arrangement of this business are not easily understood, but it would
+seem that the first step was to get rid of the attorney; and with this
+in view the Earl of Arundel (the Earl Marshal) advanced about £1000
+to pay off Hatt, the earl retaining possession of Witherings' patent.
+Another claim was put forward by one Robert Kirkham for £200, due 25th
+May 1633, for a reversion of the Postmaster's office surrendered to
+Witherings and Frizell. This indebtedness was not denied by Witherings;
+but how there came to be a reversion in favour of Kirkham does not
+appear.
+
+Prior to the difficulties in connection with the suspension of
+Witherings and Frizell from office, these two men were not getting
+along smoothly. On 5th June 1633, Witherings writes to (Secretary Coke
+probably) ... "I hear Mr. Frizell declares that the Lord Marshal will,
+by His Majesty's means, compel me to deliver the place back again,
+and pretends he will have a bout with me for my own moiety. I beseech
+you move His Majesty as occasion shall offer, for I am confident the
+king will be much moved for (in favour of) Mr. Frizell." On 19th June
+of the same year, Witherings writes to Humphrey Fulwood: "Mr. Frizell
+is at the Court, pretending that Witherings owes him a great sum,
+and intending to move His Majesty for a proclamation for possession
+of the whole place (of Deputy Foreign Postmaster), offering security
+to be accountable if it be recovered from him again. Witherings owes
+him nothing. He has sent the affidavit of Frizell's own servant to
+Secretary Coke. Prays Fulwood to speak to Mr. Secretary that Witherings
+suffer not in his absence." On the 3rd July, Witherings again writes
+to Fulwood: "To answer all Frizell's allegations would be troublesome.
+Upon their meeting, Frizell spoke of paying Witherings back his money;
+but he is not able. Assures Fulwood that he can clear himself--with
+the help of his noble friends he doubts nothing. Desires Fulwood to
+sift him (Frizell presumably), for the knowledge of his intents doth
+much advance Witherings." Then on the same day, as it happens, the Earl
+of Arundel, who was at Stirling with the king, writes to Secretary
+Windebank: "Mr. Frizell's business is referred to Windebank to examine
+and report to the king. Needs not entreat him to do Frizell favour,
+since his case is so well understood, and the foulness of Witherings'
+abuse, which the writer is confident Windebank will represent as it
+deserves."
+
+Sir John Coke seems to have been the patron and protector of
+Witherings, who, in a letter to Coke about this time, concludes his
+communication with the words: "I rest, though never rest, to pray for
+your honour as my only patron." In a letter sent by Coke to Windebank
+on the 25th May 1633, Witherings is introduced to the latter thus:
+"The bearer is the Postmaster who went over to Antwerp and Calais
+and settled the business of the foreign letters. He has settled with
+Frizell's assignee, so as the charge of the office is again reduced
+to one hand. Frizell never did any service in the place, but the
+king never till now heard of Witherings' name. How he satisfied the
+merchants, their testimony witnesses; how he acquitted himself at the
+Council Board, their Order declares. He complains that he is now called
+again upon some reference which His Majesty remembers not. Secretary
+Coke must avow that hitherto he has carried himself honestly and with
+general approbation." The settling with Frizell's assignee may possibly
+refer to the paying-off of Attorney Hatt by means of money found by the
+Earl Marshal already referred to.
+
+The criticisms made upon Witherings at this time are somewhat
+conflicting, and on that account it is not by any means easy to
+determine what sort of a man he was. On the 31st May 1633, Secretary
+Windebank writes: "Mr. Witherings the Postmaster's industry and
+dexterity for that place appeared at the Council-table by many
+testimonies, in the midst of much powerful opposition. Mr. Witherings
+misbehaved himself toward my Lord Marshal and his son, the Lord
+Maltravers, and how he will be able to give them satisfaction I know
+not." On 9th June, Lord Goring, Master of the Horse to the Queen,
+writes: "I must highly commend the extraordinary care of the posts; and
+especially Mr. Witherings, the Master, of whose care Her Majesty hath
+taken most especial notice, for he is indeed the most diligent in his
+services that ever I saw."
+
+In commendation of Witherings' plans and work, a petition was presented
+to the Council in April 1633, signed by fifty-four merchants in
+London, to the following effect:--"By their Order (the Council's Order)
+of the 6th February 1633, it was determined that letters should be
+sent by _staffeto_ or pacquet posts; according to which Order Thomas
+Witherings, one of the Postmasters for Foreign Parts, has, by consent
+of foreign states, settled the conveyance of letters from stage to
+stage, to go night and day, as has been continued in Germany and Italy;
+by which agreements letters are to be conveyed between London and
+Antwerp in three days, whilst the carriers have for many years taken
+from eight to fourteen days, having played the merchants, and answered
+complaints by saying that they had bought their places and could come
+no sooner."
+
+Early in 1633, an attempt was made to set up another foreign-post
+service, as appears by a petition from eighty-nine London merchants,
+addressed to the king, as follows:--"They are informed that some
+strangers living here have made choice of a postmaster by whom they
+have sent their letters, whilst His Majesty has chosen William Frizell
+and Thomas Witherings for his Postmaster for Foreign Services, who have
+hitherto carried themselves carefully. Pray the king to protect them
+(Frizell and Witherings), and not to suffer strangers to make their own
+choice." While on this subject of unauthorised posts, it may be noted
+that in December 1633, Burlamachi writes to Secretary Coke respecting
+a post set up in Paris, to work thence to London. He says: "I must not
+fail to tell you that yesterday a courier from France called upon me,
+who appears, from what he says, to have agreed with the postmaster of
+Paris, to take up the letters for conveyance to and from that city
+and London. I told him that this was a proceeding that could not be
+allowed, and counselled him to return to Paris, which I believe he
+has done. It is to be considered that, if the mails for France and
+Flanders are not soon put into good order, all will go into confusion.
+We might have letters to or from Paris in five days and less, while at
+present they take fourteen days to come."
+
+This statement does not reflect creditably upon Witherings' system of
+posts established early in the year; but at this time Witherings was
+under sequestration of his office, and it may be that de Quester, who
+was temporarily in charge of the situation, had allowed matters to go
+back into their old groove.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The sequestration of Witherings' office of Foreign Postmaster ceased on
+the 28th December 1633, but it was not till the 20th August 1634 that
+he was made legally secure in his place. On this latter date he writes
+to Sir John Coke as follows:--"Four days past he procured his Order to
+be drawn up by Sir William Becher (clerk of the Council in Ordinary),
+which he shewed Mr. March, the Earl Marshal's steward, who went with
+Mr. Witherings to Mr. Recorder, whose opinion was, that the Order not
+only cleared Frizell in law and equity, but all others." Witherings
+had, however, to sign a covenant holding the Earl Marshal harmless, and
+thereupon the patents were signed over to Witherings.
+
+It is tolerably clear that de Quester and Witherings were not on
+particularly good terms. At anyrate the former wrote to Secretary Coke
+in March 1633, complaining against Witherings "for breaking open a
+packet directed to de Quester, and using disdainful speeches of him."
+He also reminds the Secretary of a promise "that he should receive no
+damage or detriment."
+
+The occurrence of the sequestration has been the means of leaving on
+record details of these early posts which would not otherwise have
+survived. A statement of the accounts of Mathew de Quester during the
+sequestration of the post office in London for foreign parts (_i.e._
+4th September to 28th December 1633), made up in the year 1634, gives
+much curious information, as also Witherings' comments on various
+alleged inaccuracies therein. "Witherings desires that de Quester may
+bring in all the rolls and books of accounts, from which Witherings
+may draw out a just account. Among the items in this account, covering
+a period of seventeen weeks, are the following:--For three portmantles,
+£1, 12s.; for cord and cloth to cover the mails, 2s. 6d.; for
+pack-thread to bind up the letters, 9s. 5d.; for pens, ink, and paper
+to write and to pack, £1, 1s.; to George Martin for carrying letters
+abroad, seventeen weeks, £2, 11s.; to John Ridge for the like service,
+£2, 11s.; to clerks' allowance for seventeen weeks, at the rate of £60
+per annum a piece, £39, 4s. 8d.; for candles, wax, and sealing-thread,
+5s. 4d.; one quarter's rent for the office and other rooms, £10." In
+another paper, making further remarks in objection to de Quester's
+accounts, Witherings suggests "that if he and Lynde, who is paid £60
+per annum for nothing else but to keep the accounts, were jointly to
+inspect the rolls and accounts, they would be able to 'just' them in
+one day."
+
+There is reason to conclude that at this time some of the stages
+in France were under English control; for on the 20th August 1634,
+Witherings writes to Secretary Coke that he "had procured the French
+ambassador's letters for settling the stages in France, and to-morrow
+he begins his journey. At his coming to Paris he will write Coke of all
+that passeth."
+
+We may assume from the foregoing particulars that the posts with the
+Continent were now laid in stages, and in a way to expedite the mail
+service not previously existing.
+
+The channel was, however, about this time infested with foreigners who
+plundered the mail packets and robbed the passengers. A few instances
+may be interesting.
+
+On the 24th June 1635, the deputy postmaster of Dover writes to
+Secretary Coke:--"On Tuesday, 16th, he received advertisement by
+certain seamen whom the writer employs for carriage of the merchants'
+letters to Dunkirk, and to bring the same from thence, that, coming
+by Calais, their shallop and such passengers as were in it were rifled
+of all the money they had and some trifles, and the mail (wherein His
+Majesty's and the merchants' letters were put) was taken away by men
+of Calais, who laid them suddenly aboard with a small shallop full of
+musketeers. This advice coming to the writer in the night very late, he
+wrote to Mr. Witherings, and did not then give the Lord Warden's deputy
+notice, by which means the news came to His Majesty's knowledge before
+it was written of to the Lord Warden."
+
+Again, in the month of August, Henry Hendy, the post of Dover, had an
+unpleasant experience. In an examination which he underwent touching
+the facts, he states that, "going to and returning from Dunkirk, he has
+been robbed five times within these seven weeks--four times by the
+French, and once by a Flushinger. They shot at him, and commanded him
+to strike, calling him and the rest 'English dogs'; and coming aboard,
+they used violence, beating them, stripping them of all their money,
+apparel, and goods, and took from the post all his bundle of letters,
+among which was a packet from the king. The post showing them his pass
+from Secretary Coke, they bid him keep it to wipe his breech." The ill
+words of calling the men dogs seem to have been in common use in the
+channel at that time; for Sobrière, a Frenchman who visited England
+at the period in question, makes mention of the incivility which his
+countrymen received on landing at Dover, the children running after
+them and calling with all their might, "A _Mounser_! a _Mounser_!" and,
+as they warmed up, they became more offensive. When told to be off,
+they would cry out, "French dogs, French dogs."
+
+But the English were not content to undergo all this offence and
+ill-usage without showing that they could fight, and were prepared
+to maintain their position on the high seas. The measures taken in
+this sense are described in the following despatch, dated 14th August
+1635, from Admiral Lord Lindsey to Secretary Coke:--"On Saturday last,
+speaking with the post of Dover that plys to Dunkirk, the writer found
+him unwilling to undergo the service any longer, unless he were better
+provided to resist the violences offered him. The earl encouraged him,
+and lent him fifteen men, well fitted with muskets and half-pikes and
+swords, and sent them aboard his ketch. On Sunday morning they went
+off from Dover, and in the afternoon were chased awhile by a shallop,
+and then by a Holland man-of-war that made six great shots at them.
+The _Sampson_, which the writer had the day before employed to sea,
+was in their sight, but they durst not bear up to him, for then they
+had been overtaken; but keeping upon a tack, they were too swift for
+the man-of-war, who, after five hours' chase, left them in open sea.
+The next morning, between Gravelines and Calais, the same shallop that
+used to rob the post came to the ketch, as near as a man might throw
+a biscuit into her. The master of the ketch had stowed all the men
+within, there to remain until he should give the watchword, when they
+were to appear and give fire. The shallop shot four or five times at
+the ketch, and hailed the master and the rest in such English as one
+of them could speak, crying out, 'English dogs! strike, you English
+rogues! we will be with you presently,' the chief of them, in a red
+coat, flourishing his falchion over his head. Hereupon the master gave
+the word; and the men came out, pouring shot so fast into the shallop
+that the French had not power to return one shot, but rowed away with
+a matter of four using oars that were left of about sixteen men. It
+was a dead calm, and the ketch had neither oars nor boat to help her,
+otherwise she had brought away the shallop and the remainder of the
+men. The post has desired the same supply again for his defence on
+Sunday next; the writer has taken order accordingly, and furnished him
+also with letters of safe-conduct."
+
+In the following month, September, another outrage upon the mail boat
+was committed. Waad, the deputy postmaster of Dover, gives an account
+of the transaction, and a capture made thereafter, in a letter to his
+chief, Witherings, on the 26th September. He writes: "The manner of
+taking the boats by those that were laid in Dover Castle was: that the
+Zealanders shot at them divers times, when one of the packet boatmen
+struck sail and showed the Lord General's warrant, which they slighted,
+and were like to stab the old man whom Waad trusts with the mail, with
+base words to His Majesty. The place was off the Splinter, betwixt
+Gravelines and Dunkirk. The day was the 2nd instant; and on the 3rd,
+setting out another boat with the mail, one of the ketch told Waad
+that he saw the captain that took them and some of his men; whereupon,
+about twelve in the night, he called the watch and carried the captain
+and other two to the town jail, having paid Sir William Monson's
+gentlemen's dinners and horse-hires to acquaint the Lord General in
+the forenoon before that the vessel was in Dover road. Whereupon Sir
+William Monson came into the road and took the ship out, and sent
+his boat after ashore. The prisoners being claimed by Sir William
+Monson, and also by Mr. Moore, Secretary to the Lord Warden, the Mayor
+adjudged to Sir William, who carried them to the Lord General. After
+examination, he returned them to Dover Castle; but their ship was
+cleared in the Downs, and on the Sunday morning took a bylander of
+Bruges; also that night the prisoners made escape out of the castle
+by a mat twisted very laboriously." The meaning of this last sentence
+probably is, that these sailors untwisted the strands of a mat, then
+spun the material into a kind of rope, and let themselves down from
+their cell in the castle.
+
+Again, in February 1636, another outrage was perpetrated on the packet
+boat. The particulars are furnished by the examination of William
+Dadds, master; Harry Hendy, passenger; and Richard Swan, servant to
+William Dadds. They swore as follows:--"The Earl of Lindsey authorised
+His Majesty's passage boat at Dover to wear a flag of His Majesty's
+colours upon the rudder-head. It hath secured the said boat from the
+Dutch, the French, and Spaniards ever since till Tuesday last; at which
+time the said boat, riding at anchor by Dunkirk harbour, near the
+Splinter fort, with the said flag, there came down from the said fort
+three musketeers, and shot three or four volleys of shot at the said
+packet boat, and in the hull of the said boat some of the shot are
+still to be seen. They retired to the said fort, and shot one piece of
+great ordnance at the said boat. The three musketeers began to beat
+the said R. Swan with a crabtree cudgel of two inches about; they
+came aboard, searched the packet boat, and fetched W. Dadds ashore,
+and made him pay 20s. in money, which H. Hendy laid down to prevent
+imprisonment. The master and his company, in the dark of the night, set
+sail and came away. The serjeant-major and the soldiers gave no other
+reason, than because they came not on shore to fetch the searcher on
+board; and if they did not the next time come to fetch the searcher
+aboard, they would hang the master upon the gallows. And this is the
+first time that ever the searcher did question His Majesty's packet
+boat."
+
+Several other violations of the packet boat occurred about this time,
+and a good deal of friction arose between the peoples on the two sides
+of the channel; but probably the robberies were partly the result
+of conditions arising from the unsettled relations existing between
+England and the countries on the Continent at the period. The English
+took extreme measures with these pirates, as will be seen by the two
+following despatches from the Earl of Suffolk to Secretary Coke:--
+
+"July 30, 1636, Dover Castle.--Since the writing of his last letter,
+and the condemnation of the French prisoners, two of them, who were
+quitted and returned to Calais, reported there that, after the
+condemnation of the prisoners, three of them were presently hanged;
+whereupon the people of Calais were much influenced, and have
+committed many insolencies, as will appear by the enclosed examination.
+
+"Declaration of John Adams of Gillingham, Kent, master of the _John_ of
+that place:--Arriving with the packet ordinary from Thomas Witherings,
+His Majesty's Postmaster for Foreign Parts, he received from the
+master of a ship of Lynn this intelligence: That the people of Calais
+came aboard, to the number of 300 or 400, presently after the arrival
+of the two sailors cleared at Dover, in the Court of Admiralty, and
+assaulted the master and company of the said ship, beating all the
+company, wounding the master, and doing many outrageous acts--which are
+stated here with a good deal of confusion, and probably exaggeration.
+The informant concludes, that carrying the mail to the postmaster of
+Calais, and having His Majesty's colours at the stern of his ketch,
+the people came down upon them, throwing stones to the endangering of
+their lives, and rending the said 'unite' colours.
+
+"August 3, 1636.--By all men that come from Calais, he perceives that
+there is in that town a froward inclination against His Majesty's
+subjects, and therefore sends him (Sir John Coke) this present
+information from the master of His Majesty's packet boat, that the
+Secretary may thereupon use means to the French ambassador, or
+otherwise, to prevent greater mischiefs that may happen.
+
+"Enclosure.--Information of John Keres of Leith, mariner, that about
+the 4th July, carrying over to Calais Mr. Witherings, His Majesty's
+Postmaster, as soon as he came on shore they threw stones at informant
+that he could not walk in the streets without great danger; and being
+forced by stress of weather out of that road for Dunkirk, a little off
+Gravelines he met with three French shallops of Calais, who commanded
+him to strike, and then boarded him, spoiled his bark, beat him with
+their swords, and would have taken the clothes off his back. Having
+nothing in his bark worth pillaging, they went their way."
+
+Shortly after this period, it was thought fit to provide an armed
+vessel for the channel service. It was named the _Speedy Post_; and
+we find that in February and March 1637 there was some correspondence
+between the Council and the officers of ordnance as to the supply
+of six brass guns for the Postmaster's frigate, the _Speedy Post_
+of London. It is probably to this vessel that Evelyn refers in his
+diary, under date of the 10th October 1642:--"From hence (Dunkirk),
+the next day, I marched three English miles towards the packet boat,
+being a pretty fregat of six guns, which embarked us for England about
+three in the afternoone. At our going off, the fort against which our
+pinnace ankered saluted my Lord Marshall with twelve greate guns,
+which we answered with three. Not having the wind favorable, we ankered
+that night before Calais. About midnight we weighed; and at four in
+the morning, though not far from Dover, we could not make the peere
+till four in the afternoon, the wind proving contrary and driving us
+westward; but at last we got on ashore, Oct. the 12th."
+
+Leaving these squabbles of the channel for a time, it will perhaps be
+convenient to consider for a moment who Witherings was.
+
+By the "Visitation of London, 1633-4," we find it stated that Thomas
+Withering, "Postmaster of England for Forrayne Parts," was a second
+son; that he was of a Staffordshire family who had property in that
+county for many generations; that an uncle named Anthony Withering
+was a yeoman usher, and his elder brother a gentleman sewer--both
+places, we apprehend, attaching to the Court. In proceedings held
+before the Council in June 1633, of which Secretary Windebanke made
+notes, and wherein Thomas Witherings was interested, mention is made
+that Witherings was stated to be a papist, and "to have been at one
+time gentleman harbinger to the queen." The office of harbinger was
+that of "agent in advance," the harbinger proceeding one day ahead of
+the queen, to secure for her suitable lodging and entertainment on
+occasions when she was upon progress. If Witherings really held this
+office of harbinger, it is possible that he may have shown a leaning
+towards papacy (though in later life he was a declared Protestant),
+for King Charles' wife Henrietta Maria was a Roman Catholic herself,
+and many of her followers were of that religion. There is nothing
+improbable in the suggestion that Witherings held the office of
+harbinger, seeing that his brother and uncle were servants at the
+Court; but whether he was or was not, he would have, by his friends,
+interest with the royal family. In a remonstrance of the grievances of
+His Majesty's posts in England, carriers, waggoners, and others (1642),
+"miserably sustained by the unlawful projects of Thomas Witherings,"
+Witherings is referred to as "sometime mercer of London." Of this
+mention will be made hereafter.
+
+Witherings was married to Dorothy, daughter of John Oliver of
+Wilbrougham; and she brought him a fair fortune. In a petition or
+representation made by her after Witherings' death, she mentions that
+£105 a year of her land was sold to assist him in procuring his place
+as Postmaster.
+
+It is well here to remark, in relation to this sum, and the matter
+should be borne in mind in perusing what follows, that £105 in 1632
+would be equivalent to about £420 in the present day. Professor Masson,
+when speaking of the relative equivalents of English money now and
+in the first half of the seventeenth century, gives his impression
+"that any specified salary in English money (of that time) would have
+purchased at least four times as much, whether in commodities or in
+respectability, as the same English money would purchase now." As only
+a portion of Mrs. Witherings' land was sold, she must have had a very
+respectable fortune of her own.
+
+Witherings lived in an age characterised by corruption, by Court
+intrigue and Court favouritism, when envy and uncharitableness
+struggled for place and power, and when those who failed to secure
+the royal smile were in imminent danger of going to the wall. He did
+not achieve his official career without attempts being made to oust
+him from his place. Many general allegations were made against him of
+irregularities committed in his office, but for the most part with an
+irritating absence of any definite charges; and in the opposite scale
+we have the fact that he was still Postmaster for Foreign Parts at the
+time of his death, in the year 1651.
+
+We have hitherto been dealing with the Postmastership for Foreign
+Parts; and having accompanied Witherings over a portion of his
+service, it will be convenient now to see what was going on in the
+inland posts. It will be remembered that Charles Lord Stanhope was
+the king's Postmaster at Home and in Foreign Parts, within the king's
+dominions. The duties of Stanhope were to appoint and supervise the
+deputy postmasters on the roads, to provide for the conveyance of
+letters to or from the king or the Court, and, generally, letters on
+State business; but there was no arrangement, recognised as a State
+service, for the conveyance of letters of the merchants or the public
+generally by the deputy postmasters under Stanhope. Although this was
+so, there is apt to be some misapprehension as to the means available
+at this time for the forwarding of letters of the public throughout
+the country. It might be supposed that no machinery to this end
+existed. There is, however, we think, every probability that while
+the postmasters were not officially authorised to convey letters from
+place to place, they did so, and reaped some benefit from the work. The
+postmasters throughout the country were constantly sending guides and
+horses between their several stages; the horses had to be brought back
+by the guides to their headquarters; and it would be surprising if the
+postmasters, when opportunity offered, did not undertake the carriage
+of letters for a fee. Further, in a State-paper office document, dated
+1635, it is mentioned that the king's postmasters carried the subjects'
+letters, but up to that time had never reaped any benefit from it.
+The meaning of this must be, that the Chief Postmaster and his
+predecessors had never reaped any benefit; but it is not likely that
+the deputy postmasters, who did the work, would perform the service
+for nothing. When the carriage of letters was afterwards taken up as a
+State affair, we shall hear an outcry for arrears of wages due to the
+postmasters, who previously were apparently content to let that matter
+lie over, deriving their profits from the letting out of horses, and
+the fees from the carriage of private letters. But the carriers with
+their carts and pack horses also conveyed letters for the public, and
+though the travelling was slow, it extended to all parts. By consulting
+old calendars and like books of reference, the reader will see how
+extensive was this carrying business, down to the time when it was
+superseded by the railways. But we are not left in any doubt as to
+the part the country postmasters took in the carriage of letters for
+the public, at anyrate on the Western road from London to Plymouth,
+antecedent to this period, for by a petition which will be quoted
+hereafter from the postmaster of Crewkerne, it will be seen that, under
+an Order of the Council of State, dated the 24th February 1630, a
+weekly carriage of letters had been set up by the several postmasters
+on that road for their own profit.
+
+Confirmation is given to this statement by papers belonging to the
+borough of Barnstaple, under date the 17th September 1633. It is
+there recorded that the Mayor and Aldermen of Barnstaple established
+communication between their borough and Exeter by means of "a foote
+post to goe weekly every Tuesday morning about seaven of the clock in
+the morning from the said towne of Barnstaple unto Exceter, and to be
+there at the postmaster's howse in Exceter the Wednesday morning, and
+there to deliver unto the post whiche is to goe that morneing toward
+London all such letters as shalbe sent him to be conveyed unto London,
+... which foote post is to stay in Exceter untill the London post for
+that weeke shall come from London, and shall take upp all such letters
+as the said post shall bringe from London," etc. It is then explained
+that, "by means of which so speedie conveyance, men may in eleaven days
+write unto London and receive answers thereof backe again, and their
+friends and factours may have three dayes' respitt to give answere unto
+such letters as shalbe sent; as also any man receiving letters from
+London may have like time to answer the same," etc. Now, if we deduct
+from the eleven days here mentioned the two days coming and going
+of the foot post between Barnstaple and Exeter, and the three days'
+"respitt" in London, it leaves only six days for the double journey
+between Exeter and London, or three days for a single journey of over
+170 miles. There is no doubt whatever from these statements that there
+existed, prior to Witherings' posts, a regular weekly horse post from
+London to the West of England for the general service of the public.
+
+A project for a new and extended arrangement of the business of the
+post office was drafted in 1633--probably by Witherings. According
+to this paper, "it was calculated that in the 32 counties of England
+there were at least 512 market towns, which, one with another, sent 50
+letters per week to London, which, in respect of their answers, are
+to be reckoned at 4d. each, making in all 25,600 letters, or £426 per
+week. The estimated charge for conveyance of these letters would be
+only £37 per week, leaving £388, 10s. weekly profit by this office, out
+of which was to be deducted £1500 per annum paid to the postmasters for
+the charge of conveying his Majesty's packets. All letters on the road
+to Scotland were to be charged 2d. for every single, and 4d. for every
+double letter, to be paid at the receiving and delivery in London; for
+Yorkshire and Northumberland, 3d. a letter; and for Scotland, 8d. The
+postmasters in the country were not to take any money for letters,
+save 1d. for carriage to the next market town." Thus, in 1633, it
+would appear that nearly 26,000 letters a week reached London from the
+country, and, as replies, a similar number would be sent thence to the
+country. The project sketched out above was not, however, then carried
+out.
+
+Some curious questions as to the post service arose at this period. On
+the 13th May 1633, the Mayor and Jurats of Dover made a representation
+to the Lieutenant of Dover Castle and of the Cinque Ports, to the
+effect that the deputy postmasters and the hackneymen of Dover and
+Canterbury had admeasured the highway between these places, and set up
+posts at every mile's end, making the distance fifteen miles and a
+quarter. For this "distance they charged 3s. 9d. for horse hire, being
+9d. more than the ordinary rate." The Mayor and Jurats "called before
+them the postmaster's deputy and some of the hackneymen, and found them
+resolute therein. They have done the same without commission from His
+Majesty or the Lords." It appears that the Kentish miles were longer
+than the miles elsewhere, and that 3d. per mile was allowed here, while
+in some other places only 2-1/2d. was paid. The men of Kent wanted to
+be paid the higher rate for the shorter miles, which they had measured
+for themselves.
+
+The postmaster of St. Albans, by the methods which he employed in
+carrying on the business of his office, got himself into deep water
+with the people of that town. On the 20th January 1632, informations
+were made by Edward Seabrooke, John Tuttle, and Fromabove Done,
+setting forth complaints against John Wells, postmaster of St Albans,
+in pressing their horses for the service of the post maliciously or
+corruptly, in order to procure a bribe for their release. On the
+next day informations were made by John Mitchell of Sandridge, Ralph
+Heyward of Bushey, Henry Pedder of Luton, and John Bolton of Harding,
+all containing charges of corruption or misconduct against John Wells,
+postmaster of St Albans. Again, on the 3d August 1633, the inhabitants
+of the parish of St. Stephens, in St. Albans, forward depositions,
+taken before Sir John Garrard and others, Justices of the Peace,
+seeking to establish that "under colour of a commission granted by
+Lord Stanhope, Wells sent to the several parishes in and about St.
+Albans to furnish horses for His Majesty's service, there being not
+any such horses needed; but warrants being issued merely to compel the
+owners of the horses to compound." Whether Mr. Wells was as bad as
+painted we cannot say, but he no doubt had at times to call in extra
+horses; for, on the 13th May 1633, Lord Stanhope issued the following
+warrant to all Deputy Lieutenants, Justices of the Peace, and other
+officers:--"Special occasions are offered, for the affairs of the State
+and service of His Majesty, to send in post both packets and otherwise
+oftener than ordinary; the persons addressed are therefore to assist
+John Wells, post of St. Albans, and on his application to take up
+ten or twelve sufficient horses, as the service shall import." This
+was within a few days of the king's setting out upon a progress into
+Scotland.
+
+On the 19th June 1633, a petition to the Council is forwarded by
+Edward Hutchins and Joseph Hutchins, sons of Thomas Hutchins, post of
+Crewkerne, lately deceased, and by all the posts between London and
+Plymouth, as follows:[1]--
+
+"Having obtained an Order, dated 24th February 1630, from this Board
+for the weekly carriage of letters between London and Plymouth, the
+settling whereof had cost them £400, besides their great and daily
+charge in keeping men and horses. Neither Lord Stanhope, nor Mr.
+Dolliver, the Paymaster of the Posts, had given any encouragement to
+this business, but rather opposed it; Lord Stanhope going about to
+assume the benefit of the merchants' letters, and raising the valuation
+of the post places of the Western road from £20 to £100. Pray their
+lordships to require Lord Stanhope and the Paymaster of the Posts to
+answer wherefor they should raise the post places from £20 anciently
+given, and for what cause they (Stanhope and the Paymaster) should have
+the benefit of the merchants' letters. Pray also that Edward and Joseph
+Hutchins may, for £20, have the place filled by their father and
+grandfather for seventy years, or else the benefit of the merchants'
+letters, which their father had." Lord Stanhope's answer was to the
+effect that he doubted the statement as to the "great sums alleged to
+have been given for obtaining the merchants' letters," that he did not
+"take notice of disposing any place in that road, nor aim at any profit
+by reason of those letters; he only takes upon him the appointment
+of the posts." The meaning of this answer is not very clear; but the
+two papers taken together show that the postmasters were in the habit
+of buying their offices, paying £20 for them, and that it was now
+attempted to raise the charge to £100. Stanhope's salary was only
+£66, 13s. 4d. per annum, and, in consonance with the shameful traffic
+of the age, he made his profit in his own position by requiring his
+subordinates to purchase their places.
+
+When Witherings set up the new plan of "estafette" posts in 1633,
+the men who had up to that time performed the post service between
+England and the Continent were all dismissed. They, like the deputy
+postmasters, had purchased their places, and upon being turned off
+received no compensation. Aggrieved as they felt themselves to be, they
+had recourse to a petition to Lord Cottington. They were Sampson Bates,
+Enoch Lynde, Jarman Marsham, Job Allibon, Abraham van Solte, and Samuel
+Allibon "heretofore ordinary posts for the Low Countries." "At their
+first entrance into their places," says the petition, "they paid great
+sums of money for the same, and they were granted for term of life,
+some of petitioners having served twenty-six years, and others various
+other long periods. About April 1633 petitioners were all dismissed
+without restoring any of their moneys, or giving them any allowance
+towards their maintenance, so that they have been driven to pawn their
+household stuff, and, if not relieved, are like to perish. The ordinary
+posts beyond the seas likewise dismissed have been allowed £80 yearly,
+although their places were not so good as petitioners'. Pray that, upon
+a new election of a Postmaster, petitioners may be admitted to their
+several places again, or each of them receive a pension from the office
+of the Postmaster."
+
+Besides the constant stream of horse posts passing from London to Dover
+in connection with the continental mail service, there was a service
+by foot messenger between these two towns. At this period there was
+a prohibition against the carrying of gold out of the country. In
+_Moryson's Itinerary_, 1617, the following limitation is stated to
+have been in force:--"In England the law forbids any traveller, upon
+paine of confiscation, to carry more money about him out of the kingdom
+than will serve for the expenses of his journey, namely, about twenty
+pounds sterling." In 1635, the prohibition was still in force. On
+the 29th June of that year, the foot post between London and Dover,
+Edward Ranger, was examined as to the exporting of gold before Sir John
+Bankes, the Attorney General. Ranger deposed "that within two years
+last past he had carried from London to Dover gold and silver, to the
+value of several thousand pounds in the whole, for Cæsar Dehaze, Edward
+Buxton of Lime Street, Jacob Deleap, Roger Fletcher, Walter Eade,
+and John Terry of Canning Street, Charles French of Wallbrook, Peter
+Heme of Love Lane, Lucas Jacob of Botolph's Lane, and John Fowler of
+Bucklersbury, and Isaac Bedloe, and had delivered the same, in various
+sums, severally to John Parrott, Nathaniel Pringall, Mark Willes, John
+Demarke, David Hempson, David Neppen, John Wallop, and Henry Booth, at
+Dover; that he had after the rate of five shillings for every hundred
+pounds he carried; and that he believes that the greatest part of the
+gold was sent beyond the seas by such persons as he delivered the same
+unto at Dover." This man Ranger was still foot post for Dover down to
+1649; but in that year he was superseded in his place in consequence of
+certain irregularities. In the Council of State's proceedings of the
+17th December of that year, the Mayor and Jurats of Dover were to be
+advised that the Council approved of another appointment being made,
+"as it would not have been safe for the State to suffer him (Ranger) to
+continue in that employment."
+
+The king's posts at this period (1633) were not remarkable for their
+great speed. On the 27th June, Secretary Coke and the king received
+letters at Edinburgh which had taken five days in coming from
+Greenwich. On 9th July, Sir Francis Windebank writes to Secretary
+Coke, that "your several letters of the 2nd and 3rd of this present,
+written from Lithco (Linlithgow) and Stirling, and sent by Davis, came
+to my hands upon Sunday the 7th, late in the evening. I send these by
+Davis again because of the slowness of the posts, some of your letters
+being ten days upon the way, and never any packet yet dated at the
+stages as they ought to be." A Captain Plumleigh, writing from Kinsale,
+apparently to the Lord Deputy, complains that "your lordship's letters
+unto me seldom come to my hands under fourteen days' time. I beg that
+the despatch of this of mine may come on towards Kinsale day and night,
+for otherwise we shall haply lose the opportunity of a fair wind," etc.
+
+The condition of the roads in these times was an important factor in
+causing the posts to travel slowly; and the through couriers, after
+riding during the day, would necessarily rest during the night. The
+following letter, dated 20th December 1633, from Sir Gervase Clifton
+to Sir John Coke the younger, at Selston, Nottinghamshire, describes
+a journey by road:--"I will be bold to trouble you with a discourse
+of my perambulation. I came on Tuesday to Dunstable, somewhat, albeit
+not much, within night. On Wednesday to Northampton, almost three
+hours after daylight, yet with perpetual fear of overturning or losing
+our way, which without guides hired, and lights holding in, I had
+undoubtedly done. On Thursday to Leicester, a great deal later, and so
+much more dangerously, as the way (you know) was worse at the end of
+the journey. On Friday we were the most of all troubled with waters,
+which so much covered the causeways, and almost bridges, over which we
+were to pass, as made me nearer retiring than coming forward; which,
+nevertheless, at length I ventured to do, and am (God be thanked), with
+my wife, safely got to Clifton (near Loughborough), where I remain yet,
+the worse of the two, by reason of a great cold I have taken." Even
+a good many years later the roads were in a bad way. In 1678, Lady
+Russell writes to her husband from Tunbridge Wells: "I do really think,
+if I could have imagined the illness of the journey, it would have
+discouraged me: it is not to be expressed how bad the way is from Seven
+Oaks; but our horses did exceeding well; and Spence very diligent,
+often off his horse to lay hold of the coach." Smiles, in his _Lives of
+the Engineers_, gives an account of the great North road, the principal
+thoroughfare into Scotland, from a tract published in 1675 by Thomas
+Mace, one of the clerks of Trinity College, Cambridge:--
+
+"The writer there addressed himself to the king, partly in prose and
+partly in verse, complaining greatly of the 'wayes, which are so
+grossly foul and bad,' and suggesting various remedies. He pointed out
+that much ground 'is now spoiled and trampled down in all wide roads,
+where coaches and carts take liberty to pick and chuse for their best
+advantages; besides, such sprawling and straggling of coaches and carts
+utterly confound the road in all wide places, so that it is not only
+unpleasurable, but extreme perplexin and cumbersome both to themselves
+and all horse travellers.'
+
+"But Mace's principal complaint was of the innumerable controversies,
+quarrellings, and disturbances, caused by the pack-horse men in their
+struggles as to which convoy should pass along the cleaner parts of the
+road. From what he states, it would seem that these disturbances, daily
+committed by uncivil, refractory, and rude Russian-like rake-shames,
+in contesting for the way, too often proved mortal, and certainly were
+of very bad consequences to many. He recommended a quick and prompt
+punishment in all such cases. 'No man,' said he, 'should be pestered
+by giving the way (sometimes) to hundreds of pack-horses, panniers,
+whifflers (_i.e._ paltry fellows), coaches, waggons, wains, carts,
+or whatsoever others; which continually are very grievous to weary
+and loaden travellers; but more especially near the city and upon a
+market-day, when, a man having travelled a long and tedious journey,
+his horse well-nigh spent, shall sometimes be compelled to cross out
+of his way twenty times in one mile's riding, by the irregularity
+and peevish crossness of such-like whifflers and market-women; yea,
+although their panniers be clearly empty, they will stoutly contend
+for the way with weary travellers, be they never so many, or almost
+of what quality soever.' 'Nay,' said he further, 'I have often known
+travellers, and myself very often, to have been necessitated to stand
+stock-still behind a standing cart or waggon, on most beastly and
+insufferable deep wet wayes, to the great endangering of our horses,
+and neglect of important business; nor durst we adventure to stir
+(for most imminent danger of those deep rutts and unreasonable ridges)
+till it has pleased mister carter to jog on, which we have taken very
+kindly.'"
+
+These were the sort of roads the posts had to travel in the seventeenth
+century; but fortunately the horses were suited to the conditions.
+With respect to these, Moryson says, in his _Itinerary_ (1617), that:
+"The horses are strong, and for journies indefatigable; for the
+English, especially northern men, ride from daybreak to the evening
+without drawing bit, neither sparing their horses nor themselves."
+In considering the speed of the posts and the endeavours made to
+accelerate them, it is well to bear in mind the condition of the
+highways.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: This petition has already been referred to as establishing
+the fact that before Witherings' inland posts, the postmasters on the
+Western road had already established a weekly post for the public.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+We now come to an important period of Witherings' connection with the
+Post Office. In June 1635, the following scheme of public posts for
+inland letters was propounded; it is attributed to Witherings:--
+
+"Proposition for settling a 'staffeto' or packet post betwixt London
+and all parts of His Majesty's dominions for carrying and recarrying
+his subjects' letters. The clear profits to go towards the payment
+of the postmasters of the roads of England, for which His Majesty is
+now charged with £3400 per annum." The chief points of the proposal
+are: "That an office or counting-house should be established in London
+for receiving letters; that letters to Edinburgh and other places
+along that road should be put into a 'portmantle,' with particular
+bags directed to postmasters on the road; for instance, a bag should
+be directed to Cambridge, where letters were to be delivered, taking
+the same port (postage) as was then paid to the carriers, which was
+2d. for a single letter, and so according to bigness. At Cambridge a
+foot-post was to be provided with a known badge of His Majesty's Arms,
+who on market-days was to go to all towns within 6, 8, or 10 miles to
+receive and deliver letters, and to bring back those he received to
+Cambridge, before the return of the 'portmantle' out of Scotland, when
+the letters being put into a little bag, the said bag was to be put
+into the 'portmantle'; that the 'portmantle' should go forward night
+and day without stay; that the port should be advanced in proportion
+to the distance the letter is carried; that a horse should be provided
+for carrying letters to towns which lie far off the main roads, as,
+for example, Hull. Similar arrangements were to be made on the road to
+Westchester, and thence to Ireland; to Shrewsbury and the marches of
+Wales; to Exeter and Plymouth; to Canterbury and Dover; to Colchester
+and Harwich; to Norwich and Yarmouth. By these means, letters which
+were then carried by carriers or foot-posts 16 or 18 miles a day (so
+that it was full two months before any answer could be received from
+Scotland or Ireland) would go 120 miles in one day and night. At this
+rate of travelling, it was declared that news would come from the coast
+towns to London 'sooner than thought.'
+
+"In the first place, it will be a great furtherance to the
+correspondency betwixt London and Scotland, and London and Ireland,
+and great help to trades and true affection of His Majesty's subjects
+betwixt these kingdoms, which, for want of true correspondency of
+letters, is now destroyed; and a thing above all things observed by
+all other nations.
+
+"As for example:--
+
+"If any of His Majesty's subjects shall write to Madrid in Spain, he
+shall receive answer sooner and surer than he shall out of Scotland
+or Ireland. The letters being now carried by carriers or foot-posts
+16 or 18 miles a day, it is full two months before any answer can be
+received from Scotland or Ireland to London, while by this conveyance
+all letters shall go 120 miles at the least in one day and night.
+
+"It will, secondly, be alleged, that it is a wrong to the carriers
+that bring the said letters. To which is answered, a carrier sets out
+from Westchester to London on the Monday, which is 120 miles. The said
+carrier is eight days upon the road, and upon his coming to London,
+delivers his letters of advice for his reloading to Westchester again,
+and is forced to stay in London two days, at extraordinary charges,
+before he can get his reloading ready. By this conveyance letters will
+be from Westchester to London in one day and night, so that the said
+carriers' loading will be ready a week before the said carriers shall
+come to London; and they no sooner come to London, but may be ready to
+depart again. The like will fall out in all other parts.
+
+"Besides, if at any time there should be occasion to write from any of
+the coast towns in England or Scotland to London, by this conveyance
+letters will be brought immediately; and from all such places there
+will be weekly advice to and from London.
+
+"As for example:--
+
+"Any fight at sea; any distress of His Majesty's ships (which God
+forbid); any wrong offered by any other nation to any of the coasts of
+England, or any of His Majesty's forts, the posts being punctually
+paid, the news will come 'sooner than thought.'
+
+"It will be, thirdly, alleged that this service may be pretended by the
+Lord Stanhope to be in his grant of Postmaster of England. To which
+is answered, neither Lord Stanhope nor any other that ever enjoyed
+the Postmaster's place of England had any benefit of the carrying and
+recarrying of the subjects' letters; besides, the profit is to pay the
+posts of the road, which, next unto His Majesty, belong to the office
+of the said Lord Stanhope; and by determination of any of the said
+posts' places, by death or otherwise, the Lord Stanhope will make as
+much of them as hath heretofore been made by this said advancement of
+all their places,--the Lord Stanhope now enjoying what either he or any
+of his predecessors hath ever heretofore done to this day."
+
+The foregoing scheme of public posts is doubtless an amplification of
+that drafted by Witherings in 1633, already quoted. Witherings refers,
+in the closing paragraph of his scheme, to possible difficulties with
+Lord Stanhope; but he meets this by saying that "Lord Stanhope will
+make as much of them"--that is, the deputy postmasters' places--"as
+hath heretofore been made by this said advancement of all their
+places." The meaning of this appears to be, that Stanhope would still
+receive his fee of £66, 13s. 4d. as Chief Postmaster of England, would
+appoint the deputies of the roads, and continue to receive payment for
+the sale to them of their places.
+
+The plan being now ripe to be put into operation, the king issued a
+proclamation, dated at Bagshot the 31st July 1635, "for the settling
+of the Letter Office of England and Scotland." The general features of
+the scheme are described to be: the laying of regular posts between
+London and Edinburgh to perform the double journey every week,--the
+travelling to be done in six days,--the laying of weekly posts on the
+other principal roads out of London, the providing of by-posts to serve
+the towns lying beyond the main roads. The postage rates prescribed
+were:--
+
+ For a single letter under 80 miles 2d.
+ " " " between 80 and 140 " 4d.
+ " " " above 140 " 6d.
+ " " " to Scotland or its borders 8d.
+
+When several letters were made up in one packet, the charge was to be
+according to the "bigness" of the packet. The postage both for outward
+and inward letters was to be payable in London. On the Western road
+to Plymouth the charge was to be as near as possible the same as that
+heretofore charged. This must refer to the system of posts already
+established by the deputy postmasters on that road before alluded
+to. The several postmasters of the roads were required to keep one
+or two horses in their stables ready for the service as Witherings
+might direct them; and it was commanded that on the day on which the
+mail would be due, these horses were not to be let or sent forth
+"upon any other occasion whatsoever." For the hire of the horses,
+the post-messenger was to pay 2-1/2d. per horse per mile. All other
+messengers or foot-posts on the roads covered by Witherings were to be
+put down, so far as the carriage of letters was concerned, exception
+being made only in respect of "common known carriers, or particular
+messenger to be sent on purpose with a letter by any man for his own
+occasions, or a letter by a friend."
+
+These, then, are the lines upon which the first general system of
+inland posts in Great Britain, for the use and convenience of the
+public, was launched by the State.
+
+There was this curious complication about the business. Thomas
+Witherings was already Postmaster for Foreign Parts, out of the
+king's dominions; Charles Lord Stanhope was Master of the Posts in
+England and for Foreign Parts, within the king's dominions, Stanhope's
+sphere being restricted to the appointing of deputy postmasters on the
+roads and managing the conveyance of letters for the king and State
+officials; and now a third control is introduced by the appointment of
+Witherings to manage a system of public posts, to be grafted upon the
+chain of deputy postmasters already existing upon the roads and under
+the direction of Stanhope. Such complex arrangements were not likely to
+work smoothly, nor did they.
+
+The postmasters of Stanhope were not all in a good position to perform
+their part in the new system of posts, as will be seen by the following
+representation made by the Mayor and others of Coventry to Secretary
+Coke on the 10th April 1635:--"By his letter of the 27th March, they
+perceive that many complaints are made of the backwardness of their
+city to furnish post-horses for persons employed in His Majesty's
+service between that and Ireland. They find that John Fletcher is
+postmaster within their city, authorised by Lord Stanhope. Fletcher,
+by reason of poverty and lameness, keeps his house, but employs John
+Scott, another poor aged man, as his deputy. Scott acknowledged that
+Fletcher had not had for a month past above three horses, and that
+all of them are lame. They sent the Sheriff of the city to see how
+the postmaster was provided for the said service, by whom answer was
+returned that neither Fletcher nor Scott have so much as one horse,
+mare, or nag. By an Order of the Council, it was ordered that the
+postmaster, not being able to find sufficient numbers of horses for
+packets and persons employed in His Majesty's service, should have a
+supply of horses out of the country within twelve miles' distance from
+Coventry. They also find that the postmaster, by himself and agents,
+makes composition with the towns about the city, and has taken yearly
+of them several sums of money to spare them from the service, by which
+means the burden of the whole service falls upon the city, which hath
+occasioned many late complaints. The writers are in great hope that
+some speedy reformation may be had therein. They recommend to that
+place Edward Mosse, an innholder in their city."
+
+In order the better to understand the position in which the country
+postmasters found themselves about this period, 1635 and later, it will
+be well to quote some of the petitions sent forward by the postmasters,
+most of which relate to arrears of pay. And it is not unlikely that the
+demands for arrears were due to the new scheme of Witherings, under
+which the postmasters would no longer be allowed to carry letters for
+the public on their own account:--
+
+1635. "Petition of William Parbo, post of Sandwich, to the Lords of the
+Treasury:--About 13 years since petitioner bought the said post's place
+in the name of a poor kinsman, Arthur Ruck, then a child, intending the
+profits to be applied towards his education. Being much impoverished by
+the forbearance of his post wages for ten years and a half, petitioner
+is unable longer to maintain his kinsman at the University of Oxford.
+If his arrearage of 16d. per diem were paid, he should be a loser above
+£100, he being at charges of boat-hire to carry His Majesty's letters
+aboard His Majesty's ships, and of warning-fires on shore, besides of
+horse and man by land. Prays payment of his arrears, amounting to £255,
+10s."
+
+1635. "Petition of Alexander Nubie to the Council:--Petitioner being
+post of Dartford, is forced to keep sixteen horses for the performance
+of the service, which is an extraordinary great charge, and for which
+he has received no pay these two years and a half, so that there is due
+to him about £100. Is poor and in debt, and dare not go abroad for fear
+of arrest by creditors by whom he has been furnished with hay and other
+provisions. Prays for protection until he may receive his money."
+
+1636. "Petition of Thomas Hookes, servant to the prince, to Secretary
+Coke:--Petitioner's father, Nicholas Hookes, lately deceased, executed
+the post of Conway, Co. Carnarvon, for 26 years. About six years
+since petitioner was appointed to the said place by Lord Stanhope.
+Understanding that all posts are in person to supply their places,
+petitioner, being tied to attendance on the prince, prays the Secretary
+to grant the place to petitioner's brother, Henry Hookes, who was
+living in the said town, and also to give order for £300, arrears due
+for the same place."
+
+1636. "William Hugessen, postmaster of Dover, to Secretary
+Windebank:--Has served as postmaster in the Port of Dover many years,
+and keeps the most convenient and fairest house betwixt London and
+Dover, and where ambassadors generally lodge. Is behindhand of his pay
+about £400. If there be an order that no man may enjoy the place except
+he serve by himself, he desires that Edward Whetstone, who is his
+tenant in the house called the Greyhound of Dover, may have the place
+upon such conditions as others, but if possible in Hugessen's name as
+formerly."
+
+1637. "March 26th.--Petition of Edmund Bawne, postmaster of
+Ferrybridge, Co. York, to the Council:--After the death of petitioner's
+grandfather, who served as postmaster in the place abovesaid thirty
+years, petitioner, for £200, by his grandfather three years since paid
+Lord Stanhope, was admitted into the same place. Upon questioning
+Lord Stanhope's patent, petitioner gave Mr. Witherings £35 more for
+his settlement, and was, by the signatures of Secretaries Coke and
+Windebank, and Witherings, admitted into the same. Petitioner's
+grandfather is owing for wages at least £500 from His Majesty. Without
+any misdemeanour, being now sought to be ousted, he prays relief."
+
+These various petitions set forth not only that the country postmasters
+were being badly treated in regard to their pay,--this pay being what
+may conveniently be described as their retaining-fee,--but that there
+was some stirring-up by Witherings of derelictions of duty on the part
+of the postmasters.
+
+Allusion has already been made to the fact that matters could not go
+along smoothly with the whole system of posts, seeing that the control
+was in two sets of hands, and that the spheres of action were not
+properly divided. So a blow shortly fell upon Lord Stanhope. This
+must, apparently, have been unlooked for by Stanhope, for, shortly
+before his fall, a proclamation was issued by the king bearing
+Stanhope's signature. It had regard to the duties of the postmasters,
+and is supposed to have been issued early in the year 1637. Its chief
+provisions were: that (1) in all places where posts were laid for the
+packet, the postmasters were to have the benefit and pre-eminence of
+letting, furnishing, and appointing of horses to all riding in post;
+that (2) none were to be regarded as riding on public affairs unless
+with special commission signed by one of our Principal Secretaries of
+State, or six at least of the Privy Council, etc.; that the postmasters
+or owners of the horses were to be allowed to claim 2-1/2d. per mile
+(besides the guide's groats); but that private persons riding post were
+to pay such rate as might be agreed upon between the parties; that (3)
+no horse was to be ridden away until the fare was first paid, nor
+taken beyond the next stage without the owner's consent; baggage was
+not to exceed 30 lbs., and no horse was to be ridden above seven miles
+an hour in summer, or six in winter; and that (4) the constables and
+magistrates were to take up horses for the postmaster's service in the
+posts when the postmaster was himself short of horses. Not long after
+the issue of the proclamation above referred to, Lord Stanhope was
+driven from office. The immediate cause is not apparent; but the fact
+is dealt with in the following petition, dated March 1637:--
+
+"Petition of Charles Lord Stanhope, late Postmaster of England and
+Wales, to the king:--
+
+"There is due to the petitioner for his fee of 100 marks per annum
+(£66, 13s. 4d.), as Master and Comptroller of the Posts, being in
+arrear for 19 years and more. £1266, 13s. 4d., which petitioner, when
+he enjoyed the said place, was in some sort better able to forbear,
+and therefore did not importune for the same; but now, having resigned
+the said office, full sore against his will, but in obedience to
+His Majesty's pleasure, signified to him by the Commissioners for
+the Posts,--the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Keeper, the Lord
+Treasurer, Lord Cottington, and the Secretaries Coke and Windebank,--he
+has lost divers profits incident thereunto, which were a great help to
+his support (his other means left by his father being small as yet,
+and most of it in his mother's hands), whereby, since the loss of his
+office, he is disabled to maintain himself in the degree of an English
+baron. In consideration of his free yielding of his place, prays order
+for payment of the arrear, and some satisfaction for his office. A
+man of quality, and honourable knight, would willingly have given
+petitioner £5000 for his office."
+
+Lord Stanhope states that he resigned his office "sore against his
+will," and "in obedience to His Majesty's pleasure"; but no hint is
+given of the immediate cause for this pressure being applied. An event
+happened in 1629, however, which may have had some bearing upon the
+present matter. On the 2nd of March in that year, the king desired, by
+means of the Speaker, Sir John Finch, to dissolve Parliament before the
+Commons could proceed with certain business which they had in hand.
+In order, however, to carry their protest, certain patriots in the
+House, Denzil Hollis among the rest, laid hands upon the Speaker and
+held him in the chair while the House voted its protest. In consequence
+of the violence thus shown to the Speaker, the chief actors in the
+scene were thrown a few days thereafter into the Tower. While these
+men lay in confinement, they were visited by certain of their friends.
+In a paper dated 1629, found among the Coke Manuscripts, and headed
+"The Lieutenant of the Tower's information of such as had visited the
+prisoners in the Tower, from their first imprisonment to the 19th
+March 1629," it is recorded that "the Lord Hollis (brother of Denzil)
+brought the Lord Stanhope, Postmaster, and other persons to visit
+Denzil Hollis." It is quite possible from this, and other circumstances
+which have not come down to us, that Stanhope may have been suspected
+of sympathy with the Parliamentary party, and that, on that account,
+he was no longer to be relied upon as a faithful adherent of the king.
+Although the removal of Stanhope was not effected till 1637, at which
+period the tension between the royalists and the popular party was
+becoming more severe, it is possible that the event of the Tower may
+have had its share in bringing about his loss of office.
+
+In a petition of Lord Stanhope's in the year of the Restoration, 1660,
+on the subject of the loss of his office, some further information of
+the way in which he was "removed" is given by Stanhope. He says, that
+"when by the contrivance of one Witherings, and some great persons, he
+was summoned to bring his patent before the Council, and, after writing
+his name upon the back, to leave it there, words purporting to be a
+surrender of the patent were afterwards written above his name, and
+copied on to the enrolment; the late king offered him a new patent if
+he would agree that Sir Henry Vane, senior, should be joined with him;
+but this petitioner declined, being advised to appeal to the Parliament
+then about to meet," etc. If this be a correct statement of what
+happened, there is little doubt that Stanhope was deprived of his place
+by the operation of a gross job. In connection with his petition of
+1660, Stanhope produced a copy of a letter from Mr. Prideaux, dated 5th
+September 1644 (of whom we shall hear later on as Attorney General to
+Cromwell, and more intimately connected with the posts), about erecting
+stages in all the roads for the service of the State; and this letter
+was held to show that Prideaux recognised Stanhope's right to the
+office. The committee who examined Stanhope's claims in 1660 were of
+opinion that "he should be put into a position to recover the profits
+of the office since the 25th April 1637"; but it does not appear that
+he succeeded eventually in his suit.
+
+According to Rymer's _Foedera_, the king granted to Thomas Witherings,
+by Letters Patent, on the 22nd day of June 1637, the office of
+Postmaster of Foreign Parts during life, which office, in 1632,
+had been granted in the joint names of William Frizell and Thomas
+Witherings. The details of this grant, if such were made, are not
+given; and it is a curious fact that, before and after Witherings'
+death, the grant put forward as the ground for Witherings' interest in
+the Foreign Post Office was not that mentioned by Rymer, but the joint
+grant made in favour of Frizell and Witherings of an earlier date.
+
+In the same month (June 1637), a grant was made to Secretaries Coke
+and Windebank "of the office of Postmaster within His Majesty's
+dominions for their lives, if they so long continue Secretaries,
+with the like fee of £66, 13s. 4d. (per annum), to be paid quarterly
+out of the Exchequer, as was formerly granted to Lord Stanhope, who
+has surrendered that grant. His Majesty thereby annexes the office
+of Postmaster to the Principal Secretaries for the time being, and
+declares that the surviving Secretary is to surrender this grant to His
+Majesty, who thereupon will grant the said office to the Secretaries
+who for the time shall be, to hold the same while they continue
+Secretaries."
+
+Following this change, we find, from a letter written by Sir John
+Coke to his son, dated the 5th August 1637, that the Secretaries had
+then appointed Witherings their deputy for executing this office. It
+states that: "Your letters come sometimes late. I hope that will, by
+Mr. Witherings' posts, be amended. For we, the Postmasters General,
+have made him our deputy, that he may the better accommodate his letter
+office." So now we have got to this stage, that Witherings, being
+Postmaster for Foreign Parts, was also appointed Deputy Postmaster
+General for the Inland Posts, and there was more likelihood of his
+plans being successfully carried out.
+
+The reader will remember that, in 1633, Witherings was for some months
+suspended from office, and that several claims were made against
+him, in respect of which he made terms of settlement. One of these
+claims, not already mentioned, was put forward by Endymion Porter,
+Groom of the Bedchamber; but this claim was met by Witherings with
+a flat denial of any indebtedness. What the grounds were does not
+appear. But by an opinion given by Attorney General Bankes in 1637,
+it seems that on the 24th September 1635 an indenture of deputation
+of Stanhope's place was made in favour of Endymion Porter and his son
+George; which deputation of place, in the Attorney General's opinion,
+only referred to the post-work incidental to the forwarding of State
+despatches, and not "the ordering of the carriage of letters by post
+to be settled within the kingdom, at the charge of particular persons
+and not of His Majesty." It is to be remarked that the date of Porter's
+indenture almost coincides with the date upon which Witherings' inland
+posts were started; and the idea occurs to us, that possibly the
+Groom of the Bedchamber was brought into the business with the view
+of providing a channel of access to His Majesty for the furtherance
+of Stanhope's interests. Be this as it may, Porter, having had a
+taste of the Post Office, seemed desirous of obtaining Stanhope's
+place wholly to himself. On the 5th April 1636 he writes a letter
+to Secretary Windebank, of which the following is the import:--"The
+Secretary is best acquainted how long Porter followed the business of
+the Postmaster's place, being one to whom it was referred; and Porter
+has intimated to His Majesty his former intentions towards Porter in
+that business, to which he has received so gracious an answer from
+his _sacred mouth_ as has much lessened Porter's sickness; yet he
+fears, by something His Majesty said, that he imagines Porter is not
+willing to have Lord Stanhope's patent made void. Begs the Secretary
+to let His Majesty know that Porter has no disposition nor thought
+to be averse to any intention of His Majesty. He hopes His Majesty
+does it for the good of Porter (_his poor servant and creature_);
+and if he be thought worthy of the office, he will make it such
+for His Majesty's honour and profit as he shall have no cause to
+think it ill bestowed." "Sacred mouth," and "his poor servant and
+creature"! Such expressions may have been common at the period under
+review; but they would be sadly out of place in the present day. The
+English language is rich enough in figure to convey sentiments of
+submission, and even veneration, without involving the writer in such
+wretched abjection. May it not be that the doctrine of divine right
+is responsible for this tone of servility in a large degree? A better
+specimen of self-effacement in a petition could not be quoted than
+that of Denzil Hollis to the king about 1630, found among Secretary
+Coke's manuscripts. It will be remembered that Hollis was one of the
+Parliament men who gave serious offence to the king by holding Speaker
+Finch in the chair. As a punishment for the rash act, he was cast out
+of the sunshine of royal favour and thrown into prison. From this
+changed position, Hollis, patriot and Parliament man, penned the
+following petition:--"Most gracious Sovereign, your Majesty be pleased
+to vouchsafe leave to your most afflicted suppliant again to cast
+himself at your royal feet, there still to implore your Majesty's grace
+and favour, for he is no longer able to bear the weight either of your
+Majesty's displeasure or of his own grief; and he languisheth under it
+so much the more by how much he hath been heretofore comforted with
+the sweet influence of your Majesty's goodness to him, and gracious
+acceptation of him. His younger years were blessed with his attendances
+upon your princely person, and it was the height of his ambition to
+end his days in your service; nor did he ever willingly entertain the
+least thought which might move your Majesty to cast him down from that
+pitch into this precipice of your indignation; but in anything he may
+have failed, it hath been through misfortune, and the error of his
+judgment. Imitate the Dread Sovereign the God of Heaven, whose image
+you bear here upon earth, both in yourself in regard to your royal
+excellencies and in relation to us your loyal and obedient subjects. He
+is best pleased with the sacrifice of a sorrowful heart, and accepts
+only that person who mourns because he hath offended Him; and such a
+sacrifice do I here offer myself unto your Majesty, a heart burdened
+with the sense of your Majesty's displeasure, prostrate at your royal
+feet with all humble submission waiting till your Majesty will reach
+out the golden sceptre of princely compassion to raise me out of this
+lowest dust, and so, by breathing new life into me, make me able and
+capable to do your Majesty some acceptable service. And, as I am bound
+in duty, I shall ever pray for the increase of your Majesty's happiness
+and the continuance of your glorious reign. This is the humble petition
+and prayer of your Majesty's most obedient and loyal subject and
+servant, Denzil Holles."
+
+Hollis was not taken back to bask in the desired sunshine; and
+biography has left upon record that he was a "man of firm integrity, a
+lover of his country and of liberty, a man of great courage and of as
+great pride. He had the soul of a stubborn old Roman in him!"
+
+There are patriots and patriots. A contrast to Hollis is found in a
+contemporary patriot, Lilburne, of whom it is recorded that, "Whilst
+he was whipped at the cart, and stood in the pillory, he uttered many
+bold speeches against tyranny of bishops, etc.; and, when his head was
+in the hole of the pillory, he scattered sundry copies of pamphlets
+(said to be seditious) and tossed them among the people, taking them
+out of his pocket; whereupon, the Court of Star Chamber, then sitting,
+being informed, immediately ordered Lilburne to be gagged during the
+residue of the time he was to stand in the pillory, which was done
+accordingly; and, when he could not speak, he stamped with his feet,
+thereby intimating to the beholders he would still speak were his mouth
+at liberty."
+
+The higher places in the Post Office were apparently much sought after,
+and there must have been a good deal of Court manoeuvring on the
+part of those in possession to remain in, and of suitors who desired
+possession to get in. Here is the letter of another candidate, William
+Lake, who gives something of his personal history in his letter. It is
+addressed to Secretary Windebank from Putney Park, on the 5th August
+1637:--
+
+"I enclose copy of my former petition, which the Duke of Lennox
+presented to His Majesty. I hope you will find my demands such as His
+Majesty may approve of. He may be possessed that I acquired some very
+great estate under my master, the late Lord Treasurer, but it was far
+otherwise. I was always more careful of my honour and my honesty than
+of increasing my fortune. My main hope was that, by my lord's means, I
+might have obtained some grant from His Majesty which might have eased
+me of the trouble of being a suitor. I know that his lordship meant me
+some good in that place which Witherings how enjoys, whereof I give a
+little touch in my petition. How I missed it, _nescio quid, nec quare_.
+I entreat that, when you move His Majesty on my behalf, you would
+affirm that all the fortune I got does not amount to above £5000, which
+is but a small thing to maintain myself, my wife, and six children.
+Neither will I be so immoderate in my suit as to desire more than what
+the late king once thought me worthy of: I mean the place for the Latin
+tongue."
+
+Besides the officers of the Post Office bearing the title of Chief
+Postmasters or Postmasters-General, there was an officer attached
+to the Court called the Deputy Postmaster of the Court. What his
+precise duties were, is not very apparent; but he probably looked
+after the despatch of letters over short distances from the Court,
+whereever situated, and arranged for post stages being temporarily
+set up in places where they did not usually exist, when the Court was
+on progress. The Court Deputy Postmaster did not, however, enjoy any
+greater punctuality, as regards payment of wages, than the postmasters
+of the roads. The following petition of 1637 proves this:--"Petition
+of John Wytton, Deputy Postmaster of the Court, daily attending your
+Majesty, to the king. For his wages of 10s. per diem there is due to
+him about £1400; neither has he allowance of diet, or horsemeat, or any
+other perquisite, the nonpayment whereof has brought him much into
+debt. Some of his creditors have petitioned the Lord Chamberlain to
+have the benefit of the law against him. He has granted the request,
+unless the petitioner give satisfaction by the middle of Michaelmas
+term. Prays that the Lord Treasurer may make present payment of what
+is due to petitioner, and meanwhile that he may have a protection."
+It appears that Wytton was not the real holder of the place, although
+by delegation he executed the office; for by a petition laid before
+Secretary Coke in 1639, he states that in the first year of Charles'
+reign, Buckbury, the king's Postmaster, assigned to him the execution
+of the place, and that for his pains he was to receive the third part
+of Buckbury's wages when they were paid. Wytton was turned out of the
+place in 1637, when there were for wages eight years and a half due to
+him, amounting to £530. This would no doubt be one-third of the sum due
+to Buckbury. "I can make it appear by bills upon oath," says Wytton,
+"that during the time the debt grew I have disbursed almost £300 out
+of purse in executing the place. And I do humbly conceive that my own
+attendance, my keeping of lodgings and horses in town for eight years
+and a half, may be thought worthy of the remainder of the sum above
+mentioned."
+
+In July 1637, a warrant was issued to Secretaries Coke and Windebank,
+Masters and Comptrollers-General of the Posts, for a sum of money to
+be paid to the postmasters of the roads, up to the 27th September
+following, as under mentioned:--
+
+ Per Diem
+ _s._ _d._
+ Thomas Swinsed, of Ware 3 0
+ Thomas Hagger, " Rayston 4 4
+ Ralph Shert, " Babraham 2 0
+ John Cotterill, " Newmarket 4 4
+ John Riggshis, and } late " Huntingdon 2 0
+ William Kilborne, } 2 0
+ James Cropper, " Witham 2 0
+ Richard Leeming, " Grantham 2 0
+ Thomas Atkinson, " Newark 2 4
+ Edward Wright, " Scrooby 2 0
+ Edmund Hayford, " Doncaster 2 0
+ Edmund Bawne, " Ferrybridge 2 6
+ Thomas Tayler, " Tadcaster 1 8
+ John Howsman, " York 2 0
+ William Thompson, " Wetherby 2 0
+ Andrew Wilkinson, " Boroughbridge 3 0
+ John Scarlet, " North Allerton 2 4
+ John Glover, " Darlington 2 4
+ William Sherrington, " Durham 2 4
+ George Swan, " Newcastle 3 0
+ John Pye, " Morpeth 3 0
+ Alexander Armorer, " Alnwick 3 0
+ Thomas Armorer, " Belford 3 0
+ Thomas Carre, " Berwick 2 4
+ James Ware, " Dartford 2 6
+ Thomas Lond, " Gravesend 0 6
+ Richard Jennings, " Sittingbourne 2 0
+ Thomas Parks, " London 2 0
+ Roger Pimble, " Charing Cross 2 0
+ John Briscoe, " Barnet 2 0
+ Robert Story, " St. Albans 2 0
+ John Gerrard, " Brickhill 2 0
+ Andrew Clark, " Daventry 2 0
+ John Fletcher, " Coventry 2 8
+ Ralph Castlon, " Birmingham 2 0
+ Robert Francis, " Chester 2 4
+ James Wilkinson, " Staines 2 0
+ Gilbert Davies, " Hartford Bridge, Hants 1 8
+ Anthony Spittle, " Basingstoke 1 8
+ Richard Miles, late " Salisbury 1 8
+ Roger Bedbury, now " " 1 8
+ Nicholas Compton, " Shaftesbury 1 8
+ John Smith, " Sherborne 1 8
+ Robert Searle, " Honiton 1 8
+ Thomas Newman, " Exeter 2 0
+ Samuel Smith, " Brentwood 2 6
+ William Neale, " Chelmsford 2 6
+ Robert Bunny, " Witham 2 0
+ Henry Barron, " Looe 2 6
+ Joshua Blaxton, " Perryn (Penryn) 2 0
+ Gilbert Davies, " Hartford Bridge 2 6
+ William Brooks, " Portsmouth 2 6
+ Rowland Roberts, late " Langfenny} 2 0
+ Richard Roberts, now " " }
+ William Folkingham " Stamford 2 0
+
+These seem at first sight to be small allowances to the postmasters;
+but we must be under no illusion as to this; and it is proper to
+remember, what has already been pointed out, that in all cases of
+money payments at this period, and mentioned in these pages, the
+figures must be quadrupled in order to estimate their value in
+relation to the present worth of money. The payments here ordered
+may have been intended to keep the principal postmasters quiet until
+a new arrangement, promulgated under His Majesty's directions on
+the 30th July 1637 (hereafter to be quoted), should come into force.
+The date fixed for its taking effect was Michaelmas next ensuing.
+But the payments above authorised did not by any means clear off the
+indebtedness of the State towards the postmasters; for by a petition
+of the postmasters to the House of Lords in December 1660, it is set
+forth that "in the year 1637 they were upwards of £60,000 in arrear of
+their wages, whereof they have never received one penny." That means
+that, according to our present value of money, the postmasters were in
+arrears of pay to the extent of about a quarter of a million sterling.
+
+In looking over the post stages mentioned in the foregoing list, and
+tracing them upon the map, whether from London to Berwick, London to
+the stages in Cornwall, or in the other directions, one cannot fail
+to be struck with the very direct courses which the post routes
+followed. The lines taken are straight as an arrow; and considering
+that the roads were not laid out by engineers, but were the product
+of a mere habit of travel, worked out by packmen with their horses,
+and travellers making for a preconceived destination, the exact result
+attained to is very remarkable. On the great North road, the stages
+are in many cases the same as those which served in the days of mail
+coaches two centuries later.
+
+Shortly after the appointment of the two Principal Secretaries of
+State, Coke and Windebank, to be Masters and Comptrollers-General of
+the Posts, Witherings being their deputy for the inland posts and
+himself also Foreign Postmaster, a very important document was drawn up
+for the governance of the posts generally. It is as follows:--
+
+ "By the King.
+
+"Orders for the furtherance of our service, as well to our Pacquets and
+Letters, as for riding in Post; specially set downe, and commanded
+to be observed, where our Postes are established within our County
+of___________.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "Orders for the Pacquet.
+
+"First, that no Pacquets or Letter shall be sent by Poste, or bind
+any Poste to ride therewith in poste, but such as shall be directed
+first for our speciall affaires, and subscribed by the Writer's name
+or sender thereof; neither shall it be holden for our affaires, but as
+the same shall be directed and subscribed by our High Treasurer, Lord
+Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Admirall, Principall Secretaries of
+State, being Masters and Comptrollers of our Postes, Lord Lieutenant
+of the said County, writing from the Court, or otherwise to the Court,
+subscribed by any Admirall, or Vice-Admirall from the Narrow-seas,
+Lieutenant of Dover Castle, or Mayor of any Port Town, Ambassadours,
+or Agents beyond the seas for the time being, or Deputy Lieutenant of
+our said County, writing to any of those personages afore-named, or to
+the body of our Privy Councell.
+
+"2. All Pacquets or Letters so directed shall be carryed by the Postes
+in poste from stage to stage onley, and not otherwise nor further, they
+being dated and signed first on the outside by the sender or writer,
+and shall run therewith in summer, vizt from the first of April to the
+last of September, after 7 miles the houre, and 5 miles the houre in
+winter, which is the rest of the yeare, as the wayes and weather afford.
+
+"3. And that it may appeare from time to time (as oft as shal be
+needfull) with what expedition the service is by our Posts performed,
+every Post shall keep a faire paper book to enter the Pacquets in,
+being so brought unto him, with the day, month, and houre they came to
+his hands, two leather bags lined with cotten or bayes, to carry the
+Pacquet in, and hornes to sound, as oft as he meets and sees company
+comming, or foure times in every mile.
+
+"4. And to the end our Posts attending thus our special service, may
+performe their several duties in that behalfe, our pleasure is, that
+they and every of them shal brook and enjoy the benefit of all former
+favours and immunities by our Predecessors allowed them: Namely, that
+they and their servants be holden free and exempted from all Summons,
+Prests and personal attendance at assises, Sessions, Inquests, and
+Musters.
+
+"5. Every Poste in his severall Stage is commanded, and hereby required
+to carry out and in once a week, the Maile of Letters that shall come
+from, and goe to the Letter Office of London, free without charge.
+And to that end, are from time to time to have in readinesse one good
+Gelding or Mare sadled against the houre the Maile shall come that
+way, and not to detaine the Maile above halfe a quarter of an houre at
+no time; And run with the same after 5 miles in Winter, and 7 miles in
+Summer, which is to be done in consideration that the Master of the
+Letter Office is to pay them their wages according to the Reglement set
+downe by the Lords Committees; And that to begin at Michaelmas next,
+and he that shall faile, to be discharged from his place. And to enter
+the houre of the day or night upon a Label, which is to be annexed to
+the said Male, with their owne names and the names of the Stages.
+
+"6. Every Poste is required to deliver all such Letters in the Country,
+either at or neere his Stage, as shall be sent to him from the Master
+of the Letter office, and to receive Port according to the taxe set
+upon every Letter; and to be accomtable for such moneys as they shall
+receive at the end of every three months. And likewise to returne such
+Letters to London as shall be brought to them in the Country. And in
+case Post paid be written upon any Letter that shall come from London,
+they are not to take Port for it in the Country againe.
+
+"7. And that it may appeare from time to time when and as often as it
+shall be required, with what care and diligence the service is at all
+hands applyed and performed--First, he that is appointed by our Masters
+and Comptrollers Generall of our Posts, to attend this service at the
+Court, and also every other Post-Master shall keep a large and faire
+Ledger Booke to enter our Packets in, as they shall be brought to him
+or them, with the name of the Poste who brought the same, and the day
+of the month, houre of the day or night that they came first to their
+hands, together with the name of him or them, by whom or unto whom they
+were subscribed and directed, taking and entering onely such for our
+Pacquets as come warranted, as is aforesaid.
+
+"8. And further our Will and pleasure is, That every Post-Master shall
+write upon a Labell fastened to every or any our Packets, the time of
+his receite thereof, and not on the Packet or Letter, as hath been
+disorderly used.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "Orders for Thorow-Postes in ________.
+
+"First, as the service of the Pacquet so the horsing of all
+Thorow-Posts (Through Posts) and persons riding in Poste, with horne or
+guide, by commission or otherwise, shall be performed by our standing
+Posts in their severall Stages, who to that end shall keep and have in
+a readinesse under their direction a sufficient number of Poste-horses,
+with saddles, bridles and furniture convenient; and if it shall fall
+out, that by the repaire of Ambassadors, or other residents of Service,
+men riding in Poste, that is to say, with horn or guide, come so
+thick, or in such numbers, that their ordinary provision will not
+suffice, then the Constables of the places where they dwell, with the
+aid and assistance of the Cheife Magistrates there, and the countries
+adjoyning (being required in our name) shall take up, bring in, and
+supply the Posts with horses and with furniture where they may be had
+or hired.
+
+"2. And that it be not any way a let or impeachment to the liberty of
+any man riding on his own or ordinary affaires, within the Realme at
+his or their pleasure; it is hereby meant that all Strangers borne,
+specially riding with horne or guide by themselves, or in company of
+our ordinary Messengers or Posts for the Low Countries, or France, all
+Ambassadors, riding or sending on their Princes affairs, and all other
+whatsoever, riding with horne and guide, shall take and change their
+horses onley of the Posts, and at the Post-house, of that place, or
+with his consent, and appointment, they taking for each horse after the
+rate of iijd. (3d.) the mile beside the guide groat.
+
+"3. And to prevent all advantages of unconscionable dealing, by such as
+keep horses to hire, in the horsing of strangers beyond the ordinary
+Stages, to the wronging of our Posts, and injury to the beast and the
+Rider. It is found expedient, and our will and pleasure is, that all
+Strangers borne, as well going forth of the Realme, as comming into the
+same, through our County of____, although it be about their owne and
+private affaires, without horne or guide, shall likewise be horsed by
+our ordinary Posts from Stage to Stage, or with the Posts knowledge and
+consent, not taking for each horse above iijd. the mile.
+
+"4. It shall not be lawfull for any so riding in Poste, to take
+and ride away the horse or horses of any man, not having first and
+aforehand fully paid and satisfied the hire, nor ride them further
+than the next Stage, without the knowledg and consent of the Poste of
+that place, nor charge any horse taken to ride Poste with any Male
+(mail) or burthen (besides the rider) that exceeds the weight of 30
+pound. And if it shall happen, any to disobey these our commandements,
+and orders, to the manifest wrong of our Posts, injury of any owner,
+or hurt of his beast; the Officers or Magistrates of the place,
+upon complaint thereof made, shall stay the party offending, till
+satisfaction be made, or sufficient security given to repay the
+dammage. But if it so fall out, that the obstinacy of any herein
+offending, require further punishment than the ordinary power of the
+Magistrate of the place can or may conveniently inflict. Then we
+require our said Master and Comptroller of the Posts, upon notice
+thereof given him or them, to send for the party or parties to answer
+their conptempt.
+
+"5. This being in generall our Will and command, for the speedy, safe
+and orderly expedition of our publike dispatches and occurrents, as
+well in writing for our own affaires, as riding in poste, whatsoever
+besides shall fall out more particularly to the behoofe of our said
+Posts, or ease of their horses, that in these kind of services are most
+subject to abuses, our like care is specially to be respected; and to
+that end we doe hereby eftsoones recommend both the one and the other
+to the wisedome and protection of our said Masters of the Posts, and
+the aid of all Magistrates and others that love the furtherance of our
+service, or regard our safety or pleasure.
+
+"Given at our Court at Oatlands the 30 day of July in the thirteenth
+yeare of our Raigne, 1637, of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland.
+
+"Signed by His Majesty, and subscribed by Sir John Coke, and Sir
+Francis Windebanke, Knights; Our Principall Secretaries of State, and
+Masters and Comptrollers Generall of our Posts.
+
+"'God Save the King.'"
+
+ * * * * *
+
+This ordinance is important in two or three particulars. It raised the
+price per mile for post horses from 2-1/2d, as provided by Stanhope's
+notice (issued in the king's name a few months previously), to 3d. per
+mile; it gave the postmasters a practical monopoly of hiring-out horses
+on the roads; but in return they were required to carry the regular
+mails within their several stages once a week "free without charge,"
+and to deliver letters directed to their own towns and districts. The
+meaning of the term here used, "free without charge," is not very
+clear, for immediately thereafter the document proceeds to say that
+the work was to be done "in consideration that the Master of the
+Letter Office is to pay them their wages according to the Reglement
+set downe by the Lords Committees." What this Reglement was it is not
+now possible to ascertain, for unfortunately there is a hiatus in the
+records of the Lords' Proceedings from 1628 to 1640, within which
+period the events to which we refer occurred. It may be that for the
+regular weekly service, no mileage rate was to be charged, a revised
+daily wage being granted which, together with the additional halfpenny
+per mile authorised to be levied upon travellers, would remunerate the
+postmasters for carrying the mail. But the postmasters were further
+required, apparently, to convey letters sent "express" to or from the
+king and certain specified officials, from stage to stage, without
+fee or payment; the arrangement being a great relief to the king's
+exchequer, inasmuch as, on many occasions, such conveyance would
+dispense with the necessity for sending through-messengers with the
+letters to destination.
+
+Labels or way-bills were also first introduced under this order, and
+the markings on the letters themselves discontinued.
+
+It should be borne in mind that at this period the country was in
+a very considerable state of commotion. Charles had had a taste of
+Parliament early in his reign, and he did not like it. He resented
+the trammels that such a body of men imposed upon his actions; and
+he desired to be a real king, like the continental potentates.
+Accordingly, he dispensed with the calling together a Parliament during
+the period from 1629 to 1640: he ruled by means of a Council, who made
+the laws, directed public affairs, and generally guided the vessel of
+the State. His Principal Secretaries were Sir John Coke and Sir Francis
+Windebank; his other chief advisers were Laud and Wentworth.
+
+In 1637, there was much business for the post, owing to the tension
+between the king and Laud on the one hand and the people of Scotland
+on the other, over the matter of episcopacy. Communications were
+constantly kept up between London and Scotland, Baillie, Principal of
+Glasgow University, mentioning that "from the 24th of July to the 10th
+of August, the posts rann thick betwixt the Court and the Counsell,
+which sat every other day, to finde means for peaceable introduction of
+the service." In reading the history of this period, it is curious to
+observe what elements were at work; among these, the active interest
+that women took in the question of Church service is noticeable.
+Everyone knows the story of the throwing of the stool at the preacher
+by Jenny Geddes in the church of St. Giles in Edinburgh. If she were
+but an instance of the feelings aroused generally among the women of
+the East, there is evidence that the women of the West were equally
+determined to have nothing to do with the service-book. Baillie writes
+thus of the preachings at the Synod of Glasgow in 1637: "Mr William
+Annan (Moderator of Ayr) on the 1st of Timothy, 'I command that prayers
+be made for all men,' in the last half of his sermon, from the making
+of prayers, ran out upon the Liturgie, and spake for the defence of it
+in whole, and sundry most plausible parts of it, as well, in my poor
+judgment, as any in the Isle of Brittain could have done, considering
+all circumstances; howsoever, he did maintain, to the dislyk of all in
+ane unfit tyme, that which was hinging in suspense betwixt the King and
+the Country. Of his sermon among us in the Synod, not a word; but in
+the towne among the women, a great dinne. To-morrow (next day) Mr John
+Lindsey, at the Bishop's command, did preach.... At the ingoing of the
+pulpit, it is said that some of the women in his ear assured him, that
+if he should twitch the service book in his sermon, he should be rent
+out of the pulpit; he took the advyce and lett that matter alone. At
+the outgoing of the church, about 30 or 40 of our honestest women, in
+one voyce, before the Bishope and Magistrates, did fall in rayling,
+cursing, scolding with clamours on Mr. William Annan; some two of the
+meanest was taken to the Tolbooth. All the day over, up and down the
+streets where he went, he got threats of sundry in words and looks;
+bot after supper, whill needleslie he will go to visit the Bishop, who
+had taken his leave with him, he is not sooner on the causey, at nine
+of clock, in a mirk night, with three or four ministers with him, but
+some hundredths of inraged women, of all qualities are about him, with
+neaves, and staves, and peats, but no stones; they beat him sore; his
+cloake, ruffe, hatt, were rent; however, upon his cryes, and candles
+set out from many windows, he escaped all bloody wounds; yet he was in
+great danger, even of killing. This tumult was so great, that it was
+not thought meet to search, either in plotters or actors of it, for
+numbers of the best qualitie would have been found guiltie."
+
+It is no wonder that in an opposition such as this to the pet scheme
+of Charles and his buttress Laud, taking shape in a terrible flutter
+of Scottish petticoats, the posts between the Court and Scotland "rann
+thick."
+
+In the year 1637, England appears to have been visited by a plague,
+which about the month of September had extended to Hull. On the 5th
+of that month, Secretary Coke writes a letter from Bagshot, which is
+interesting as showing the ideas then entertained as to the methods
+of preventing the spread of infection. It also attests that the speed
+of the posts was improving under Witherings' management. "This day I
+received at Bagshot yours dated from York the 2nd, whereby you may see
+what expedition is now used in the carriage of letters.... He (His
+Majesty) is sorry to hear of the visitation at Hull, and well approves
+your care in prohibiting goods to pass from Hull to Howden or Malton
+fairs, with other particulars of the proclamation expressed; as to such
+cautions as were fit to be given to the Justices of Peace, I doubt not
+but your provident care will give the Board good satisfaction. For the
+letters which come weekly by post, the manner in other countries is to
+open and air before the fire all such letters as are bound up with silk
+thread, pack-thread, or such like, but for letters of bare paper they
+use no such observance, but suffer them to pass. Wherein, nevertheless,
+if any one that receives any letters from a known infected place will
+but take that care to air them before the fire, which the Secretaries
+do sometimes practice when we conceive danger, it may be well hoped no
+inconvenience will ensue."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Witherings had not long put the posts into some kind of order, as
+regards expedition and regularity, with the result no doubt of
+increased business and growing profit to himself, when his possession
+of the office of Postmaster for Foreign Parts excited the covetous
+heart of Windebank--one of the two Principal Secretaries of State
+and joint Comptroller with Coke of the inland posts, and a friend or
+creature of Laud.
+
+Pigeon-holes in public offices, as elsewhere, have long memories; and a
+paper referring (as is supposed) to the year 1637 has been preserved,
+containing "Observations of Secretary Windebank for recalling the
+patent formerly granted to Mr. Witherings to be Postmaster for
+Foreign Parts." The principal grounds suggested for getting rid of
+Witherings are the following:--"The inconvenience of suffering such
+an office to remain in the hands of a person who is no sworn officer.
+Suspicion that his patent was surreptitiously obtained--no signed
+bill was found. Persons who hold the office of Postmaster abroad are
+of so great quality that they disdain to correspond with a man of his
+mean condition. Some satisfaction may be given him, but he has very
+much enriched himself upon the place. He is said to be worth £800 a
+year in land. The office of Postmaster-General being now vested in
+the Secretaries, the carrying of letters is a business of State. If
+Witherings shall insist upon his patent, His Majesty may sequester
+the place into the hands of the Secretaries." We cannot say whether
+Witherings was aware of what was hatching in the mind of Windebank, but
+we know that he was not then driven from his office.
+
+Troubles now arose out of the exclusive privilege of carrying letters
+as set forth and described in the king's proclamation of the 31st July
+1635. It appears, by an Order of Council of the 15th December 1637,
+that one "Jason Grover, carrier of Ipswich and Yarmouth, was taken in
+custody by a messenger, upon complaint that he had transgressed the
+proclamation and patent granted to Mr. Witherings." The Lords could not
+then settle the matter, and Jason was discharged upon a bond of £200,
+to appear at Hilary term next, to answer what was alleged against him.
+In a petition to the Council in January 1638, Grover gives his version
+of the affair as follows:--"Petitioner, about two months ago, riding on
+one of his pack-horses with his pack, was arrested by the procurement
+of Mr. Witherings, Postmaster of England for Foreign Parts. Petitioner
+remained in the messenger's custody 16 days before he came to this
+Board, when it was ordered that he should attend to be heard the first
+week in Hilary term, and in the meantime petitioner was permitted to
+follow his vocation. But on the 11th instant there came a messenger,
+and summoned petitioner to attend on Wednesday then next, all which he
+has punctually observed, yet Mr. Witherings threatens that he will not
+leave petitioner worth a groat."
+
+Witherings gives his view of the matter in petition to the Council
+about the same time. "About three weeks since," says he, "the _posts_
+of Norwich and Yarmouth petitioned to be released, which was granted,
+with the proviso that they should attend after the holidays, and in
+the meantime be comformable to the grant of the letter office by bond,
+which bond Grover of Ipswich has already forfeited. On the hearing, Mr.
+Hieron, counsel for the _posts_, cast an aspersion on the petitioner
+that he should say they ought not to be heard by your Lordships,
+which petitioner denies, and doubts not to clear himself of everything
+else that shall be objected to him. As the _posts_ continue to carry
+letters contrary to petitioner's grant, he prays the Lords to consider
+the great charge he has been at in settling the conveyance of letters
+throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and other parts beyond the seas,
+and not to suffer the _posts_ to continue carrying letters."
+
+It should be noted that the word "posts," as used in this memorial of
+Witherings, applies to the common carriers or packmen.
+
+Grover was not left to fight the battle of the carriage of letters
+alone. He was supported by the merchants of Norwich, and others
+trading in Norwich stuffs, in a petition addressed to the Council as
+follows:--"There has long been a constant trade betwixt London and
+Norwich in sundry sorts of stuffs and stockings made in Norwich and
+Norfolk, which trade has always been maintained by the merchants of
+Norwich employing their stocks in buying the wares of the makers, and
+sending them up weekly in carts by common carriers to London, whence
+they are dispersed into all parts of this kingdom, and also exported to
+foreign parts, in which intercourse of trade we always had our letters
+safely and speedily carried by our common carrier, by a horseman, not
+in manner of postage by change of horses, but as is usual by common
+carriers, and for little or no charge to us. Of late Mr. Witherings
+has intercepted our letters and molested our carriers, forbidding them
+to carry any of our letters otherwise than to go along with their
+carts, and no faster." Petitioners then explain why the new system of
+conveying letters will prove detrimental to their trade, and pray that
+"they may enjoy their ancient course of conveying letters by their
+common carriers." A separate memorial to a similar effect was sent up
+by Robert Sumpter, Mayor, and seventeen others of the town of Norwich.
+
+After hearing Thomas Witherings and Jason Grover, and their counsel,
+upon this dispute, an Order in Council was drafted, on the 19th
+January, to the following effect:--
+
+"It was ordered that Grover and all carriers shall henceforth conform
+to the letters patent granted to Witherings of the letter office, and
+the proclamation in that behalf. _But their Lordships declared that
+it would be lawful for any carrier that should receive the letters
+of merchants or others, to be carried from town to town within the
+kingdom, to use what diligence he may, and to ride what pace he will,
+so as he do it without shifting or change of horses._ It was objected
+that Witherings took more for the carriage of letters within the
+kingdom than was usual; the Lords referred the consideration of all
+complaints of that nature to the Secretaries of State, praying them to
+take courses for redress of such abuse." This draft, on being submitted
+to the king, did not wholly satisfy him; and he struck out the clause
+in italics, writing in the margin the words, "This clause to be left
+out."
+
+On the 21st January another Order in Council was drafted on this vexed
+question: "It was ordered that the carriers of Norwich, as was ordered
+on the 19th instant for the carrier of letters of Yarmouth and Ipswich,
+should conform to the letters patent granted to Witherings of the
+letter office, and to the proclamation on that behalf, and not presume
+to do or attempt anything contrary to the same." Three days later,
+namely, on the 24th January, yet another Order in Council was issued
+from the Inner Star Chamber, making a concession to the carriers:
+"It was now ordered that for the better accommodation of the said
+merchants, it should be permitted to the common and known carriers
+of letters belonging to Norwich, or any other town, to carry the
+letters of merchants and others, travelling with the same letters the
+ordinary journeys that common carriers travel, and coming to London,
+Norwich, or any other town, not above eight hours before the carts,
+waggons, or pack-horses, whereunto Witherings and others are to conform
+themselves." This concession would appear to refer to the practice
+of the masters of the heavy waggons performing the common carrying
+business of the country, riding on a horse alongside the waggons, and
+who, leaving the waggons in charge of their men when nearing their
+destination, might make a dash forward to arrange the loading for the
+return journey. The masters of a string of pack-horses would probably
+adopt the same practice.
+
+Jason, who had been fighting for the continuance of the old state
+of things, seems not to have become aware at once of the limited
+concession made to the carriers, and the result is described in
+the following _de profundis_ addressed to the Earl of Dorset, Lord
+Chamberlain to the Queen, and one of the Lords of the Council, from the
+uncongenial precincts of the Fleet Prison:--
+
+"Petitioner and the carriers of Norwich were lately questioned by Mr.
+Witherings touching the carriage of letters; and the Lords ordered a
+settled course, not only for the carriers of Norwich, but for all other
+carriers, by Order of the 24th January last, to which Order petitioner
+is willing to conform himself, but had no knowledge that the same was
+drawn up till the 10th February instant. And although petitioner has
+not broken the said Order since the drawing up thereof, yet he, with
+his two men, were by Witherings' procurement for 17 days committed to
+a messenger, and now to the Fleet, and cannot be discharged except
+petitioner will enter into bond to perform such order as Witherings
+has prescribed, which is contrary to the Order of the Board. Prays that
+he may enjoy the benefit of the said Order, and not be punished before
+he has broken the same, nor compelled by Witherings to enter into bond,
+the Order being a sufficient tie."
+
+Jason Grover must have found himself in very respectable company in the
+Fleet Prison, for, at the very time of his confinement, two well-known
+historical characters, John Lilburne and John Warton, were, under the
+proceedings of the notorious Star Chamber, thrown into this place of
+evil note. "Upon the 9th February 1638, the Star Chamber ordered that,
+as the two delinquents had contemptuously refused to take the oaths
+tendered to them, they should be remanded to the Fleet Prison, there
+to remain close prisoners, and to be examined," etc. It is a curious
+coincidence that the charge against these men was for the "unlawful
+printing and publishing of libellous and seditious books, entitled
+_News from Ipswich_," etc., and that Grover's incarceration was for the
+carriage of letters from the same district of country.
+
+In order to put matters beyond all doubt, as between Witherings on
+the one hand and the common carriers and the public on the other, and
+to lay down clearly the mode of working, with the claims of the whole
+postal service committed to the hands of Witherings, a fresh royal
+proclamation was issued on the 11th February 1638. Of the original
+issue of this document it is understood that copies are extremely rare.
+The main provisions of the proclamation are the following:--That as
+the secrets of the realm might be disclosed to foreign nations were
+promiscuous carriers of letters allowed to the Continent, none other
+were to be suffered than those employed by Witherings; that Witherings'
+carriers to the Continent should travel by the sole route of Dover,
+Calais, Boulogne, Abbeville, and Amiens, and thence to Paris. Noticing
+that "sundry abuses and miscarriages" are daily being committed in
+respect of the inland posts to the prejudice of Witherings, the
+proclamation sets forth that, where Witherings' posts are laid down,
+"no post or carrier whatsoever within His Majesty's dominions" ...
+"shall presume to take up, carry, receive and deliver any letter or
+letters," etc., "except a particular messenger sent on purpose with
+letters by any man for his own occasions, or letters by a friend, or by
+common known carriers, who are hereby permitted to carry any letters
+along with their carts, waggons, and pack-horses, travelling with the
+same the ordinary known journeys that common carriers use to travel.
+Provided always that they, nor any of their servants, at no time stay
+at any place from whence they carry any letters above eight hours
+after their carts, waggons, or pack-horses are departed, nor bring any
+letters to London, or elsewhere, above eight hours before the said
+carts, waggons, or pack-horses shall come there." The postage exigible
+by Witherings for inland letters was to be as follows:--
+
+ Single Double Heavy
+ Miles. Letter. Letter. Letter.
+
+ Under 80 2d. 4d. 6d. per oz.
+ From 80 to 140 4d. 8d. 9d. "
+ Over 140 6d. 1s. 0d. 1s. 0d. "
+ To Ireland 9d. -- 2s. 6d. "
+
+Provision is made for the punishment of any post-boy or other servant
+charging any sum in excess of these rates.
+
+The Council, in managing the affairs of the country generally, must
+have had their hands very full, for the amount of business brought
+to their consideration in connection with the posts alone, judging
+by the records left, was by no means small. The postmasters were
+constant complainers of their treatment by the State, and the public
+equally constant complainers against the postmasters. In November
+1637, Robert Challenor, His Majesty's post of Stone, County Stafford,
+memorialises Secretaries Coke and Windebank as follows:--"Petitioner
+for 40 years has been postmaster in the said place, which office he
+has always faithfully executed in his own person, until visited with
+a long sickness, as by an annexed certificate appears. Mr Witherings
+endeavours to put another in petitioner's place, upon pretence that
+petitioner had put in a deputy, being his son, who about a year and a
+half since, in the time of petitioner's sickness, gave his assistance
+for performance of His Majesty's service; and on the 17th March 1637
+petitioner, during his illness, disposed of his estate by will, and
+then assigned his arrears due to him for his post-wages to his son,
+towards discharging petitioner's debts, and benefit of his wife and
+children. Mr Witherings, in regard petitioner would not give him £100
+for petitioner's place (over and above the carriage of the merchants'
+letters twice every week), has for £40 given orders for the said place
+to another, whose parents have been great recusants. Petitioner being
+still able and willing, and his arrears £368 (that stage being the
+longest between London and Chester, and yet is allowed only 20d. per
+diem), prays order that he may be continued in his place, and may
+receive the said £368." This petition was backed up by a certificate of
+the Justices of the Peace of the county, setting forth the petitioner's
+fitness for the office.
+
+Another postmaster, Thomas Parks, on the stage from London to Barnet,
+petitions Secretary Windebank to the following effect:--"Has executed
+that office about six years, which has stood him in £180, without any
+neglect, as Mr. Railton can inform you, and has received but two years'
+pay at the rate of 20d. per diem. Notwithstanding his diligence,
+Mr Witherings endeavours to bring in another, and has already taken
+from petitioner the through posts place of Charing Cross, which cost
+petitioner £63, 6s. Prays order to Witherings to deliver petitioner his
+orders and confirm him in his place."
+
+David Francis, late post of Northop, petitions thus:--"There is £90
+in arrear to petitioner for execution of the said place, as appears
+by the last account of Lord Stanhope to the Auditors. Has been three
+months in town soliciting payment, and received fair promises from Mr.
+Witherings; but now he absolutely says petitioner shall have none, so
+that he is like to be imprisoned. Has spent near his whole estate in
+coming to town to solicit for his father's arrears, who was post of
+Chester 60 years. Prays order to receive part with the rest who are in
+the privy seal, otherwise he is like to perish by the prosecution of
+his greedy creditors."
+
+Richard Scott, innkeeper of Stilton, Huntingdonshire, petitions
+Coke and Windebank for the place of a postmaster who discharges his
+office by deputy. "For some years past," says he, "the place of post
+of Stilton, being in the high North road, has been executed by a
+deputy, who keeps an alehouse there, the postmaster living twelve
+miles distant, and his deputy no ways able to receive gentlemen and
+travellers, much less noblemen, whereby the posts are forced to travel
+at unseasonable times and are not fitted with able horses. Petitioner
+being an innkeeper in the town, both able and willing to give noblemen
+and gentlemen entertainment, prays that he may serve His Majesty in
+that place."
+
+Royston, a market-town in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, was an
+important place in relation to the posts for two reasons: it was a
+stage not far distant from London, on the great North road, and a place
+of residence for the king when he retired to hunt in the neighbourhood.
+Now, on these two accounts there must have been frequent demands made
+upon the postmaster to provide horses, and, on occasions, considerable
+numbers of horses. We are little familiar with the demands then made
+for horses when the sovereign was pleased to go on progress. In
+_Nichols' Progress of James I._, it is stated that the number of carts
+employed when the sovereign went on progress was, about the year 1604,
+reduced from 600 to 220! And even when the king moved about, not in
+a formal progress, it is probable that large orders were given for
+horses. In an account of the number of post horses taken up at Royston
+by four o'clock in the morning of one day in February 1638, it is
+recorded that, from nineteen parishes, 200 horses were so taken up,
+each parish contributing from six to fourteen horses. That the duties
+of the postmaster were more than usually onerous, is recognised in the
+fact that he and the postmaster of Newmarket, where there was another
+royal hunting seat, were paid (or were supposed to be paid) on the
+highest scale allowed to postmasters, namely, 4s. 4d. a day, as will be
+seen by the list of wages previously given.
+
+But all this levying of horses was extremely burdensome and irritating
+to the people, who, however, do not appear to have submitted quietly
+to the infliction. The following petition of eighteen inhabitants
+of Royston, to the Justices of Peace for the county of Hertford,
+shows how matters stood, and the estimation in which they held their
+postmaster; it refers to April 1638:--"Thomas Haggar, of their town,
+innholder, bearing himself so irregularly by authority of his office
+(as postmaster), abuses his protection, to the great grievance of
+the town and country: breaking open some of their doors in the night
+without constable; taking away their horses without their privity;
+extorting, bribing, beating, commanding, threatening countrymen that
+will not fee him, or do him service with their carts, or spend their
+money in tippling in his house; hindering poor men from coming to the
+market to sell their corn, by taking their horses post when there is no
+cause; causing the horses to be double posted, keeping them longer than
+the service requires; and misusing young colts and horses not fit for
+that service, whereby they are oftentimes spoiled; as also taking more
+horses than need requires. They state the consequences to their market,
+and pray relief."
+
+With this petition the following specific cases of abuse were set
+forth, some of them sworn under affidavit. One John Rutter, a
+husbandman of Harleton, Co. Cambridge, having his horse, along with
+others, taken up to go post to Ware, and seeing one of the others
+released, "said he feared there was underhand dealing; whereupon the
+postmaster's wife, and afterwards the postmaster himself, violently
+assaulted him, so that he was forced to lie at Royston all night for
+his hurts to be dressed, and was compelled to go to Ware after his
+horse, and had to pay charges for him, being paid only for one stage,
+although his horse had gone two; and was much wronged thereby." The
+statement adds that the postmaster, and also his wife and servants,
+"usually take money to free horses from going post, and then take other
+horses to do the service." A yeoman of Croydon, Co. Cambridge, named
+Amps, complained of Haggar taking a horse to go post one stage from
+Royston, but discovered that it had been ridden to Newmarket. When
+the horse was returned, the postmaster refused payment; and because
+Amps made complaint, he found that whenever he came to Royston the
+postmaster was "ready to take his horse and put an unreasonable load
+upon him." One of the chief constables of the Hundred of Odsey, Co.
+Hertford, stated that, having to serve a warrant on Haggar for an
+assault, he compelled him to send on the packet, which means that his
+horse was taken to ride the post stage. The complainer adds, that
+"by taking money to excuse post horses, the market of Royston is
+much wronged." Another case of assault by Haggar and his wife upon a
+countryman is alleged; the grounds being that he had imputed bribery
+on seeing another man's horse released while his own was seized for
+service. Sundry other instances of misconduct and oppression are
+charged against the postmaster, one of which is: that four men were
+sent out with warrants to warn country towns to bring in horses;
+that in two days about 200 were summoned, but that most of them were
+believed to have been compounded for by the constables.
+
+In reading this story of the proceedings of the postmaster and his
+wife, the comment suggests itself, that "the grey mare must have been
+the better horse."
+
+On the 7th May 1638, a Mr. John Nicholas writes to his son, Mr.
+Edward Nicholas, to the following effect, complaining of his local
+postmaster:--"Edward Nicholas may do his country good, and especially
+that neighbourhood, who are much oppressed by the postmaster of Sarum,
+Roger Bedbury, the innkeeper of the Three Swans, in Sarum. Sends copy
+of a warrant Bedbury has procured from the Secretaries of State. By
+virtue thereof he sends his warrants to the constables to bring in
+horses furnished, and to pay for their keep, and employs them, not in
+His Majesty's service, but to his own benefit. Leonard Bowles, one of
+the constables of the Hundred of Alderbury, being required, brought in
+horses; and in his presence a minister, coming to the postmaster to
+hire horses, he delivered to the minister one of them. The constable
+asked the postmaster wherefore the minister rode post, imagining he
+was not employed in His Majesty's service, to which the postmaster
+answered, he rode for a benefice, as he thought. If Edward Nicholas
+may prevent the postmaster's knavery, prays him to do so." From an
+enclosure with this letter, it appears that, in issuing his warrant
+to the constables to send in on the 9th May "six able horses, with
+furniture, for His Majesty's service for two days and two nights, at
+the charge of the owners," the postmaster relied upon and recited a
+warrant from Secretaries Coke and Windebank, dated 13th February,
+"for sending to the postmaster ten or twelve horses from New Sarum, a
+six-miles' compass."
+
+A week later, Mr. John Nicholas, finding that the prosecution of the
+complaint was likely to prove troublesome, declares that he will have
+nothing more to do with it. "Touching the postmaster," he writes, "I
+will meddle no further, if there be such a business in it; but let the
+constable, or who else finds himself wronged, follow it and inform
+against him. It will be good service in any that shall do it, and
+good for your own understanding to know the ground of the warrant,
+and whether the postmaster may require the owner of the horse to pay
+for his meat two days and two nights. It may be my own case, for the
+constable has been to me for a horse. I put him off with good words;
+but how I shall do it again, I know not; yet if it be too troublesome
+to you, I pray you meddle no further." Mr. John Nicholas was one of
+a very common type of men, who are ever ready to make a fuss over a
+grievance in the first instance, but who are at all times forward to
+draw someone else in to fight their battles for them.
+
+There are grounds for supposing that at this time some order had been
+issued, empowering the postmasters to keep in their stables supplies
+of horses, taken up in the neighbourhood, and, while standing in the
+stables, to be fed at the owners' expense. This seems the meaning of a
+presentment made at the Grand Inquest at the Assizes holden at Bath on
+the 2nd July 1638. The statement made is: "That of late there are come
+commissions into the country, under the hand of the two Secretaries
+of State, to all postmasters, for taking up such numbers of horses as
+the postmasters shall think fit; and the postmasters take into their
+stables ten or twelve horses at one time, and keep them two nights, and
+then take in so many more; and if they have employment for any of them,
+they pay the post price, otherwise they make the owners pay for their
+meat and dressing what rate they please; but some, upon composition,
+they release, which makes the burthen the heavier upon the rest. We
+beseech you to present this grievance to His Majesty."
+
+The way in which traffic was carried on in the places of country
+postmasterships, and the duties delegated to deputies, is set forth in
+a petition to the king, of February 1638, from Randolph Church, one of
+His Majesty's gentlemen pensioners. Petitioner "has for sixteen years
+served as serjeant-at-arms, and, since he left that place, in the place
+wherein he now serves; during which time he never received benefit by
+any suit; but he purchased some post places under Lord Stanhope, which
+he has executed by deputies for many years. But now Lord Stanhope,
+having surrendered his patent, petitioner's post places, to the value
+of £200 per annum, are taken away, there being £650 due to him for
+wages upon the said places; and now petitioner, being employed in the
+prosecution of delinquents for converting timber to coal for making
+iron, and having expended much money therein, and being likely to bring
+great sums into the Exchequer, the means by which he should subsist
+are taken away. Beseeches some such satisfaction out of moneys brought
+into the Exchequer by his present service as may equal his places and
+arrears."
+
+There seems almost no end of the petitions which came up from the
+postmasters upon all phases of their duties and pay. Thomas Carr,
+postmaster of Berwick, thus complains: "Thomas Witherings, in
+consideration of his grant of the letter office of England and foreign
+parts, is to pay the posts their wages. Witherings has reduced the
+wages of Thomas Carr from 2s. 4d. to 1s. per diem, all the rest being
+cut off only but the third part of their pay, which will not be
+sufficient to find horse and man to perform the service; moreover,
+they are enjoined to more service than formerly, viz. to carry his
+mail of letters forward and backward once a week gratis. Witherings
+employs one at Berwick to carry his letters from thence to Edinburgh
+for 20s. a week. Carr has offered to perform it for a great deal less;
+but Witherings not only denies the same, but threatens to put Carr
+out of his place if he go not speedily down, he waiting only for the
+arrears of his post wages, without which he is not able to subsist.
+Requests that his pay may be made 1s. 8d. per diem, that he may carry
+the letters from Berwick to Edinburgh, and also that he may be sworn
+His Majesty's servant, as the other posts are."
+
+In a position such as Witherings held, and in a period when the
+public mind was greatly disturbed, it must have been a hard task
+for any man to keep free from entanglements and quarrels with the
+public. We have several notices of differences, more or less serious,
+in which Witherings was concerned. In May 1633, he is reported to
+have "misbehaved himself toward my Lord Marshal and his son Lord
+Maltravers," but in what respect is not stated. Again, in May 1636,
+Captain Carterett writes (to Sir John Coke, apparently), from on board
+his ship in the Downs, complaining of Witherings, as follows:--"Being
+in Dover Road, there came unto me one Mr. Thomas Witherings (who is
+also called Postmaster-General) for to have Captain Dunning's vessel
+to carry him over for Calais, having a packet (as he said) from your
+honour to my Lord Ambassador at Paris. I told him he should have the
+_Roebuck_, or I would go over with him myself. I desired him to show me
+the packet, but he told me he would neither show me order nor packet;
+he began to use me in very rough and coarse language, notwithstanding
+that I did use him with all the civility I could. I have heard that
+he had never a packet, but only went over to Calais about his own
+businesses. He gave out that he doth belong to your honour." There are
+always two sides to a story; and when Witherings' version had been
+heard, the tables were turned upon the captain. This appears by a
+letter, written by Secretary Coke to (probably) the Governor of Dover
+about the same period. "Finding our foreign letters," says Coke,
+"come with less expedition than they were used to do, and requiring
+account thereof from the Postmaster of Foreign Parts, he excused
+himself by a certificate that Captain Carteret, who is trusted with
+that business, refuses to put to sea with merchants' letters only. He
+formerly charged Mr. Witherings with uncivil usage, which I discovered
+to have no ground. His Majesty requires your lordship to rectify this
+disorder; and to charge Captain Carteret, to whom you give this trust,
+to be careful to convey the merchants' packets as his own. And if he
+be not conformable, that you appoint some other more proper for that
+duty; which Captain Drury before him performed with good content, and
+may haply be still ready to undertake." But two years later Witherings
+had a difference with a man of much higher standing, namely, the Earl
+of Northumberland, then Lord General of the Forces at Sea, arising
+out of some failure in the conveyance of a packet. The precise facts
+are not clear; but the immediate action taken by the earl is described
+in a letter from Witherings (to Secretary Coke, no doubt) dated 29th
+September 1638:--"It was my unhappy fortune," says Witherings, "to
+meet with Mr. Smyth, secretary to the Earl of Northumberland, who told
+me that his lordship had sent a warrant directed to a messenger for
+me. I went to his lordship's house--was there by six of the clock in
+the morning, where, after two hours' stay, I spoke with his honour;
+and the weather being extreme cold, I got an ague, and am now forced
+to keep my bed. The stage at Farnham, he told me, was a stage in pay;
+and I promised (if it were so) I would move your honour to compel him
+(the postmaster) to carry his lordship's packets. He also told me I
+had abused his lordship in not sending forward the packets which were
+brought to my house; to which I answered: that belonged not to me, but
+to the ordinary posts of the road" (probably the ordinary carriers are
+meant). "I also told his honour that I had sent for the packet books
+of all the posts betwixt London and Dover, to the intent if any abuse
+were committed it might be punished. Notwithstanding his honour was
+very well satisfied with my answers to him, his servant Smyth delivered
+the warrant to the messenger; and though I was in bed, yet he came up
+to my chamber, and, in a very violent way, asked me if I would obey the
+warrant or not; to whom I answered, that in regard of my sickness I
+could not at this time do it. Your honour may be pleased to satisfy his
+lordship in this business." In perusing this letter, we are struck with
+two things--the peremptoriness of the proceedings taken against a man
+in Witherings' position, and with his treatment at the earl's house.
+The latter is reminiscent of Dr. Johnson in the ante-room of the Earl
+of Chesterfield.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+In August 1638, Witherings was returning from a journey he had made
+into the north, when he was laid-up ill at Ware. On the 8th of that
+month, his servant Waad writes to Secretary Coke, that "yesterday I
+found my master ill at Ware, intending this day to set forward to
+Walthamstow." It immediately became rumoured in London that Witherings
+was dead. "The wish" may, in some minds, "have been father to the
+thought"; for Windebank had been looking into the possible removal of
+Postmaster Witherings, and Burlamachi, merchant and financier, lost no
+time in taking steps with a view to securing the office to himself. The
+very next day after the rumour was set about, a letter was written by
+Burlamachi to Sir John Coke, bespeaking the succession to the supposed
+vacant place. "Since Witherings is dead," says Burlamachi, "I write to
+offer my services to your honour; assuring you that you may dispose of
+me; and I hope I shall be not less capable of advancing the interests
+of His Majesty than Witherings has been." But Witherings, although
+he had had a sharp attack of illness, was not dead. A week later, he
+was no farther on his way towards London than Walthamstow, whence he
+writes a doleful letter to Sir John Coke, dated the 14th August 1638.
+The letter is as follows:--"It pleased the Lord, in this last northern
+journey (wherein I was sent by Mr. Secretary Windebank), to inflict
+upon me two great fevers, which have been so heavy, that indeed, had
+not the Lord been more merciful, gracious, and favourable towards me, I
+should no ways have been able to endure them for one hour of the time.
+I am a weak and miserable man; yet no doubt of life nor fear of health,
+if God (for my manifold sins) do not again lay His heavy hand upon me.
+To-morrow (God willing) I shall be at London," etc.
+
+The period at which we have now arrived, 1638-39, was one of widespread
+distraction and trouble throughout the whole kingdom, the people being
+divided into two very marked parties,--the Covenanters in Scotland and
+Presbyterians in England being on the one side, and the King's Council,
+with the bishops and the Church party, on the other. In circumstances
+such as these, it must have been very difficult for a man at the
+head of the Post Office to steer a middle course, as in all cases of
+interception or delay of letters suspicion was likely to fall upon the
+postmasters. Advice was given by one of the King's party, that "because
+there be divers Scots Covenanters about Court, who give intelligence
+(both by the ordinary and posters"--that is, by men riding post--"and
+journiers into Scotland), a course should be taken that the letters may
+be opened; and that the Governor of Berwick may give order for some
+strict searching and examining the Scots travellers." And as a matter
+of fact, the posts were waylaid and the letters carried to Secretary
+Coke. In a letter written from Berwick to Secretary Windebank, on
+the 26th September 1638, Sir James Douglas complains that "he who
+carries the running-post letters betwixt Berwick and Edinburgh plays
+the rogue with all the letters that come from Edinburgh to me, so I
+have prohibited any to write to me that way." It is not clear whether
+Witherings lent himself to this espionage of the letters, or whether he
+tried to keep clear of it; but subsequent events might almost seem to
+suggest that Witherings inclined to the Presbyterian or popular party,
+and that he was distrusted by the Court. Reference has been made to
+Burlamachi, who lately applied for the place of Chief Postmaster. This
+man, as has already been mentioned, was a native of Sedan in France,
+but naturalised in England. He was largely employed by the King and
+Council in financial matters of State, and had a hand in negotiating
+a loan of money upon the Crown jewels taken over to Holland early in
+Charles' reign. These jewels remained in Holland until November 1636;
+and while there, Burlamachi seems to have had power to pawn and repawn
+them at pleasure, to the tune and measure of Court necessities. At one
+time Burlamachi was a broken man; he was granted a protection from the
+diligence of his creditors in 1633-34 and 35; yet he still enjoyed the
+confidence of Charles. This is not, however, surprising; for, in a
+petition from Burlamachi's daughters, at the time of the Restoration,
+it is stated "that their father was ruined by his advances to the
+king." Under these circumstances there would be a potent tie between
+these men, for Burlamachi could only hope for the recovery of his
+money through the good fortune and favour of the king. It is well that
+all this should be borne in mind, for Burlamachi's name will come up
+hereafter.
+
+The public do not realise how effective, as a trap, the Post Office
+is, until they find themselves in the position of having written and
+posted a letter which, upon cooler reflection, they would fain withhold
+from the eyes of the person addressed. Cases of this kind occasionally
+happen in our own day, when proof is given of the irrevocability of the
+act of dropping a letter into the letter-box. Writers in such cases
+can then do nothing,--they are left to settle the business with their
+correspondents as best they may,--and no difficulty or trouble, as a
+rule, results to the officers of the Post Office. In the earliest days
+of the post the trap existed, as is shown by the following account of
+an attempt to recover a letter, after it had been committed to the
+care of Witherings' officers, in the year 1639. The incident shows that
+in these days, as well as in ours, men could write letters in haste and
+repent at leisure. The account comes to us in a declaration by Laurence
+Kirkham, an assistant in one of the offices appointed in London for the
+taking in letters for the post. It states that "upon Tuesday the 4th
+June came William Davies to my master's shop, my mistress and I being
+there present, to take in letters for Mr. Witherings, His Majesty's
+Postmaster both for the Northern road and West, etc., for conveyance
+of letters both by sea and land. Davies, coming as above, demanded a
+letter again which he said was his own, and that he delivered it to me
+that same day to go by post. I, not remembering any such thing, and
+he being a stranger to me, I told him that it was more than I could
+answer or dared do, to deliver any man's letter again, being once
+in my hands, especially not knowing it to be his letter; but, for
+quietness' sake, he being so outrageous for his letter, I told him that
+if he would stay until the box were opened wherein his letter was, if
+I found any such letter with such a superscription as he expressed his
+to have, I would deliver it to him, provided that he carried it not
+away nor break it open; but he might add something outside, or stick
+a note in it, if I saw it were no hurt; or rather, if he would write
+another letter after it, I would give him the portage of it. But this
+would not satisfy him; he swore I should not keep his letter from
+him, but he would have it; and thrust his hand into a heap of letters
+which lay before him in the shop, he well knowing that his letter was
+not there, and took what he could get of letters and packets, and put
+in his pocket--some scattering in the street and some in the shop, a
+multitude of people being gathered together. What he took and what
+he lost is uncertain, as also what damage my master and others may
+receive thereby, there being letters to the nobility and many others
+to the army in the North, and divers to other countries. My mistress,
+striving with him, was hurt, and her hand bruised; and I, holding him
+in the street for the letters, he fell upon me, beat and pulled me by
+the hair, kicked me, and tore my apparel, by which abuse I received
+damage." This must have been a very pretty little scene, and it would
+have been interesting to know how the law took notice of Mr. Davies'
+obstreperous conduct.
+
+The proceedings of these times have a smack of dramatic interest,
+surrounded as they are by conditions which do not obtain in the present
+day. In May 1639, a scene was enacted in the market-place of Ware, of
+which a description is given in a letter from Edmund Rossingham, dated
+the 8th of May. The reader can perhaps imagine the open space of this
+town where the market is held, thronged with country folks with their
+produce for sale, stalls of vendors, horses and carts of the farmers,
+and idlers hanging about to see what might turn up to their advantage.
+A clatter of horses' feet is heard, and into the market-place dash
+three men on horseback, who draw rein at the post house of Ware. With
+the preliminary statement that the king was at this time lying with his
+army at Berwick, the letter must itself describe what took place. The
+letter, which is addressed to Viscount Conway, proceeds: "Lord Carr
+(Ker), the Earl of Roxburgh's son, riding post the other day into the
+North, having letters from the queen, came to Ware, and the postmaster
+went out to take up three horses for his use; but out of malice would
+have taken a great carthorse which carried corn to the market, only the
+owner, a poor countryman, would not part with it, saying his horse was
+not to ride post. The postmaster and he being in strife together in
+the market, three Deputy Lieutenants, Justices of the Peace, namely,
+Sir Richard Lucy, Sir John Butler, and Sir John Watts, convening there
+about county business, saw this contention out of a window of the inn,
+and they relieved the countryman, bidding the postmaster seek out other
+horses more fit for the service; whereupon the postmaster, in a great
+chafe, goes back to Lord Ker and tells him the Deputy Lieutenants
+had taken one of those horses he had taken up by his warrant. Lord
+Ker frets at this, and learns of the postmaster where the Deputy
+Lieutenants' horses stand, and commands three of these horses to be
+saddled to ride post with. The Deputy Lieutenants have notice of this,
+and will not let their horses be saddled, whereupon a great contention
+ensued between the lord and these Deputy Lieutenants; so hot grew Lord
+Ker, who had a case of pistols by his side, that he and his two men
+challenged the three Justices into the field to end the difference.
+Sir John Butler and Sir John Watts had good stomachs to go out with
+them; but Sir Richard Lucy, a more temperate man, would rather use his
+authority than his courage that way, as being much the more justifiable
+course; and so sent out to provide post horses for them, which were
+brought to the gate. Sir Richard then tells Lord Ker there are post
+horses for him, and, if he will not take them, himself will make his
+lordship fast and take from him the queen's letters, send them to His
+Majesty, and do his errand, which would be little to his lordship's
+advantage; whereupon the Lord Ker cools a little, and, grumbling at
+being thus thwarted, takes the horses provided for him, and away he
+posts."
+
+The Justices were well aware of the advantage of being early in
+the field with their account of this business; and accordingly
+they forthwith wrote a statement of the whole matter to their
+Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Salisbury, who was then with the king in the
+North, and which "they sent post after the lord, to be at Court so soon
+as he should be."
+
+The better to keep up communications between the king, then in the
+North, and the governing powers in Ireland, a packet was at this time
+employed between Whitehaven and Dublin. The agreement with the master,
+Nicholas Herbert, was that his barque should be provided "with one
+sufficient master and other meet and able sailors" ... "to carry the
+letters of His Majesty or the Council to the Lord Deputy at Dublin, and
+shall receive £10 per lunar month."
+
+As has already been remarked, there is reason to suppose that
+Witherings had come to have leanings towards the Parliamentarians, a
+posture which would alienate him from the Court party. At anyrate,
+on the 29th July 1640, the office held by Witherings was sequestered
+by the king's privy seal into the hands of Philip Burlamachi, "who
+was directed by proclamation to execute the office." The proclamation
+here referred to is probably that dated the 6th August 1640. The first
+clause sets forth the reason for the proceeding as follows:--"Whereas
+we have received information of divers abuses and misdemeanours
+committed by Thomas Witherings in the execution as well of the office
+of Postmaster of Foreign Parts as also of the Letter Office within
+our own dominions, and thereupon have been pleased to sequester the
+said office into the hands of P. Burlamachi of London, merchant, who
+is to execute the same, under the care and oversight of our Principal
+Secretary of State, till we shall signify our pleasure to the contrary;
+and have accordingly declared the same under our royal hand and signet,
+and commanded our said Secretary to see the sequestration put into
+speedy execution, and to take such course that neither our service nor
+the business of the merchants nor our other subjects might thereby
+receive any prejudice or interruption." In pursuance of this ordinance
+the business of the post was removed from Witherings' offices to other
+premises.
+
+When a man is down there are always a lot of unthinking or interested
+persons ready to give the unfortunate individual another kick, and
+the king's followers were not slow to avail themselves of the chance
+presented by Witherings' sequestration. Sir Francis Windebank writes
+from Paris in April 1641, whither he had found it convenient to remove,
+as follows:--"I wrote lately to Mr. Treasurer (Vane) by Mr. Frizell,
+who touched here in his passage out of Italy toward England. He was
+Postmaster before Witherings, and drew him in to be his partner; but
+Witherings, in token of his thankfulness, joined with Sir John Coke and
+thrust the poor man utterly out. He is able, and not unwilling, if he
+be dexterously managed, to discover much of Witherings' miscarriage
+in that place, which I have desired Mr. Treasurer to make use of, and
+you will do well to put him in remembrance of it from me." In another
+letter about the same date Windebank complains of the miscarriage of
+his letters, and remarks: "How they are come to miscarry now I do not
+understand, presuming that Witherings, though he want no malice to
+betray anything that may fall into his hands concerning me, yet dares
+not intercept any packet addressed to Mr. Treasurer, as this was."
+About the same time a letter from Robert Reade, residing at Paris,
+makes mention of the failure of letters, and proceeds: "But the world
+grows every day worse and worse, and is so full of deceit and malice
+that I think there will be no living shortly for an honest man in it.
+Perhaps Witherings has met with it again; if he have, my comfort is
+that no better fortune will befall him in that than usually does to
+harkeners, who never hear good of themselves; yet, methinks, since the
+House of Parliament were more noble than to countenance him in his
+last unworthiness of that kind, he should not have much courage to
+do it again." In another letter the same writer says: "I think your
+honour will have very uncertain dealing from Mr. Witherings, for in all
+his affairs he appears so." There is a marked indefiniteness in the
+references made by private persons who at this period were ready to
+speak ill of Witherings--a want of specific charges against him. But in
+a report appended to certain resolutions of the House of Lords, dated
+8th September 1642, information is supplied showing how Witherings had
+been badgered, and what the various complaints were. The allegations
+set forth are: "Misdemeanours in opening letters, not giving advices
+in due time, taking greater rates than usual, transporting prohibited
+commodities, not suffering the passage boat to be searched, not able
+to hold correspondence for want of language, breach of correspondence
+for want of paying foreign posts." Happily for Witherings none of these
+charges were found proved.
+
+Witherings seems to have believed that Burlamachi had had a principal
+hand in bringing about the sequestration of his office, for we
+find him writing to Sir John Coke, on the 8th November 1640, as
+follows:--"Burlamachi stands upon his justification, which is, that
+these offices were forced upon him. My humble suit unto your honour
+is, that you will be pleased to deliver to ----, your son, upon his
+coming up, such letters as your honour received from him years past,
+whereby he was a practiser from time to time to take from me my office,
+contrary to his own declaration. Your honour may be pleased to certify
+something therein to your son, who may declare it to the House of
+Parliament." Burlamachi was not, however, Witherings' only enemy in
+this matter; for, in a letter from Thomas Coke to Sir John Coke, of
+12th May 1640, two months before the sequestration, it is stated that
+"the two Secretaries do now, since the Parliament, prosecute him again
+for the right of his place; but they cannot yet fasten anything upon
+him, neither can Mr. Attorney find any imperfection in his patent;
+so that he hath now great hopes again that the question will be to
+save him a thousand pounds a year in his purse." At the time of the
+sequestration Witherings was put in prison, but probably his detention
+was of short duration. Witherings found himself hard pressed by
+his enemies, and, feeling himself not very able perhaps to contend
+against large odds, he assigned an interest in his office to the Earl
+of Warwick. This is mentioned in a letter to Sir John Coke from his
+son, the 15th of March 1641: "He hath now, without the advice of his
+friends, put himself under the protection of the Earl of Warwick,
+by passing some interest in his places to him. This the violent
+prosecution of his adversaries hath driven him unto, out of fear to
+be oppressed. I wish by this means he do not lose all in the end." In
+April 1641, the Earl of Warwick was sworn a Privy Councillor, and thus,
+in point of interest, Witherings had secured an important ally. While
+his friends may have thought the step taken by Witherings of uncertain
+advantage, Witherings no doubt considered that "half a loaf would be
+better than no bread."
+
+It is a troublesome business to unravel all the records of the
+proceedings in the Parliament and Council of this affair of the
+possession of the posts. There were two offices held by Witherings,
+as the reader will remember,--the Postmastership of the Foreign Posts
+(held by patent) and the Postmastership (by delegation from the
+Principal Secretaries of State) of the Inland Posts. In the records
+we have of Witherings' present troubles, these two offices are not
+always clearly defined, and it is somewhat difficult to understand the
+references. But this much is quite clear, that, on the 10th February
+1640, a committee of the House of Commons was appointed "to consider
+of the complaints of the Inland Posts, foreign courriers and carriers,
+and foot posts, and the several abuses of Mr. Witherings and the
+rest of the postmasters." The proceedings of this inquiry dragged on
+for a period of over two years. At length, on the 28th March 1642,
+the House of Commons gave a deliverance, by resolution, in favour of
+Witherings, respecting the Foreign Posts as follows, namely, "that this
+sequestration of the office of Foreign Postmaster from the possession
+of Witherings is a grievance and illegal, and ought to be taken off
+and repealed" ... "that the proclamation for the putting Mr. Witherings
+out of possession of the exercise of his place of Postmaster for
+Foreign Parts is a grievance and illegal, and ought not to be put in
+execution" ... "resolved that Mr. Witherings ought to be restored unto
+the possession of his place as Postmaster for Foreign Parts, and to the
+mean profits received since he was out of possession, deducting the
+reasonable and usual charges of execution" ... "that for the legality
+of his patent, it shall be referred to a trial at law." Then, on the
+16th August 1642, the following resolutions were passed by the House
+of Commons respecting the Inland Posts:--"That the sequestration of
+the Inland Letter Office to Philip Burlamachi is illegal and void, and
+ought to be taken off" ... "that Philip Burlamachi and his deputies
+shall forthwith bring in an account of the profits of the office
+received by him or his deputies since his illegal sequestration to
+the Committee for the Accounts where Mr. Trenchard has the chair" ...
+"that the proclamation in pursuance of the sequestration is illegal
+and void." It will be observed that nothing is said in these latter
+resolutions indicating that Witherings should again take charge of
+the Inland Posts, by delegation or otherwise. But a deliverance was
+also given at this time on the subject of Witherings' interference
+with the public carriers in conveying letters for the public, which
+events occurred in 1637-38, and have already been mentioned. The House
+resolved "that the taking of the several letters in this case from
+the several carriers, and the several restraints and imprisonment of
+Grover, Chapman, Cotton, and Mackerill, is against the law and liberty
+and freedom of the subject" ... "that these several persons ought to
+have reparations and damages from Sir John Coke and Sir F. Windebank,
+then Secretaries of State, and Mr. Witherings respectively" ... "that
+Sir J. Coke, Sir F. Windebank, and Mr. Witherings are delinquents."
+
+Now, although Witherings' office had been in sequestration from 1640
+till 1642, it would almost seem that he was not entirely suspended from
+all share in the management of the place during that period, for in
+writings of 1641 reference is made to services performed by Witherings
+in the transmission of foreign correspondence. In a letter, dated from
+Edinburgh 2nd November 1641, from Secretary Vane to Edward Nicholas,
+the latter is requested to instruct Mr. Witherings as to the forwarding
+of two packets, "much concerning His Majesty's service," one of which
+was for Hamburgh; and this Witherings was to forward by an express,
+which by his office he was bound to provide for and pay. In a letter
+from Witherings, dated at Walthamstow 7th November 1641, to Edward
+Nicholas, respecting these instructions, Witherings writes: "I have
+sent the one express for Hamburgh with my own packet-boat, which not
+only carries the king's colours, but is of defence and well known on
+the seas. Be confident there shall be no neglect, neither of the one
+nor the other in me."
+
+During the proceedings against Witherings, he was unquestionably
+handled in a very rough manner; for a warrant was issued in 1641 (as
+is supposed) by the Secretary of State to a messenger of the Chamber
+in the following terms:--"These are by His Majesty's command, to
+require and authorise you to repair to the office and house of Thomas
+Witherings, Postmaster for Foreign Service, and there to search for and
+take into custody all papers, pamphlets, and letters."
+
+On the 5th October 1642, Robert Earl of Warwick petitioned that,
+in virtue of the assignment of the Inland Letter Office to him by
+Witherings, and in view of the fact that Burlamachi had failed to
+obey the ordinance delivered by Parliament, by continuing to hold and
+administer that office, Burlamachi should be ejected from the place and
+punished for his disobedience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+On the 25th November 1642, "It was thought fit, and ordered by the
+Lords, that the said office--that is, the Inland Letter Office--shall
+be delivered to the Earl of Warwick or his deputies, and that
+Burlamachi and his deputies shall, within eight days after serving of
+this Order, bring in a particular account upon oath to the Earls Clare
+and Bolinbroke, and Lord Grey of Werke and Lord Bruce, of the profits
+of that office during all the time of their being in possession of the
+same. The lords above mentioned are to make reports to the House, that
+thereby the Earl of Warwick may have the profits of that office, to be
+paid to him by the parties aforesaid; and the posts and their agents
+are hereby commanded to bring the mails, with letters, to such place as
+the Earl of Warwick shall appoint." Another Order, dated 2nd December
+1642, was issued confirming the foregoing Order, and also giving
+authority to the earl, in the event of the country postmasters refusing
+to carry or deliver up the mails as directed, "to seize upon the mails,
+and to put the postmasters out of their places, until they conform
+themselves unto the Order of the House." It was further ordered that
+all colonels, captains, justices, constables, and others, His Majesty's
+officers, should aid and assist in the execution of this Order.
+
+On the 9th December, the House of Lords seem to have issued a
+peremptory Order to Burlamachi to produce the "books of accompts for
+receipt of the profits of the Inland Letter Office, with the warrants
+and acquittances," etc. But this Burlamachi neglected to do, and,
+in consequence of his contumacy, the House make a further Order on
+the 21st December to the effect "that the Sheriffs of London or
+their deputies shall, by virtue of this Order, seize the said books
+of accompts, etc., and send them to the Clerk of the Parliament on
+Saturday, the 24th present." The Lords at the same time confirm the
+previous Orders of the 25th November and 2nd December, "for that it
+appears that the possession of the Inland Letter Office, settled by the
+Order of this House on the Earl of Warwick, has been interrupted by
+divers refractory and obstinate persons." The Lords further give Order
+"that all colonels, mayors, sheriffs, and other officers shall have
+full power and authority to seize all mails of letters in all places,
+both coming in and going out, and to deliver the same to the Earl of
+Warwick or his deputies at his office near the Royal Exchange, London,
+and this Order to be their sufficient warrant."
+
+Events were developing very rapidly at this period, for, on the 24th
+December 1642, Burlamachi was in custody for not bringing in the books
+of account already referred to, and on that date he petitions for his
+discharge. He was not, however, then released.
+
+On the following day, 25th December, a brief return was made by
+Burlamachi of the revenue and expenditure of the Inland Letter Office,
+from 4th August 1640 to 25th December 1641, as follows:--Moneys
+received, £8363; moneys expended, £4867; balance in hand, £3496,
+whereof £1400 has been paid to the Secretary of State. Of the other
+£2000, Burlamachi states that "those that keep the office are to be
+considered for their pains and attendance, which are great," and he
+adds something about a probable increase from the Irish correspondence.
+On the 29th December, Burlamachi draws up a fresh petition, this time
+to the effect that his accounts may be audited by one of His Majesty's
+auditors, and he again prays that his liberty may be granted to him. On
+the 31st December, an Order is issued from the House of Lords requiring
+that "Philip Burlamachi shall within eight days account upon oath to
+John Worfield, the City Auditor, for all moneys derived from the Inland
+Letter Office since the sequestration, and how the same have been
+disposed of, upon which Mr. Worfield is to report to this House."
+
+The precise issue of these varied proceedings cannot readily be made
+out; but it would seem that at this time, 1643, the Foreign Letter
+Office remained in possession of Witherings, and that the Inland Letter
+Office was handed over to the Earl of Warwick.
+
+The period from 1642 to 1660 was one full of incident and surprises,
+a time when every man had to risk all by declaring himself either
+for the King or the Parliament, or remain, if this were possible, in
+passive obscurity; and, in the former case, unhappy was the man who
+chose the losing side. To men in positions like that of Witherings, the
+situation must have been most trying, for however he might strive to
+serve the party in power, his proceedings would be open to suspicion.
+And so later experience will show.
+
+Leaving Witherings for a moment, we will refer to an officer of the
+Post Office who did important service for the king. This was James
+Hickes, one of Witherings' clerks, the only member of the staff who
+threw his lot in with the royal cause. When, in 1643, Charles held
+his Court at Oxford, he was cut off from the service of the postal
+system having its centre in London; and he took steps for erecting a
+rival post system for his own use. Hickes was ordered by warrant to
+"receive and demand from all postmasters on the Western and other
+roads obedient to His Majesty, the arrears in their hands due to the
+Letter Office; all refusers of the arrears to be dealt with according
+to their deserts." He had other directions generally, to the effect
+of establishing a system of posts in the West, well affected for the
+king, and extending south to Weymouth, from which port to Cherbourg a
+weekly service by packet was being set up. More complete instructions
+were given to Hickes on the 27th January 1644, as follows:--"Knowing
+your experience in the Letter Office, we hereby appoint you to reside
+in Weymouth, for the receiving and despatching all packets and
+letters coming to your hands, either from Court or any part within
+this kingdom,--not possessed by the rebels,--or from beyond seas, and
+to receive money for their port, such only excepted as are for His
+Majesty's service, or to tax them according to the rules of the Letter
+Office; as also to hire one or more passage boats as Sir Nicholas
+Crispe, our deputy, shall direct you, taking special care that all
+letters passing through the said port, and all passengers and goods
+passing in the said passage boats, be duly taken notice of by you,
+and all duties paid before you dismiss them, the master of the packet
+boat to be answerable to you for the passage money of all goods and
+passengers he shall take on board; and generally in this employment to
+demean yourself as may be most for His Majesty's service, and the just
+benefit of the Letter Office under us, and to observe all directions
+you shall receive from us and from the said Sir Nicholas Crispe,
+and to render a constant true weekly account of all your receipts
+and disbursements to Mr Thomas Nevile at Oxford. And we desire the
+Governor, Mayor, constable, etc., of Weymouth, to aid you therein."
+
+Hickes is a somewhat remarkable figure in post-office history. Sometime
+before the Restoration he was again employed in the Post Office in
+London; and in a petition addressed to the king in 1666, he describes
+the services rendered by him during the period above mentioned. In that
+memorial he says that he then "carried personally His Majesty's foreign
+letters and packets to Oxford, with the hazard of his life"; that "in
+the year 1643 he was committed to prison by Corbett the traitor, and
+in great danger of being tried for his life by the unjust laws then
+practised, for holding correspondence with Mr. Secretary Nicholas in
+His Majesty's service, and, having with much difficulty escaped to
+Oxford, he was employed in several expeditions and employments of
+trust, by both the then Principal Secretaries of State; and settled at
+Weymouth to manage two packet boats, for conveyance of His Majesty's
+despatches to and from foreign parts, as will appear by their several
+commissions, and under his said Majesty's royal hand and signet;
+during which time he exposed his wife and children to the charity of
+others, himself to daily dangers, and his small fortune to an utter
+diminution." "Corbett the traitor" referred to is no doubt one of the
+regicides afterwards taken in Holland, and who was hanged and quartered
+at Tyburn on the 19th April 1662. His full name was Miles Corbett.
+
+About the year 1644, Thomas Witherings must have been, or considered to
+be, a man of a respectable estate, for, according to the proceedings
+of the Committee for the Advance of Money, he was, on the 18th June of
+that year, assessed for a contribution of £800. Now, as the assessment
+was based upon one-twentieth of real estate, and one-fifth of personal
+estate, the sum assessed represents a condition of fair wealth. The
+full amounts of these assessments were seldom, however, exacted, and
+Witherings seems to have been let off after making payments amounting
+to about £550.
+
+By an Order in Parliament of 23rd February 1649, the appointment of
+Robert Earl of Warwick as Lord High Admiral and Lord Warden of the
+Cinque Ports was revoked; and on the same day, at the the Council of
+State, a request was made that Mr. Prideaux should come to the Council
+to settle stages for all the posts. From this it may be inferred
+that the posts also had been taken out of the Earl of Warwick's
+hands. Warwick's brother, Lord Holland, being dissatisfied with the
+proceedings of the Parliamentary party, had gone over to the King's
+side, and taken active service against the Parliament, on account of
+which it may probably have been considered unwise to continue the
+Earl of Warwick at the head of the Inland Posts. On the 29th March,
+the Council appointed Sir Henry Vane, Alderman Wilson, and Messrs.
+Heveningham, Holland, and Robinson to be a committee on the postal
+service. Things at the Post Office were becoming very unsettled. On
+the 27th March, by Order of the Council, the mails were that night to
+be searched for the book called the _New Chains_; on the 5th April
+instructions were issued that any person named Edward Broun, calling
+for letters at the post office, was to be detained; in the same month
+Mr. Witherings was ordered to prosecute "Wilkes" for the seditious
+speeches mentioned by him. The Council of State gave orders, on the 8th
+June, to stay all letters brought to the post, directed to Mons. de la
+Caille, Marchand Français, démeurant à la Haye, and to bring them to
+the Council. And in the following month the Council gave further orders
+that all letters which might be thought to contain anything prejudicial
+to the State should be examined. Later, complaints were made against
+Captain Stephen Rich, for miscarriages in the execution of his place as
+postmaster in not transporting the State's packets between Holyhead
+and Dublin. Rich, it appears, resided at Dublin, and the matter was
+referred for investigation to the authorities in that city. In a letter
+from a lady in London to her brother at Rochelle, dated 20th February
+1650, the following account of the state of the posts is given:--"The
+jealousies of the time are great, and consequently the danger of
+writing; all packets are stopped, which is the reason you do not hear
+from me, for a high court of justice is erecting, and all intelligence
+with the king or his ministers is voted treason." These particulars
+exhibit something of the business that was proceeding in the Post
+Office.
+
+In 1649, a crisis occurred in Withering's official career. On the 2nd
+April of that year, information was laid against him "that he had
+assisted Lord Goring in the late insurrection in Essex (1648), by going
+into arms and setting out three armed men,--one with a horse,--for
+which he was sequestered in Essex." Shortly thereafter orders were
+issued for the seizure of all his money, plate, goods, rents, debts,
+and estate, and the Essex Commissioners were required to send up copies
+of all depositions against him. In May he petitioned to be freed
+from further trouble, alleging that he had always faithfully served
+Parliament. He had previously asked for the charge against him, and
+went down to the County Commissioners, who unanimously agreed that
+there was no cause for the seizure or sequestration of his estate.
+Thereupon orders were given "that he be discharged, and no further
+proceedings taken against him."
+
+About this time Witherings had a serious illness, brought on, in all
+probability, by the worries with which he was surrounded. He thought
+proper now to make his will, and in the preamble he refers to his
+indisposition in the following terms. He states that "he was taken
+upon a sudden with a dizziness in his head, and being thereupon very
+ill-disposed in body, yet well and perfect in memory, doth dispose, in
+case of mortality, his will to be," etc. Witherings was owner of the
+estate called "Nelmes," near Hornchurch, Essex, where was a fine old
+house, which still remains, and is inhabited to the present day.
+
+In 1649, one of the packet boats plying between Holyhead and Dublin,
+named the _Patrick_, of Waterford, was taken by the Irish; but it was
+afterwards retaken by Capt. Fearmes, of the _President_, and restored
+to its owner, the salvage due to the mariners being paid by the State.
+In 1650, authority was given for employing a post barque for the
+conveyance of letters, etc., to ply between Liverpool and Carlingford
+or Carrickfergus. The boat proposed was the galiot _Robert_, and
+the sum to be paid for its use, £11 a month. About the same time,
+two post barques were settled to ply between Milford Haven and the
+headquarters of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to carry letters "from
+Attorney-General Prideaux or any other public Minister." The cost
+of maintaining the packet boats between Holyhead and Dublin at this
+period was £9, 6s. 8d. each per month. In order to keep up a constant
+correspondence between the forces in Ulster and the standing army, a
+packet boat was also ordered to ply between Ulster and Carlisle.
+
+An important step was taken, in respect of the posts, by the Council
+of State, upon a paper given in by the Attorney-General, on the 14th
+March 1650. The Council ordered that their opinion be reported to
+Parliament, that, "as affairs now stand, it is safe and fit that
+the office of Postmaster shall be in the sole power and disposal of
+Parliament." On the 21st March, an Order was passed in Parliament,
+"that the offices of Postmasters, Inland and Foreign, ought to be in
+the sole power and disposal of the Parliament. That it be referred to
+the Council of State to consider of the offices of Postmasters, and of
+all the interests of those persons who claim any, how the same may be
+settled for the advantage and safety of the Commonwealth, and to take
+order for the present management thereof." Two days later, the Council
+of State resolved that Mr. Prideaux, the Attorney-General, should
+undertake the management of the Inland Posts, and to be accountable to
+the Commonwealth for the profits quarterly. And in further proceedings
+of the Council of the 5th April, Sir William Armyne was instructed to
+inform the House of the arrangement. Witherings would appear not to
+have been disturbed in his position of Postmaster for Foreign Parts at
+this time; for on the 9th May the Council issued a warrant to him and
+the other masters of the letter packet boats, "not to carry any male
+passengers to France or Flanders until further orders." And, again, on
+10th July, the Council of State ordered Witherings to forbear paying
+any money to William Jessop or Benedict Moore, "to the use of the Earl
+of Warwick, or Lord Rich, or to Col. Charles Fleetwood, until further
+order."
+
+On 29th June 1650, the Council of State issued orders to Serjeant
+Dendy (Serjeant-at-arms to the Council) and his assistant to make a
+raid upon the country mails coming to and going from London, in the
+following terms:--"You are to repair to some post stage twenty miles
+from London, on the road towards York; seize the letter mail going
+outward, and all other letters upon the mail rider, and present them,
+by one of yourselves, to Council; the other shall then ride to the next
+stage, and seize the mail coming inwards, and bring the letters to
+Council, searching all persons that ride with the mail, or any other
+that ride post without warrant, and bring them before Council or the
+Commissioners for the examination; all officers, civil and military, to
+be assistants." Like orders were also given in respect of the mails on
+the Chester and Western roads.
+
+The seizure of the mails was doubtless due to a desire on the part of
+the Council to discover such persons as might be holding correspondence
+with the enemy. The vigilance of the Council continued, for, on 4th
+December, the Deputy Governor of Dover was required to examine the
+master of the post barque, lately come over, as to his bringing a
+person who (as he had been previously informed) "was dangerous, and
+brought commissions and letters from the enemy." And, again, on the
+13th May 1651, the Council of State gave order to the Committee of
+Examinations, "to inquire into the opening of Capt. Bishop's letter
+between England and Scotland, and to write such persons as they think
+fit for the discovery of the same. The Attorney-General to bring in
+a list of the persons employed as postmasters upon the several roads
+throughout this nation, with their character." "To write the Lord
+General to cause an inquiry to be made after the persons who presumed
+to break open some letters directed to him, and, if he finds any of
+them to be near the southern parts, he is to give notice thereof to
+Council, that they may prosecute them."
+
+Again, on the 21st August 1651, the Council gave directions that "the
+packet brought in this day from the northern parts be searched before
+the letters be delivered out." These are specimens of the measures
+taken at the period in question with the view of preventing the
+post-office service being used in the interest of the King's party.
+
+On the 10th March 1651, the Council of State gave order for the
+revival of a Committee, which was set up the year before, to consider
+the business of the Foreign Post. They were to send for Mr. Witherings
+and "confer with him as to what money he had on hand that was formerly
+wont to be paid to the Earl of Warwick." It is not clear whether this
+inquiry had reference to any supposed irregularity on Witherings' part,
+or merely to the question of moneys claimed by the earl. Be this as
+it may, a fresh storm was soon to break over Witherings' head. In the
+month of June 1651, the charges of delinquency of which he had been
+acquitted in 1649 were levelled at him in an aggravated form. The
+information laid against him was to the effect "that when Oxford was a
+King's garrison, he compounded with delinquents, and paid moneys for
+them, by order of Sir Edw. Sydenham. That in the Essex insurrection he
+sent a man and horse to Lord Goring, and was in person at Bow Bridge
+when held by the enemy. That he was at many private meetings at the
+Hoope Tavern, Leadenhall Street, plotting about the revolt of Capt.
+Batten and the fleet (1648). That he conveyed moneys into France for
+the relief of Cavaliers, some of which was taken. That he concealed
+an annuity of £1200, and several sums due to the State which are in
+his custody, and paid several sums to Sir Edw. Sydenham, a delinquent,
+contrary to the Order of the Council of State. That he is very familiar
+with delinquents, stands bound for them, conceals their letters,
+and conveys letters and intelligence to them beyond seas." A few
+days later, witnesses were summoned to appear against him, including
+Sir Edward and Lady Sydenham. Sir Edward was a county neighbour of
+Witherings, residing at Gidea Hall, Hornchurch, and is said to have
+been a moderate Royalist. After full hearing, Witherings was finally
+dismissed from the charges on the 25th July 1651. It is somewhat
+difficult to fit in all the events connected with these prosecutions
+owing to the conflicting dates under which they are recorded. But
+this much appears, that one of the processes took place before the
+Committee of Essex, that it continued over a period of seven months,
+and that Witherings carried thirty witnesses from London to Chelmsford
+in support of his case. Witherings tells us that Wilkes, "with the
+assistance of some butchers whom Witherings had sued for great sums,"
+prosecuted him maliciously, and that Wilkes and others offered from
+£20 to £50 to witnesses to swear against Witherings. This man Wilkes
+seems to have been a troublesome fellow, for Witherings relates that
+"Wilkes was committed prisoner by Parliament for furnishing horses to
+the enemy," and that, "after his enlargement, he accused Parliament of
+being rogues, villains, and devils, and declared he hoped to see the
+destruction of them all; for which words he was indicted, by order of
+the Council." Witherings, in his defence, and as showing his attachment
+to the party then in power, makes mention of the fact that he had been
+"very serviceable to Parliament, contributing £1000 on the going away
+of the Lord-Lieutenant for Ireland." The indebtedness of the butchers,
+above referred to, may have had its origin in sales of cattle reared or
+fed on Witherings' property in Essex; or it may be that he traded in
+cattle, for he seems to have carried on business in a variety of ways.
+It is recorded of him that, about this period, he and several other
+merchants of London contracted with the Navy Commissioners "for the
+supply of provisions at London, Dover, etc., and at Kinsale, for the
+Navy, at the rate of 8d. a day per man at sea, and 7d. when in harbour,
+the State bearing all charges of transport."
+
+Witherings did not long survive these unsuccessful attacks of his
+enemies, for on the 28th September, two months after his acquittal,
+he was stricken down by death. He was one of the two elders of the
+church at Hornchurch; and on the day mentioned, being Sunday, whilst
+proceeding to service, he died suddenly on the way. His remains were
+laid under the chancel of the church, and a mural tablet was erected
+to his memory. This has since been removed from the chancel to the
+north-east side of the entrance immediately under the old tower.
+
+The inscription upon the tablet is as follows:--
+
+ "Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Witheringe, Esqr., Chiefe Postmaster
+ of Greate Britaine, and foreigne parts, second to none for unfathomed
+ poilesicy, unparralled sagacius and divining Genius; witness his
+ great correspondence in all parts of ye Christian World.
+
+ "Here lies interred who God from hence did call,
+ By speedy summons, to his funerall.
+ Upon his sacred day, the world by Love
+ May judge it was to sing his praise above.
+ When on his way unto God's house Love brings
+ Him swifter passage upon Angell's wings
+ Full spread with zeal wherein his soul doth fly
+ To Mercies throne in twinkling of an eye.
+ This Epitaph may all him justly give,
+ Who dies in Christ he dies not but to live.
+
+ In Christo mori est vivere.
+ Obiit Anno. Dni. 1651, Ætat. Suæ 55."
+
+In _Memories of Old Romford_, it is stated that Witherings was a
+Puritan; in any case his profession in later life seems to have been
+that of a Protestant. It may be that the charge of being a papist in
+his earlier years was but a base invention of his enemies. Reference
+has previously been made to a suggestion that Witherings had been a
+mercer in London in his earlier life. We find, on inquiry, that one
+Thomas Witherings was admitted a member of the Mercer's Company, by
+redemption, on the 15th February 1625. This means that he purchased
+his admission; but it does not follow that he was a mercer in the
+present meaning of the word.
+
+From the conflicting statements made in regard to Witherings during the
+course of his official life, it is perhaps now impossible to arrive
+at any true estimate of his character. He lived in a troublous time,
+surrounded by enemies covetous of his office, and during a period
+of civil war, when to steer a course free from strife and collision
+would be impossible. He must have been a man of originality and of
+persevering disposition. In a negative sense, it may be said that he
+was no tin-plate man, devoid of stability, reflecting only the opinions
+of others, and capable of being cut into any shape by the scissors of
+expediency; he was possessed of fight and determination, and must have
+lived a trying and exciting life. What his pursuits or predilections
+were, apart from business, it is not now possible to determine. During
+his official career he was twice sequestered in his office; once he was
+put in prison; twice his property was seized; and twice he was declared
+to be, or was charged with being, a delinquent. The probabilities are
+that the worries and anxieties of office thrust him into his grave, for
+he died a comparatively young man. From the point of view of work done,
+he has some claim to be regarded as an early Rowland Hill; it was he
+who first organised the inland posts generally in Britain for the use
+of the public; though it is to the credit of the deputy postmasters on
+the road from London to the West of England, that they had anticipated
+Witherings by several years in setting up a horse post for the benefit
+of the people on that line of road. He was the forerunner of a long
+line of able, zealous, and accomplished men, whose lives have been
+spent in, and have adorned, the Post Office for two centuries and
+a half, whose work has been swallowed up in the ever-advancing tide
+of improvement, and whose names, when their work was done, have
+disappeared from view and have hardly left an echo behind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Two days after Witherings' death, namely, on the 30th September
+1651, by Order of Parliament, a previous Order of 21st March 1650,
+touching the office of Postmaster, inland and foreign, was revived,
+and the Council of State were directed to report their opinion thereon
+forthwith. On the 4th October, the Committee for the Posts pass an
+order, "that the Committee sit in the Inner Horse Chamber on Thursday,
+at 2 P.M., to receive the claims of all persons pretending any interest
+in the Foreign or Inland Letter Office, as also the propositions of any
+person about the improvement and management thereof." This invitation
+to claimants to come forward opened a very large door, as will be seen
+presently.
+
+It had all along been insisted upon by Witherings that, as his patent
+for the office of Foreign Postmaster stood in favour of two lives,--his
+own and that of William Frizell,--the possession of the office was
+in his right (having many years before bought out Frizell), and must
+remain of his right so long as either of the two lived. Now, by a
+provision in Witherings' will, he left £300 a year to Sir David Watkins
+to execute the office after his death, and to maintain and educate his
+son Thomas until he should be of sufficient age to take his father's
+place. Witherings' son died about 1652, and, as a matter of fact, Sir
+David Watkins carried on the office of Foreign Postmaster, in favour
+of Witherings' son, and afterwards of his nephew, who became heir,
+until the 30th June 1653, when a change was made in the whole postal
+arrangements, both Inland and Foreign.
+
+In response to the invitation of the Committee for the Posts of the 4th
+October, the following claims were sent in, in addition to the claim of
+Sir David Watkins. That of Henry Robinson by deputation from Endymion
+and George Porter, who previously had been granted a deputation by
+Charles Lord Stanhope. This claim was for both offices, Inland and
+Foreign. That of Walter Ward, merchant, also to both offices. That of
+Thomas Billingsley to the Foreign Office; and that of Benedict Moore
+and William Jessop, on behalf of the creditors and three daughters
+of Robert Lord Rich, to a payment of £900 a year out of the Foreign
+Letter Office. A claim was also preferred by Mrs. Witherings, on
+behalf of herself and daughter, on the ground that a large part of her
+fortune had been spent in purchasing and developing the Foreign Letter
+Service. The Council of State and various Committees had much trouble
+in dealing with these various claims, the legal opinions obtained
+upon them, which still remain, having apparently been of little use
+in clearing matters up. The Committees, by way of escape from their
+difficulties, were fain to throw up the whole business, so far as
+deciding the question of the claims is concerned; and, proceeding upon
+a resolution of the Committee on the Posts of the 7th November 1651,
+it was determined that "the offices should be let to farm." References
+continued to pass, however, between the Parliament, the Council of
+State, the Committee on the Posts, and the Irish and Scotch Committee;
+and it was not till the year 1653 that any final step was taken. In
+May of that year, the Committee for the Management of the Posts made
+certain suggestions for the future carrying on of the posts. Among
+these were, that the Inland and Foreign Posts be placed under one and
+the same control. That the inland rates should be as follows:--
+
+ For single letters to places within
+ 100 miles from London 2d.
+ do. over 100 " " 3d.
+ do. to Ireland 6d.
+ do. to Scotland 4d.
+
+That the Irish mails should go by way of Milford and Waterford, and
+Chester and Dublin; and that all letters to or from Scotland should
+circulate by way of Leith or Edinburgh.
+
+That public letters--letters of Government--should be carried free.
+That the rental for both offices should not be less than £6300 per
+annum.
+
+Soon after this time tenders were called for, in connection with which
+the following conditions were prescribed:--
+
+"(1) The undertakers are to be of known integrity and good affection,
+and responsible in outward estate.
+
+"(2) They are to carry all extraordinary despatches to or from the
+supreme authority, Lord-General Cromwell, the Council of State,
+Commissioners of Admiralty, General of the Fleet, General Officers
+of the Army, Army Committee, and Irish and Scotch Committee, or any
+person entrusted with the management of a public affair wherein private
+interest is not concerned.
+
+"(3) All such letters by, as also those to and from, all members of
+the legislative power, are to be carried free from postage, provided
+that such as are not known by their seals have an endorsement as
+follows:--'These are for the service of the Commonwealth,' signed by
+the persons themselves or their clerks.
+
+"(4) That the sum of £---- be paid by the undertakers of this business
+every three months.
+
+"(5) They shall receive for single letters carried into Ireland, 6d.;
+into Scotland, 4d.; to all parts above 80 miles from London, 3d.; to
+all parts less remote, 2d.--with note of the difference between single,
+double, and triple letters.
+
+"(6) That a weekly intercourse may be continued between England and
+Ireland, they are to maintain one or more packet boats weekly between
+Milford and Waterford, and between Chester and Dublin.
+
+"(7) That besides the several post stages now in use, there is to be a
+post settled between Dover and Portsmouth, Portsmouth and Salisbury,
+London and Yarmouth, and Lancaster and Carlisle.
+
+"The persons nominated by the undertakers for posts in their several
+stages, as also all other officers subordinate to them, shall be
+approved by persons authorized thereto by the Lord-General and the
+Council of State."
+
+On the 29th June 1653, offers were considered by the Posts Committee,
+under the foregoing specification of conditions, as follows:--
+
+ Henry Robinson £8041 0 0 per annum.
+ Ben. Andrewes 9100 0 0 "
+ John Goldsmith 8500 0 0 "
+ Ralph Kendall 1103 12 9 "
+ John Manley (with good security) 8259 19 11-3/4 "
+ Richard Hicks 9120 6 8 "
+ Rich. Hill 8160 0 0 "
+
+Two other offers at least had been made; but they do not seem to
+have been taken into serious account for certain reasons--one being,
+apparently, that the offerers had prescribed conditions outside the
+specifications set down.
+
+No time was now lost by the Council of State. On the very next day they
+passed the following resolution:--"John Manley to carry all packets,
+public and private, inland and foreign, according to the terms agreed
+on between him and a Committee of Council for that purpose, and to
+enter on the execution of the said office to-night, and receive the
+profits thereof, and a warrant to be drawn for that purpose; power
+given him to stop all mails of letters carried by any person not
+authorized by him; and his office for postage of letters to be freed
+from all taxes." The terms agreed upon as to payment were not those in
+Manley's offer, but £10,000 a year.
+
+Before proceeding further, it is necessary to revert to the year 1649.
+In this year the Common Council of London set up a rival post of
+their own on the several roads leading from London, and, as a report
+of Prideaux states, they "have employed a natural _Scott_ into the
+north who has gone into Scotland and hath settled postmasters (others
+than those for the State) on all that road." The alleged reason for
+this proceeding was, that the Common Council required another weekly
+conveyance of letters for their uses. They were pressed to come before
+Parliament in order that they might set forth their claim to the right
+of setting up an independent post, but they declined to do so. Prideaux
+represented that his rivals, besides "intrenching upon the rights of
+Parliament," would cause a decrease of his revenue; and, under these
+circumstances, he could not be expected to carry on the business of the
+Posts; for under the arrangement then existing, the "charge of all the
+postmasters of England were taken off the State." These representations
+were made by Prideaux in March 1650. The Government was more arbitrary
+than particular as to the strict observance of precedents in law, and
+the Posts of the Common Council of London were promptly put down. But
+shortly after Witherings' death, in 1651, a combination of men, relying
+upon the votes of the Parliament of 1642, under which it was declared
+that the Secretaries of State and Witherings had no exclusive monopoly
+in the carriage of letters, succeeded in setting up a system of posts
+in opposition to the officially recognised posts of Prideaux, and
+actually drove the latter from the field. The men who conducted this
+campaign against Prideaux were--Clement Oxenbridge, Richard Blackwall,
+Francis Thomson, and William Malyn. Oxenbridge was Checkmaster to the
+Collector for Prize Goods (1652); Blackwall was at the same period
+a Collector for Prize Goods; Thomson is probably a man of the name
+who, in 1654, resigned his interest in Windsor Little Park and other
+property (of course, for a consideration), which he had purchased some
+time before from the State; Malyn appears to have been connected with
+one or other of the public offices. These men called themselves "the
+first undertakers for reducing letters to half the former rates." They
+tell us that Prideaux continued to exact the high rate of 6d. for every
+letter. In the account given by them of their proceedings, they say
+that:--"The undertakers, observing this extortive rate to be held up,
+as well in Witherings' lifetime as after his death,--when the pretence
+of that illegal grant was ended in point of limitation--and observing
+that the whole benefit went into one private hand, ... they conceived
+it would be a work both acceptable to the State and beneficial to
+the people, to contrive the abatement of those excessive rates; and
+therefore, maugre all oppositions and abuses of the monopolizer and his
+interest, they at first dash adventured on postage at the rate of 3d. a
+letter beyond eighty miles, and 2d. a letter within or to eighty miles;
+and to make return three times weekly." The "undertakers" thus started
+upon their venture by reducing the minimum rate for a letter from 6d.
+to 2d., and by running the mails three times a week instead of once as
+hitherto. Prideaux tried to put down this combination by reducing his
+rates and establishing extra mails, but without avail; for the public
+were so grateful for the reform introduced by the undertakers, that
+they gave him no encouragement, and he was obliged eventually to give
+up the business. As Prideaux was written to by the Council of State
+about neglects on the Portsmouth Road on the 23rd May 1652, his giving
+up the Posts must have been subsequent to this date.
+
+The rival concerns were carried on, as might be supposed, in a spirit
+of bitter antagonism, in which the deputy postmasters had their share.
+Prideaux's agents on one occasion murdered a mounted post riding with
+the opposition mail, and threw his body into a river; and near the
+same place a son of one of the old postmasters assaulted another of
+the rival messengers with a drawn sword. The account goes on to say,
+that "these practices not accomplishing his (Prideaux's) aim, an Order
+from the Council of State was procured--not to stop us or our mails,
+that being too apparently illegal, but in such doubtful terms as might
+affright the weak from sending their letters to us. Libels also were
+posted up and down the city by him or his agents, signifying that our
+mails should be stopped, but his go free. This project failing, Mr.
+Prideaux, out of a hypocritical pretence of keeping the Sabbath day,
+by his own warrant commanded his postmasters to require the justices
+of peace in the several counties to stop our mails on the Sabbath,
+whereas his own went free." ... "Whilst we were labouring amidst these
+difficulties, it pleased God to devolve authority on such worthy
+persons as had from the beginning countenanced us in our work; who, in
+their first entrance on their management of public affairs, intrusted
+us with their ordinary and extraordinary despatches." This appears to
+refer to the period of the breaking up of the Long Parliament, 20th
+April 1653, when the undertakers "were the only persons who performed
+the service of conveying the State's despatches."
+
+"We continued to perform the service of the State freely, fulfilling
+all things concerning the postage of inland letters; we reduced the
+same into one channel, and entertained as many of the old postmasters
+as were honest and well affected, according to direction of the Council
+of State (which constrained us to lay aside divers of those honest
+persons ready to assist us in carrying on so good a work), took the old
+post-house in London, where three days a week the State and all persons
+were accommodated," etc. From this account it seems clear that the old
+Post system under Prideaux was ousted by the new company, and that the
+latter had established itself as the recognised Inland Post of the
+country.
+
+On the very day on which Manley was appointed to the farm of the Posts,
+the 30th June 1653, he was furnished by the Council of State with a
+warrant as follows:--"To Clement Oxenbridge, and all others concerned
+in the inland and foreign post. John Manley having contracted for and
+farmed these offices, we authorize him to enter on his duties this
+night, to receive and carry all packets, and to receive the profits
+to his own use. And you are required to permit him to do this without
+interruption or molestation." Upon the strength of this warrant Manley
+proceeded to enter upon his new duties, and, as regards the Foreign
+Letter Office, there seems to have been no difficulty. But with the
+Inland Letter Office the case was very different. Up to the day when
+Manley was appointed, the managers of the Inland Post were hopefully
+negotiating with the Council of State for the farm of the Posts. Their
+hopes of success were, however, suddenly blighted. The account of
+the transactions at this time given by these men, which is somewhat
+amusing, is as follows:--"After we were withdrawn (from the Council),
+Col. Rich, after private conference with a member of Council, so
+represented the business that an Order within half an hour was passed
+by Council immediately to invest Manley with the management of the
+inland and foreign letters. He, that very night, without further
+warning, demanded the letters which we had received, and the profits of
+the letters then brought to us by our own servants, at our own charges.
+With much persuasion we prevailed with Manley that the money should be
+deposited into a clerk's hand intrusted by him, till the pleasure of
+the Council were known; yet before that could be obtained, Manley, with
+some old clerks and postmasters of Mr. Prideaux's company, violently
+with swords broke into our house, where our letters and goods were,
+thrust out our servants, and by force kept possession. The same night,
+Manley and others violently broke into the dwelling-house of some of
+us in Wood Street, demanded the letters there, and would by force have
+broke into the room where some of us were, had we not by main strength
+kept the door against them; and he, with threatening speeches, required
+us not to receive any more letters. On complaint to Col. Rich, he, with
+rough words, commanded us not to meddle with receiving or sending any
+more letters, declaring that such was the sense of the Council's Order,
+and that, if we persisted, those of us who had any employment under the
+State should be turned out, and soldiers should be sent to our houses
+to stop persons bringing any letters to us. From real tenderness to the
+present posture of public affairs in that juncture of time we forbore
+contest, in expectation of justice from the supreme authority, rather
+than occasion disturbance." In this hustling way was the post-office
+business transferred to new hands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The Inland and Foreign Post Offices were now combined under the
+management of John Manley, to whom they were farmed for a sum of
+£10,000 a year. This was in 1653, and the grant was limited to a
+period of two years. Manley was a Justice of Peace for the county of
+Middlesex, and is referred to in some contemporary records as Justice
+Manley. He made himself useful on the bench to Cromwell's party in
+connection with many political cases brought before him for trial. It
+is probable that he had previously been a soldier, as he is sometimes
+referred to as Captain Manley. In 1655, when Manley's term was up,
+the office changed hands. On the 3rd of May in that year, an Order
+in Council was passed, to the effect that the management of the Post
+Office should be performed by John Thurloe, Secretary of State,
+"security being given for the payment of the present rent of £10,000 a
+year, and for keeping the conditions of the contract with the present
+farmer, etc., beginning from the expiration of Manley's contract."
+Manley's contract fell to expire on the 30th June following. In
+pursuance of this Order, Thurloe succeeded Manley in the management of
+the Posts.
+
+During Thurloe's possession of the office an Act was passed for
+settling the postage of England, Ireland, and Scotland (June 1657).
+The Act sets forth that "Experience having shown that the settling a
+Post Office is the best means to maintain trade, convey dispatches, and
+discover dangerous designs, it is enacted that there shall be but one
+Post Office, and one Postmaster-General and Controller to settle Posts,
+who shall carry all letters except those sent by known carriers, or
+merchants' letters of advice sent by ship-masters; also, except private
+letters sent by messengers. He is to have the horsing of all who ride
+by post." The rates of postage for letters were as follows, viz.:--
+
+ Single. Double. Per Oz.
+ To or from any place within 80 miles } 2d. 4d. 8d.
+ of London }
+ " " at a greater } 3d. 6d. 1s.
+ distance }
+ " Scotland 4d. 8d. 1s.6d.
+ " Ireland 6d. 1s. 2s.
+
+ Within Ireland.
+ To or from any place within 40 miles } 2d. 4d. 8d.
+ of Dublin }
+ " " at a greater } 4d. 8d. 1s.
+ distance }
+
+ Foreign.
+ To Leghorn, Genoa, Florence, Lyons, }
+ Marseilles, Smyrna, Aleppo, and } 1s. 2s. 3s.9d.
+ Constantinople }
+ " Bordeaux, Rochelle, Nantes, Bayonne, } 9d. 1s.6d. 2s.
+ Cadiz, and Madrid }
+ " St. Malo, Morlaix, and Newhaven[2] 6d. 1s. 1s.6s.
+ " Hamburgh, Frankfort, and Cologne 8d. 1s.4d. 2s.
+ " Dantzic, Leipsic, Lubeck, Stockholm, }
+ Copenhagen, Elsinore, } 1s. 2s. 4s.
+ and Queenesbrough[3] }
+
+ For every through post, or persons riding in post, 2-1/2d. the
+ mile for each horse, besides the guide groat for every
+ stage.
+
+All persons save the Postmaster-General or his deputies were forbidden
+to supply post horses on pain of a fine of £1000 a month--half to the
+Protector and half to the discoverer. Many other provisions are set
+down which need not be quoted here.
+
+Two months later, 27th August 1657, on a report from the Committee
+on the Postage, it was ordered that a lease be granted of the office
+of Postmaster-General to Thurloe, at a rent of £10,000, to be paid
+quarterly; "he to be at all charges, take no greater rates of postage
+than expressed in the Act, and send all Government letters free: the
+grant to be for as many years as His Highness thinks fit, not exceeding
+11, or one life."
+
+During Thurloe's time, the Post Office was made very serviceable in the
+discovering of "dangerous designs"; for it is said that the control
+of the office gave him an "immense advantage in intercepting letters
+and collecting intelligence, abroad as well as at home." The truth
+is, that not only in Thurloe's time, but in the years immediately
+preceding the Restoration, during the settlement of the kingdom after
+the Restoration, and probably for long after that, the Post Office
+was regarded as the pulse of all political movements, the deputy
+postmasters in the country serving as a hydra-headed agency for the
+State--seeing, hearing, and reporting everything of importance that
+transpired in their districts; while the opening of letters in the Post
+afforded a means of securing evidence against the enemies of the ruling
+powers for the time being. One or two examples of how these things
+were done may be interesting. On the 9th August 1659, the Council
+approves of "Col. Crompton's stopping the Irish mail, not knowing of
+how dangerous consequence some of the letters might be, and judging it
+fit that they be perused before passing further." Then Major-General
+Lambert, to whom this communication is addressed, is desired to
+"examine all the letters, send up any that are dangerous, and send the
+rest forward to Ireland." On the 9th January 1662, the postmaster of
+Northallerton reports to the Postmaster-General, that "four disaffected
+Scottish ministers,--Dunkinson, Ord, Douglas, and Jamieson,--thought
+to be spies and deluders of loyal subjects, are at Northallerton,
+and write many letters to Berwick and different parts of Yorkshire.
+Asks whether the letters should be received, and, if so, whether they
+should be opened in presence of a magistrate." These facts being
+communicated through Secretary Nicholas to the king, the former writes
+to the postmaster as follows:--"The king being acquainted with his
+letter to Col. Bishop, about Scottish ministers and disaffected persons
+now in Northallerton, and corresponding with others in Berwick and
+elsewhere, wishes him to carry to Sir W. Penniman, a deputy lieutenant,
+all letters from the four ministers whom he names; to be opened,
+perused, and sent up to London if they contain anything prejudicial
+to the public peace; otherwise to be forwarded as addressed." On the
+31st January 1662, a warrant was issued to the head of the Post Office
+"to permit John Wickham and John Hill to search the next mails from
+Holland for counterfeit gold, and, if any be found, to accompany them
+with it to Secretary Nicholas, it being reported that much base gold
+has lately been imported by the mails." These incidents show how the
+interception and perusal of letters in the post were carried out--all
+under sufficient authority.
+
+There were no newspapers in these days, as _we_ know them, and no
+telegraphs; all news, except such as might be conveyed by special
+messengers, or clandestinely by carriers, passed in letters through the
+post. The possession of the office was therefore, under the conditions
+previously stated, of the first importance to the powers holding the
+reins of government; and as parliamentary parties, having various and
+conflicting political views, were constantly changing positions at this
+time, the control of the Post Office changed hands with almost equal
+frequency.
+
+To return to John Thurloe. Thurloe was Secretary of State under both
+Oliver and Richard Cromwell; and, after the resignation of the latter,
+he continued to hold his Secretaryship till the 14th January 1660.
+"In April 1659, he used his utmost efforts to dissuade the Protector
+from dissolving the Parliament; a step which proved fatal to his
+authority." He had previously been "very obnoxious to the principal
+persons of the army, to whose interests, wherever they interfered
+with those of the civil government, he was a declared enemy"; and it
+is not improbable that this antagonism led to his being relieved of
+the farm of the Post Office. But his deprivation of the office of
+Postmaster-General and Farmer of the Post did not take place till
+later in the year, and under circumstances which Thurloe describes in
+his State Papers. In a document of February 1660, he writes:--"I humbly
+offer to consideration, that within less than a fortnight of the 29th
+Sept. last"--that is, a fortnight after--"my farm was, by virtue of
+an Act of Parliament dated the 11th Oct., made null and void; and the
+office itself, as it stood at that time, set aside; and consequently no
+more rent payable; and it was then lawful for any other person to set
+up other posts for the carrying of such letters as should be brought to
+them, which very many accordingly practised."
+
+The State records during the closing period of the interregnum are
+very imperfect, but sufficient has been left to enable us to trace the
+position of affairs as relating to the Posts. Two months before the
+passing of the Act just mentioned,--namely, on the 8th of August,--the
+Council of State resolved that the Post Office should be farmed, that
+is, let out to some farmer other than Thurloe; but, until Thurloe
+should be removed, this could not be arranged.
+
+Now, as a consequence of these proceedings, and of the Act of the 11th
+October, the office passed into the hands of Dr. Benjamin Worsley, to
+whom the farm was then granted for a term of seven years, at a rental
+of £20,000. This seems a large advance upon the previous rent of
+£10,000; but Thurloe states that he improved the office £4000 per annum
+to the State voluntarily, which he might have put in his own purse; and
+the rent he was paying when he vacated the farm must have been £14,000
+a year. But Worsley did not long enjoy the position, for shortly
+thereafter he was "violently turned out." Worsley had been selected,
+as one of several persons, for nomination to Parliament as a general
+officer by the Committee of Safety in July 1659. In October following,
+the government was in the hands of a Committee of Safety composed for
+the most part of officers; and Worsley being a military man, the Post
+Office might be supposed to be in safe hands if placed under his care.
+
+We have been unable to discover to what family Dr. Worsley belonged.
+It is not improbable that he was connected by family ties with Charles
+Worsley, who had been one of the colonels of Cromwell's own regiment
+of foot. According to the Journals of the House of Commons, Benjamin
+Worsley was, in July 1647, appointed to be one of the Physicians,
+General-Surgeons, and Apothecaries of the Army in Ireland, and was
+then sent to Dublin. In March 1650, he was appointed Secretary to
+the Commissioners under the Act for regulating Trade, and, in 1653,
+Secretary to the Commissioners for Ireland. He was then selected as a
+fit person to accompany Viscount Lisle, as secretary, in a projected
+embassy to Sweden; but the embassy, so far as Lisle was concerned, did
+not proceed.
+
+Now, on the 26th December 1659, the Rump was again in the ascendant,
+and constituted themselves a House. On the 3rd January 1660, Parliament
+appointed a new Council; on the 9th January, the House of Commons
+resolved to take the Post Office into its own hands, and that it should
+"be managed for the best advantage of the Commonwealth"; on the 10th
+January, Thomas Scott, a member of Parliament, one of the Council of
+State, and a hot-headed republican, was appointed by the House of
+Commons "to receive informations of private and public intelligence,
+as the Secretary of State heretofore had and used, and present them to
+the Council of State"; and, a week later, he was appointed Secretary of
+State to the Commonwealth. Now these events, taken in connection with
+the fact that, on the 21st January 1660, the Council of State issued
+an order "to apprehend Benj. Worsley and bring him in custody before
+the Council," may warrant us in concluding that this is the time when
+Worsley was "violently turned out" of the Post Office.
+
+In succession to Worsley, Secretary of State Scott seems to have become
+Postmaster-General, but his connection with the Post Office was of
+brief duration; for a Parliament more favourable to the Restoration
+commenced sitting on the 3rd March 1660, and all persons who had been
+active in their opposition to the Royal House began to consider what
+was best for their own preservation. Scott was one of the men who had
+signed the death-warrant of King Charles I., and no doubt he would be
+forward in clearing out. That Scott was virtually Postmaster-General
+for a time seems to be proved by a warrant, issued by the Council of
+State on the 9th March 1660, "for intelligence, from the proceeds of
+the Post Office, paid by Wm. Scott and Isaac Dorislaus, whilst they
+managed it under Thomas Scott, £1000."
+
+Like most of the Postmasters-General of these early days, Scott had
+an experience of imprisonment. After the Restoration he was taken; he
+had been excepted out of the general indemnity given by Charles II.;
+and on the 17th October he suffered death, with several others, in the
+presence of the king. Evelyn thus refers, in his diary, to the closing
+scene in the career of Postmaster-General Scott:--"I saw not their
+execution, but met their quarters, mangled and cut and reeking, as
+they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle. Oh! the
+miraculous providence of God!" So much for a royalist exclamation, and
+the laying of responsibility on the shoulders of Providence. For a
+short period after Secretary Scott quitted the Post Office, it is not
+very clear how it was managed; but a State paper of 3rd August 1660
+shows that an account was rendered of its business from 25th March to
+25th June of that year by Job Allibond and Francis Manley--the former
+a clerk in the office, and the latter Riding Purveyor to His Majesty.
+The receipts for the quarter were stated to be £5578, 9s. 5d., and the
+disbursements, £5431, 9s. 6d. Manley speaks of himself as being late
+Manager.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 2: Havre-de-Grace.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Königsberg.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The Restoration was now an accomplished fact, and the Post Office
+passed into the hands of Col. Henry Bishop of Henfield, Sussex, to whom
+was granted the farm of the office for a period of seven years, dating
+from the 25th June 1660, at an annual rental of £21,500. Bishop was the
+third son of Sir Thomas Bisshopp, Knight, of Henfield. The Bisshopps
+were formerly a Yorkshire family, some of whom served under Lord
+Wharton in his proceedings against the Scotch in a previous age. Henry
+Bishop, the Postmaster-General, was married to Lady Elizabeth Plumley
+or Plumleigh, a widow who, in religion, was a papist. Before proceeding
+to deal with Bishop's work in the Post Office, we may here mention,
+as a matter of interest personal to the individual, that in the
+impropriator's chancel of the church of Henfield is a mural monument to
+his memory, setting forth that he died in 1691, at the age of eighty.
+
+It is not apparent upon what grounds Bishop obtained the farm, or
+whether he had performed any services entitling him to such an
+appointment. Under his indenture he was required to pay one quarter's
+rent in advance, namely, £5375, to bear all the expense of transmitting
+Government letters, and to carry, free, single letters from members
+of Parliament. He was required "to give in a true catalogue of all
+postmasters employed by him, and dismiss those excepted against by a
+Secretary of State, to whom all alterations in postage, or erection
+of post stages, were to be submitted." He was, however, to be granted
+certain allowances in case of plague, civil war, etc., which might
+affect the revenue of his farm.
+
+In connection with Bishop's appointment, there is a curious
+circumstance related in a State paper of September 1667. The document,
+although written under the initials "A.B.," is evidently the production
+of Clement Oxenbridge, who, it will be remembered, was one of the
+"First Undertakers for the reduction of postage," and who was the means
+of Prideaux's giving up the Post Office. Indeed the paper is indorsed
+"Mr. Oxenbridge." It reads as follows:--
+
+"Statement of A.B.: That he was in youth a servant of the Princess
+Royal, and was also allied to a grandee under the late powers; that in
+1652 he got Prideaux put out of the Post Office, by reducing the price
+of letters from 6d. to 3d., and bringing in a threefold weekly postage;
+that, to recompense him for £5036, 8s. spent therein, he was to have a
+weekly payment from the post office; and he took the office in 1660
+in Bishop's name, and settled a foreign correspondence, but, being
+dissatisfied with Bishop, had the office transferred to his Cousin
+O'Neale" (O'Neale was successor to Bishop) "on condition of continuing
+him £800 a year therefrom, but this has not been done," etc.
+
+Whether Oxenbridge was able to exercise the interest here pretended is
+not clear. He was employed in the Post Office under Bishop for a time,
+but, as will be seen hereafter, there is little doubt he was turned out
+of it.
+
+The return of the king from exile was signalised by a general scramble
+for offices, the king and his ministers being inundated with petitions
+for all kinds of places. While the king came in upon a promise of
+general pardon, his return was followed by measures of great severity;
+and it is perhaps not far from the truth to attribute much of what
+took place to the clamour of the Royalists, whose claims to place could
+not be satisfied without turning other men out. In order to clear
+the way, it would obviously be necessary to proceed against the then
+holders upon some plea or other. The petitions are founded on every
+variety of alleged service or suffering, from the most trivial to the
+most important. For example, one suitor begs for the place of Groom
+of the Great Chamber to the King or the Dukes of York or Gloucester,
+stating that he "had been clerk of the chapel to the late king, and
+served His Majesty, when prince, as keeper of his balloons and paumes,
+and of tennis shoes and ankle socks." An aged widow, named Elizabeth
+Cary, begs a place as page for her son, on the ground that she had
+suffered greatly for her loyalty. She had had her back broken at
+Henley-on-Thames, and a gibbet was erected to take away her life. She
+was imprisoned at Windsor Castle, Newgate, Bridewell, the Bishop of
+London's house, and lastly in the Mews, at the time of the late king's
+martyrdom, "for peculiar service in carrying his gracious proclamations
+and declarations from Oxford to London, and only escaped with her
+life by flying into her own country." Many petitions were received
+for places in the Post Office. The plaint of one applicant is, that
+"his father's property was destroyed by Lord Fairfax at the siege of
+Leeds." In another case it is set forth that the petitioner "should
+have succeeded his father, but was put by for taking arms for the late
+king." A suppliant in the West says, that he "has been a constant
+sufferer from the tyranny of His Majesty's enemies. Would not mention
+his sufferings, in the joy of the Restoration, but for his wife and
+children, those patient partakers of all his troubles. Was the first
+man in Exeter to be taken up and imprisoned in all occasions during
+the late rebellion," etc. A former postmaster of Lichfield says, that
+"he suffered much loss by pulling down of his house and plunder of
+his goods, and was displaced by the then Parliament." The prayer of
+Thomas Challoner, postmaster of Stone, is based on the fact that he is
+brother to Richard Challoner, martyred for his loyalty before the Royal
+Exchange in 1643, and has often been plundered, etc. Thomas Taylor, of
+Tadcaster, solicits the postmastership of that place: urging his claim
+upon the fact that his ancestors had served since Queen Elizabeth's
+time; that his father, Thomas Taylor, had been seized and executed by
+Lord Fairfax for carrying an express to Prince Rupert, when York was
+besieged, to hasten to its relief; and that his family had been kept
+out of the place ever since. A former postmaster of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
+Thomas Swan, claims restoration to the place of postmaster because
+the "pretenders who oppose him have not the least interest"; that
+his family had been loyal almost to their extirpation and banishment
+from the town; and that £674, 13s. is still due to his late father as
+postmaster, Burlamachi not having allowed him to pay himself out of
+the letter office, etc. These are specimens of the memorials sent in
+immediately after the Restoration, and which the new powers were called
+upon to satisfy.
+
+The working staff of the Post Office in London at the period of the
+Restoration seems to have been a very mixed company. A number of them
+had been continued from the time of the Commonwealth; some had been
+brought in by Bishop; and the system of intercepting and opening
+letters, for the discovery of sedition, so largely practised during the
+Commonwealth, being still carried on, there was a great outcry against
+these officers who were not regarded as staunch Royalists. Bishop
+himself was distrusted. In December 1660, the postmaster of Newbury
+complains that many members of the Post Office are ill-affected, and
+"that Major Wildman, and Thompson and Oxenbridge, Anabaptists, put in
+and out whom they please." In the autumn of 1661, an account is given
+of the condition of the Post Office. Therein it is stated, that "it is
+managed by those who were active for Cromwell and the late Government:
+first, Major Wildman, a subtle leveller and anti-monarchy man; second,
+Oxenbridge, a confidant of Cromwell and betrayer of many of the King's
+party; third, Dorislaus, the son of the man who pleaded for the king's
+death at his trial; and, fourth, Vanderhuyden, agent of Nieuport, the
+Dutch Ambassador to Cromwell, now treating, underhand, to settle the
+postage by way of Amsterdam. The letter officers are chiefly disloyal:
+Col. Bishop himself and the office are under Major Wildman's control."
+The writer of this statement urges that the office should be put under
+fresh management. Shortly after this time, as would appear, there had
+been a clearing-out of several of the persons objected to; for in "a
+perfect list of all the officers, clerks, and others employed in and
+about the Post Office in London by Henry Bisshopp, Esq., His Majesty's
+farmer of the said office," the principal names mentioned above do not
+appear. The staff and constitution of the office, as exhibited by this
+paper, are as follows:--
+
+IN THE INLAND OFFICE.
+
+ Job. Allibond } Clerks of the Northern Road.
+ Anselme Fowler }
+
+ James Hickes } Clerks of the Chester Road.
+ Matthew Hanscomb }
+
+ Thomas Chapman } Clerks of the Eastern Road.
+ Benjamin Lamb }
+
+ Thomas Aylward } Clerks of the Western Road.
+ Robert Aylward }
+
+ Andrew Leake } Receivers of letters at the windows
+ Samuell Allibond } of the office.
+ Cornelius Glover }
+
+ Thomas Bucknor General Accomptant.
+ Benjamin Andrews Clerk and Accomptant of the
+ moneys in the office.
+ John Rea, son of Mr. }
+ John Rea, between ye } Letter Marker or Stamper.
+ Temple Gates }
+ Mr Francis Thomson "Agent to ryde ye severall rodes
+ and find out abuses, and
+ take care of ye due carriage
+ of ye mayles and of all postmasters'
+ doeing their severall
+ and respective dutyes."
+
+ Of Porters or Letter Carriers, whose names need not be
+ given here, there were 28.
+
+ IN THE FOREIGN OFFICE.
+
+ Thomas Harper }
+ Jeremiah Copping } Clerks.
+ Richard Bostock }
+ John Mansfield Office-attendant.
+
+This return is exceedingly interesting on several grounds. It shows
+that in the autumn of 1661 the total effective force of the Post Office
+in London numbered 47 persons; it contains the first recorded mention,
+probably, of a surveyor,--"agent to ryde ye severall rodes,"--a
+numerous class of officers nowadays, who perform the same duties as
+then, taking into account the changes in the methods and work of the
+Post Office; and it also contains the first record of a stamper of
+letters being employed.
+
+As regards the stamping, this is also mentioned by Bishop, in an
+answer made to the Council of State respecting alleged abuses in the
+Post Office, under date 2nd August 1661, as follows:-- ... "that he
+only employs old officers because new ones cannot serve for want of
+experience"; and he shows the precautions he has taken to rectify
+abuses, "by setting up printed rules, taking securities of the
+letter-carriers, stamping the letters," etc.
+
+In complaints made of irregularities in the Post Office, very
+unflattering comments are made upon some of its officers. Thus:
+"Bishop's agent, Thompson, is a very juggler; they both"--that is,
+Bishop and Thompson--"will be complained of next Parliament." A clerk,
+Ibson, who had been dismissed, refers, in a vindication he attempted of
+himself, to the "dangerous character of the disaffected and scurrilous
+men who witness against him"; and that, "having accused them to
+Secretary Nicholas and Col. Bishop, they procured his dismissal." James
+Hickes, a clerk in the Post Office, on the other hand, recriminates
+that, during the late troubles, Ibson was accustomed "to open and read
+the letters, and give news therefrom; that he was careless of the
+letters; and often wrong in his accounts"; and that on these grounds
+he was dismissed. In another information, Thomas Chapman is described
+as being a leveller; and Glover, a servant of Hugh Peters--both being
+accused of speaking disrespectfully of the king and Parliament. In
+a memorandum of Secretary Nicholas it is stated that "Glover of the
+Post Office was last Sunday at Mr. Jenkins' church, whispering amongst
+the people to take heed what they write, as their letters are often
+opened." The period was evidently one of very severe examination, and
+the weeding out from the Post Office of unreliable servants.
+
+Col. Henry Bishop did not escape in the general round of attack. A
+statement, dated 31st December 1661, is left on record to the following
+effect:--"That William Parker, who keeps the Nonsuch, formerly
+Commonwealth Club, in Bow Street, Covent Garden, was Wildman's man,
+the wife his servant, and the house furnished by him for meetings
+in Cromwell's time. That Col. Bishop often met Wildman there, and
+revealed the design of the late King's party, wherein Lord Mordaunt,
+Major Smith, and others were betrayed, and Dr. Hewitt lost his life;
+Major Smith declared on his deathbed that he never spoke the words
+by which he was betrayed to any but Bishop. Most of the post-office
+clerks used to meet and dine weekly at this house; and those now in
+hold, on suspicion of the plot, had meetings there. The night before
+Wildman was committed, a clerk of the Post Office, and another,
+rode to the post house at Hounslow, stopped the two Western mails,
+carried the letters into a private room, and, after spending two
+hours with them, charged the boy who carried the mail forward not to
+speak of what they had done." In a petition of the discharged clerk
+Ibson, some time later, Ibson states that "he was bound in loyalty
+to disclose the horrid and dangerous practices of Henry Bishop, for
+which Bishop dismissed him in disgrace, and imprisoned him on several
+feigned actions." Bishop's farm of the Post Office must have given
+him much trouble and anxiety, arising partly from the nature of the
+staff employed by him, and partly from the conditions of unrest
+pervading society, these two things inspiring distrust and suspicion
+in the management of the office. When the time arrived for his forced
+retirement from the farm, he would doubtless be glad to get quit of
+it. This event occurred in 1663. The immediate cause is not made quite
+clear. No less an authority than Dan. O'Neale, who succeeded Bishop,
+states that "Col. Bishop was turned out for continuing disaffected
+persons in the management of the Post." But Bishop was about this
+time harassed with suits at law, and the king thought fit to step in
+and arrest the proceedings. The following document, addressed to "Our
+Attorney-General and all others," was issued with this intent from
+Whitehall on the 20th March 1663:--"Whereas we are informed that John
+Hill hath caused an information to be exhibited against Henry Bishop,
+Esq., for the exercising of the office of our Postmaster-General,
+and that other suits are intended to be brought against him by the
+said Hill, which will much tend to the disquieting of the said Henry
+Bishop and to our disservice; our Royal pleasure therefore is, that
+the said suit be no further prosecuted against him, and that our
+Attorney-General do enter a _non vult ulterius prosequi_ upon it, and
+that no other suit be commenced or prosecuted against him for the same,
+and that our Counsel at law do appear in the behalf of our servant the
+said Henry Bishop." About the same time,--a few weeks later,--a formal
+pardon of all indebtedness to the Crown was granted to Bishop; the
+document setting forth that Bishop had surrendered his grant on the 6th
+April; and proceeding that "by reason of some supposed variance between
+the letters patent, indentures of covenants, and the said late Act for
+establishing a Post Office, Bishop may be liable to suits and questions
+concerning the execution of the said office or yearly rent due for
+same; the king therefore pardons and releases to Bishop all sums of
+money the Crown may now or hereafter claim of him," etc. Under a cloud
+of proceedings of this nature Bishop ceased to be Postmaster-General.
+The farm of the office was now transferred to Col. Dan. O'Neale for the
+remaining portion of the seven years' lease granted to Bishop. It would
+seem that a money consideration was made by O'Neale to Bishop for the
+transfer of the office; for in a statement of some proceedings (before
+the Council apparently), it is stated "that Colonel Bishop, before his
+last appearance at Council, would have taken £4000 for resignation of
+his grant, but has since advanced to £8000, which he says Mr. O'Neale
+has offered to him; O'Neale also offers to Secretary Bennet £2000,
+and £1000 a year during Bishop's lease; this can be no disservice to
+the Duke of York, who can expect no improvement till Bishop's lease
+terminates." Apparently O'Neale took up the grant under the whole
+conditions, privileges, and obligations applicable to Bishop's tenure.
+
+O'Neale, an Irish gentleman, was the king's Harbinger and Groom of
+the Bed Chamber. During the rebellion in Ireland, wherein Owen Roe
+O'Neale was concerned, before the downfall of Charles I., the Marquess
+of Ormonde engaged Daniel O'Neale, a relative of Owen's (said to be a
+nephew), in an endeavour to win the latter over to Charles' interest.
+In this, however, he was unsuccessful. Later, during the Commonwealth,
+he was declared a delinquent, impeached, and thrown into the Tower;
+but from this durance he managed to effect his escape. Clarendon says
+of him that "he made his escape in a dexterous way, clad in a lady's
+dress." When the Duke of Ormonde crossed over to England from the
+Continent, in disguise, with the view of ascertaining the hopes then
+existing for a return of the royal house, he was accompanied by Dan.
+O'Neale, at the hazard of his life. He also took part in an attempt
+upon Scotland, for the Royal cause, in 1650, but was apprehended and
+banished by the Council, being then put under a written obligation "by
+which he consented to be put to death, if he were ever after found in
+the Kingdom." O'Neale is known as the builder of Belsize, at Hampstead,
+which he is said to have erected at vast expense. He would appear to
+have been a special favourite of Charles II., for he enjoyed several
+grants or monopolies besides that of the Post Office.
+
+O'Neale's grant, dating from the 25th March 1663, was for a period of
+four and a quarter years, at a rental of £21,500, but, like several
+of the other grantees, he did not complete his term, his death taking
+place about October 1664. Pepys, in recording this event, adds the
+remark, "I believe to the content of all the Protestant pretenders in
+Ireland." O'Neale left, as his widow, Katherine Countess-Dowager of
+Chesterfield, who was his executrix. The countess was allowed to have
+the benefit of the remainder of the term; and Henry Lord Arlington and
+John Lord Berkeley were empowered, by warrant, to make contracts with
+Foreign States on behalf of the Post Office, and to act for "the better
+carrying out of that office."
+
+The interception and inspection of letters in the Post for Government
+purposes, so largely carried on under the farmers immediately
+preceding, had the inevitable result of engendering discontent and
+suspicion, and of driving the public to make use of other means for
+the conveyance of their correspondence. Recoiling upon the farmers
+would necessarily be the loss of revenue. No sooner had O'Neale
+entered upon his trust than steps were taken to put down or curtail
+the irregularities both inside and outside the Post Office. On the
+25th May 1663, a proclamation was issued forbidding all persons except
+Dan. O'Neale or his deputies to carry or deliver letters for hire,
+and ordering searches to be made for the discovery of unlicensed
+letter-carriers. As evidence of compliance with the royal views, all
+postmasters were required to produce, within six months, a certificate
+of their conformity to the Church of England, on pain of dismissal;
+and a very important clause in the proclamation provided that no
+letters should be opened by any but the persons to whom they were
+addressed, "without immediate warrant from a Secretary of State." About
+the same date Secretary Bennet issued a warrant "to all Mayors and
+other officers, and particularly to Richard Carter and eight others,
+specially appointed for twelve months, to search for and apprehend
+all persons carrying letters for hire without licence from the
+Postmaster-General, and to bring them before one of the Secretaries,
+delivering their letters into the Post Office." The searchers were
+what, in a later period of post-office history, were officially called
+"apprehenders of letter-carriers."
+
+These restrictive measures had not been a month in operation when
+O'Neale found it necessary to make a representation with respect to
+them. He complained that the means at the disposal of Bishop for
+dealing with offences against the Post Office were quicker in operation
+than those prescribed to himself; and he expressed himself to the
+effect that he would rather quit the office than go to law against
+every offender. O'Neale further says that the Lord Chancellor had
+declared the opinion that the Secretaries, being superintendents over
+the Post Office, should take notice of offences. It is quite evident
+that O'Neale did not find the Post Office a bed of roses.
+
+O'Neale also discovered, soon after entering the Post Office, that
+while his grant purported to cover all the king's dominions, the
+postmaster at Edinburgh, Robert Mein, was independent of him, Mein
+having had a gift of that office made by His Majesty at Stirling,
+and confirmed since the Restoration. For the loss of revenue in this
+quarter, O'Neale claimed a deduction from his rent of £2000 a year.
+
+It may be well here to mention that, shortly after O'Neale's grant of
+the Post Office, an Act was passed--15 Chas. II. c. 14 (1663)--settling
+the profits of the business upon James Duke of York and his heirs male.
+That is to say, the rentals were the claim or right of the Duke of
+York; but they were subject to payments to be made, under Privy Seal,
+in favour of the king, to an amount not exceeding £5382, 10s. per
+annum. By a later Act--22 & 23 Chas. II. c. 27--this reservation in
+favour of the king was made perpetual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+A curious connection between the Post Office and Music is referred to
+as existing at this period. To Pepys we are indebted for a knowledge
+of the fact. In his _Diary_, under date Wednesday, the 5th October
+1664, he has the following note:--"To the musique-meeting at the Post
+Office, where I was once before. And thither anon come all the Gresham
+College, and a great deal of noble company; and the new instrument was
+brought called the Arched-Viall, where being tuned with lute-strings,
+and played on with kees like an organ, a piece of parchment is always
+kept moving; and the strings, which by the kees are pressed down upon
+it, are grated in imitation of a bow, by the parchment; and so it is
+intended to resemble several vyalls played on with one bow, but so
+basely and so harshly, that it will never do. But after three hours'
+stay it could not be fixed in tune; and so they were fain to go to
+some other musique of instruments." It might be supposed that the Post
+Office would be the last place on earth to which "a great deal of noble
+company" would resort for musical entertainment. But, fortunately,
+Evelyn in his _Diary_ throws some light on the subject by referring
+to the same meeting in the following terms:--"To our Society.--There
+was brought a new invented instrument of musiq, being a harpsichord
+with gut strings, sounding like a concert of viols with an organ, made
+vocal by a wheele, and a zone of parchment that rubb'd horizontally
+against the strings." "Our Society" referred to by Evelyn, and Pepys'
+allusion to Gresham College, as also the fact that the Minutes of the
+Royal Society record a meeting on this day, leave little room for
+doubt that the gathering at the Post Office was a meeting of the Royal
+Society. Evelyn was one of the original Council when the Society,
+a couple of years before, obtained its charter, and Pepys became a
+Fellow some four months after this meeting at the Post Office. But
+the question arises--Why was the meeting held at the Post Office? The
+usual meeting-place of the Royal Society was Gresham College. It is
+necessary to understand that the Post Office, at the period with which
+we are dealing, was located in the Black Swan, Bishopsgate Street, at a
+trifling distance, probably, from Gresham College. It was no doubt one
+of the old city inns, built with an interior courtyard, and possessing
+a number of rooms more or less adapted for public meetings. Within
+the inn lived certain of the principal officers of the Post Office.
+It may be that some of these officers were interested in the Royal
+Society, and, as a matter of favour, afforded accommodation at the Post
+Office for exceptional meetings. At anyrate, an original member of
+the society, Andrew Ellis, became Deputy Postmaster-General in 1667,
+and Joseph Williamson, secretary to Lord Arlington (who, by the way,
+practised music as an amateur), was also a member, the last mentioned
+(Arlington) becoming Postmaster-General in the same year. Or it may be
+that, as the members of the Royal Society moved in the best circles,
+they were granted accommodation for special meetings by the Farmer of
+the Posts, Col. Dan. O'Neale, who would doubtless be on intimate terms
+with many of the members. Another supposition is, however, open to us.
+It may be that the Post Office occupied only a part of the Black Swan
+premises, that the business of an inn was still carried on within the
+building, and that the meetings referred to by Pepys were held in a
+room rented for the purpose. However this may be, the entertaining
+diarist has left it on record that he went "to the musique-meeting at
+the Post Office."
+
+About the time of O'Neale's death, or a little later, occurred the
+Great Plague of London, 1664-65. The officers of the Post Office did
+not escape the fatalities of that terrible scourge. The senior clerk
+of the establishment, James Hickes, with whom the reader must now be
+familiar, describes, in a petition written shortly thereafter, how
+the Plague affected the Post Office. He says "that dureing the late
+dreadfull sickness, when many of the members of the office desert the
+same, and that betweene 20 and 30 of the members dyed thereof, your
+petitioner, considering rather the dispatch of your Majesty's service
+then the preservation of himselfe and family, did hazard them all, and
+continued all that woefull tyme in the said office to give dispatch and
+convayance to your Majesty's letters and pacquetts, and to preserve
+your revenue ariseing from the same." Now, as in August 1661 the number
+of officers attached to the London Post Office was only 47, it would
+appear by Hickes' statement that from one-half to two-thirds of the
+staff were carried off by the Plague. In a letter written to Jos.
+Williamson (who, like a great many other principal officers of the
+Government, had fled from the scourge), dated the 14th August 1665,
+Hickes gives some further particulars of how things proceeded at that
+time. He tells Williamson that the postmaster of Huntingdon has been
+directed to forward his letters, "airing them over vinegar before he
+sends them." Then he adds, that the chief office is "so fumed, morning
+and night, that they can hardly see each other; but had the contagion
+been catching by letters, they had been dead long ago. Hopes to be
+preserved in their important public work from the stroke of the
+destroying angel." Williamson had asked Hickes to give £5 on his behalf
+to the poor of St. Martins-in-the-Fields; but the latter answered that
+he did not know where to get it at this time, "where all doubt ever
+seeing each other again." Hickes adds, that the sickness is increasing,
+and that their gains at the Post Office are so small that "they will
+not at the year's end clear £10 of their salaries." The whole business
+of the City of London seems to have become paralysed. On the 3rd
+August an ambassador in London wrote to his Government that "there was
+no manner of trade left, nor conversation, either at Court or on the
+Exchange." On the 17th of the same month one Richard Fuller wrote that
+not one merchant in a hundred was left in the City; that every day
+seemed like Sunday; and that though he had a great deal of money owing
+to him, he could not get in a penny, nor could he sell any goods.
+
+The concluding portion of Hickes' petition, above referred to, may
+merit perusal. In justification of his prayer, he says: "Soe that your
+petitioner, being now arrived to neere 60 years of age, hath acquired
+for all the service of his life nothing but weaknesses and severe
+distempers, which his dayly attendance and assiduitie hath contracted.
+May it therefore please your most sacred Majesty, in consideration of
+your petitioner's service and sufferings, his age and weakness, haveing
+gained noe estate, but a bare subsistance by his hard services, that
+your Majesty wilbe gratiously pleased to give him such a Compensation
+as may suport and preserve your petitioner and his wife, now in their
+old age."
+
+Hickes did not, however, immediately retire from the Post Office: he
+remained in its service some time longer. In another petition at the
+time of the Restoration, he makes mention of some of his official
+antecedents. He says that "he sent the first letter from Nantwich to
+London by post in 1637, a road now bringing in £4000 a year." He
+settled the Bristol and York posts, and conveyed letters to the late
+king at Edgehill and Oxford. He refers to his committal to prison,
+previously mentioned in these pages, in 1643; and gives us the further
+information that his aged father was one of the 5000 Royalists who are
+said to have been slain on the field of Edgehill. Hickes, after his
+imprisonment, was employed in the king's service; but somehow he got
+back into the London Post Office, under the Commonwealth, about the
+year 1651. In yet a further petition, Hickes, again claiming credit for
+keeping the Post Office open during the Plague, begs that he may have
+an order to the Commissioners of Prizes, to deliver to him some brown
+and white sugar granted to him by His Majesty from the ship _Espérance_
+of Nantes, condemned as a prize at Plymouth.
+
+Shortly after the Plague, the Great Fire of London broke out. It
+commenced on the 1st September 1666, and on the 3rd September it
+reached the Chief Post Office, in Bishopsgate Street. In these early
+times, as has already been mentioned, some of the officers lived on
+the premises--the higher officials, at anyrate. Sir Philip Frowde was
+then one of the Controllers, and James Hickes was senior clerk. On the
+3rd September the latter writes to Williamson as follows, dating his
+letter from the post house at the Golden Lion, Red Cross Street (this
+inn was probably a branch post office at the time):--"Sir Philip and
+his lady fled from the office at midnight for saftey; stayed himself
+till 1 A.M., till his wife and children's patience could stay no
+longer, fearing lest they should be quite stopped up; the passage was
+so tedious, they had much ado to get where they are. The Chester and
+Irish Mails have come in; sends him (Williamson) his letters; knows not
+how to dispose of the business. Is sending his wife and children to
+Barnet."
+
+It is not very clear whether the Post Office in Bishopsgate Street was
+entirely destroyed,--it was certainly destroyed in part. At any rate,
+on the 24th August 1667, nearly a year after the fire, an official
+notice was issued that the Kentish office had been removed "from the
+Round House to the Grand Office in Bishopsgate Street, for the better
+dispatch of business." Whether this Grand Office was in the old Black
+Swan or in other premises we are unable to say. These records make
+it tolerably clear that the Chief Post Office was still placed in
+Bishopsgate Street for some time subsequent to the fire.
+
+The early locations of the Post Office in London seem to have been as
+follows:--
+
+ 1635.--In Sherborne Lane, King William Street.
+
+ 1642.--Inland Letter Office (under the Earl of Warwick) in
+ Bartholomew Lane, at the back of the old Exchange.
+
+ Removed afterwards to Cloak Lane, Dowgate.
+
+ Removed later to the Black Swan, Bishopsgate Street, where it was at
+ the time of the Great Fire.
+
+ Was again in Bishopsgate Street after the Great Fire.
+
+ Later it was removed to the Black Pillars in Bridges Street, Covent
+ Garden.
+
+In the new regulations laid down for working the posts in 1637, it
+was ordered that each mail should be accompanied by a label, or what
+would now be called a time-bill or way-bill, and that upon this label
+the arrivals at the several stages should be noted, instead of upon
+the letters or packets as had previously been done. The labels used in
+1666, specimens of which exist in the Public Record Office, are curious
+documents. They are like a double sheet of foolscap, but longer and
+narrower, and are furnished with a printed heading as follows:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_FOR THE SPECIAL SERVICE AND AFFAIRS OF HIS MAJESTY._
+
+ Haste, haste.
+ Poste-Haste.
+
+ Whereas the Management of the Poste Stage of Letters of England,
+ Scotland, and Ireland, is committed to my care and conduct; These are
+ therefore in His Majesties name to require you, in your respective
+ stages, to use all diligence and expedition in the safe and speedy
+ conveyance of this Mail and Letters from London to ____ , and from
+ thence to return; And hereof you are not to fail, as you will answer
+ the contrary at your perils. Given under my hand this ____ past ____
+ in the morning.
+
+ To the Several Postmasters
+ on ____ Road.
+
+The bills were signed in writing by Philip Frowde, the then working
+head of the Post Office.
+
+The stages, and the official distances between the stages, at this
+time from London to Berwick, were as follows:--
+
+ London to Waltham, 12 miles.
+ Waltham " Ware, 8 "
+ Ware " Royston, 13 "
+ Royston " Caxton, 9 "
+ Caxton " Huntingdon, 7 "
+ Huntingdon " Stilton, 9 "
+ Stilton " Stamford, 14 "
+ Stamford " Witham, 8 "
+ Witham " Grantham, 8 "
+ Grantham " Newark, 10 "
+ Newark " Tuxford, 10 "
+ Tuxford " Scroby, 12 "
+ Scroby " Doncaster, 7 "
+ Doncaster " Ferribrigs, 10 "
+ Ferribrigs " Tadcaster, 10 "
+ Tadcaster " Yorke, 8 "
+ Yorke " Burrowbridge 12 "
+ Burrowbridge " N. Allerton, 15 "
+ N. Allerton " Darlington, 12 "
+ Darlington " Durham, 12 "
+ Durham " Newcastle, 12 "
+ Newcastle " Morpeth, 12 "
+ Morpeth " Alnwicke, 16 "
+ Alnwicke " Belford, 12 "
+ Belford " Berwick, 14 "
+ ----
+ 272
+ ====
+
+The number of despatches weekly to the principal continental cities,
+and the times allowed for transit to or from London, were these:--
+
+ Madrid, once a week, transit, 21 days.
+ Venice, " " " 15 "
+ Geneva, " " " 17 "
+ Marseilles, " " " 11 "
+ Paris, twice " " 4 "
+ The Hague, " " " 3 "
+ Brussells, " " " 3 "
+ Frankfort, once " " 12 "
+ Dantzicke, " " " 16 "
+ Stockholme, " " " 20 "
+ Cologne, twice " " 6 "
+ Mayence, once " " 10 "
+ Hamburg, twice " " 8 "
+ Copenhagen, " " " 14 "
+ Leghorne, " " " 21 "
+ Naples, once " " 25 "
+
+About this time Joseph Williamson became editor of the _London
+Gazette_; and for his purpose, as well as for the use of the
+Government, all manner of news was collected through the Post Office.
+Williamson had a rival in the news business in one Muddiman, who
+had previously had charge of Williamson's correspondence. Hickes
+exerted himself to the utmost in opposing Muddiman, writing to his
+correspondents "to assure them that Muddiman, being dismissed by
+Williamson from the management of his correspondence, for turning it
+to his own advantage, could not communicate much news, and that his
+letters were no longer to be franked." The zeal of Hickes carried him
+so far as to violate Muddiman's letters; and as listeners often hear
+unpleasant things of themselves, so Hickes had a like experience in
+looking into the rival's letters. A copy of one of Muddiman's letters
+to his correspondents, left in Hickes' own handwriting, runs as
+follows:--
+
+"James Hickes, a little fellow of the Post Office, having written about
+him, he informs them that, on a misunderstanding with Williamson about
+the _Gazette_, he has quitted that office, turned his correspondents to
+Secretary Morice, and will write fully and constantly as before. Has
+discovered Hickes in some practices, and has not therefore given him
+his letters to sign, nor a copy of them to write after." The following
+are specimens of the news sent up from the country to Hickes:--
+
+7th March 1665--from Richd. Foster, Newcastle. "In the impress of
+seamen, the Mayor, Sir Ralph Delaval, and others agreed to make
+volunteers of Capt. John Wetwyng's pressmasters, who, knowing the
+haunts of most of the seamen of the town, managed so well that almost
+as great a number of volunteers and pressed men will be returned as
+will be had out of Scotland; as none can escape the pressmasters, many
+come in as volunteers because they will not be pressed; there are
+hundreds of stout young keel and barge men who could do good service,
+and hundreds would go volunteers, if they may be employed."
+
+19th March 1665--from Luke Whittington, Hull. "Col. Morley, the
+present governor of Hull, sent out several files of Musketeers to
+Serjeant Bullock's house, two miles off, where a conventicle of 100 to
+300 fanatics was held; only 20 were seized, as their scouts were out,
+and they fled."
+
+10th June 1665--from Edward Suckley, Landguard Fort. "On the 9th, the
+Duke of York with all his fleet came to Sole Bay, where they are at
+anchor, with 15 Dutch ships taken and 2000 prisoners; 35 sail are sunk
+or taken; Opdam, Trump, and Eversen, and other commanders, killed.
+On our side Lords Fitzherbert and Falmouth, and two other Lords, are
+killed."
+
+20th October 1666--from Fras. Newby, Harwich. "A mighty eagle lighted
+yesterday on the ropehouse on the Green; her wings seven feet long,
+and one claw 9 inches long; she is thought to have come from some far
+country, and to have been extremely weary, for she budged not at the
+first shot made at her, and was killed by the second. Has sent him a
+dried salmon," etc.
+
+At this period (1666), the riding work seems to have been very slow
+indeed. On the 18th May of this year, Hickes gives a return which shows
+the following results:--
+
+ Plymouth to London, at the rate of 3 to 4 miles an hour.
+ Yarmouth " " " 3-1/2 " "
+ Bristol Road " " " 4 " "
+ Gloucester " " " 3-1/2 " "
+ Chester " " " 4 " "
+ York " " " 4 " "
+
+The speed at which the mails should have been carried between Lady Day
+and Michaelmas was seven miles an hour, so they were travelling at
+little more than half their speed.
+
+Yet severe measures were taken by the post-office authorities against
+the postmasters. By a petition of John Paine, postmaster of Saxmundham,
+it is set forth that he was taken into custody "for not having seven
+horses ready as soon as Sir Philip Howard expected, though they were
+ready within half an hour." The postmaster of Witham, Essex, was also
+summoned before Lord Arlington for neglect, and imprisoned. So great
+had been the effect of the pressing of men for the fleet at this period
+that, on the 2nd July 1666, Sir Philip Frowde writes to Williamson,
+that "most of the post-boys on the Kentish Road are pressed, so that
+unless some course be taken, expresses or envoys cannot come or go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+On the expiry of O'Neale's grant, the office of Postmaster-General
+was conferred upon Henry Lord Arlington, the grant in his case being
+for a period of ten years, dating from Midsummer 1667. During the
+Commonwealth, Arlington, as Sir Henry Bennet, had been a faithful
+adherent of the king while in exile on the Continent, and for a time
+was his representative at the Court of Madrid. As a statesman, after
+the Restoration, he was held in high esteem by Charles, and is well
+known as a member of the Cabal. He was a busy man in the affairs of his
+country, and, consequently, was unable to fulfil, in person, his duties
+at the Post Office. And so we find that he discharged these duties by
+deputies, the two men intrusted in the first instance with the work
+being his brother, Sir John Bennet, and one Andrew Ellis. Ellis died in
+1672, and in his place was appointed his cousin, Colonel Roger Whitley,
+who continued to hold the office of Deputy Postmaster-General till the
+close of Lord Arlington's first term in 1677. The precise conditions
+of Arlington's grant, as regards rent, are not known. The patent roll
+sets forth that the sum of £5382, 10s. was to be reserved to the order
+of the king as in previous grants, but that the remaining rent payable
+by Arlington was to be determined by a tripartite indenture, of the
+same date as the patent, to be executed between James Duke of York of
+the first part, Henry Lord Arlington and Lord Berkeley of Stratton of
+the second part, and Mary Dowager-Viscountess Falmouth of the third
+part. The terms of this indenture have not apparently come down to us.
+The third party to the indenture was the widow of Viscount Falmouth,
+who fell in the battle with the Dutch off Lowestoft, on the 3rd June
+1665, and the arrangement here made was probably with the view of
+securing her some allowance. Haydn, however, places Lord Arlington's
+rent, in 1674, at £43,000, but we are unable to say from what source
+these figures are taken. Lord Arlington's advent to the Post Office in
+1667 was marked by measures that were held to be very oppressive by the
+staff of that office. This is abundantly clear from letters written at
+the period by James Hickes, the senior clerk. He writes to Williamson,
+secretary to Lord Arlington, with whom he had intimate relations in
+connection with the _Gazette_ business, as follows:--"Many postmasters
+are in London, or coming up, in order to their future settlements:
+understands his lordship's pleasure to be that they must pay a fine;
+and has given reasons therefor to those who applied to him for advice,
+so as to prevent hard thoughts of his lordship, and prepare them for
+quiet submission." The fine here mentioned is a payment that was
+demanded for renewal of employment, something after the plan previously
+in vogue whereby the deputy postmasters obtained their places by
+purchase. To obtain places by purchase was the common practice during
+the reigns of James I. and Charles I. Again Hickes writes about
+himself, that he "expects little compassion, notwithstanding all his
+services and diligence, if Williamson do not stand firm to him." Then,
+upon some interference by Sir John Bennet with the clerks sending
+letters or news books post-free, Hickes says that "he would rather
+withdraw and live on salt and water," and that he refused to pay for
+his own letters or news books. He "told Sir John that the governors
+had rather blamed the clerks for not corresponding more with the
+postmasters to keep things right, as by so doing a correspondence had
+been settled with all parts of the kingdom. Told him there was not a
+man in the office who did not deserve continuance and encouragement
+instead of reduction of salary, and that such severity would ruin
+the office." Sir John, "said he could have 40 officers who wanted
+employment. Told him that blades with swords at their sides, and velvet
+jackets, would not do the business, as some had proved very rogues and
+cheats, and were rooted out.... Sir John said that as his lordship had
+to pay a greater rent than before, other things must be improved." He
+again writes, that "Sir John Bennett tries to reduce the postmasters
+to 20s. a mile, which lowers them from £40 to £20 a year; and that he
+makes and unmakes contracts, so that they fear they may be removed at
+pleasure. The two porters are reduced from 10s. to 6s. a week, and
+are no longer to have 6d. for each express sent to Whitehall; the 30
+letter carriers are reduced from 8s. to 6s.... Will do his best, though
+told he is designed for ruin when he has served their turn," etc. In a
+further letter Hickes writes, that he "will wait upon Williamson and
+his lordship shortly, and if no more kindness is shown him for services
+done, shall take his leave, and rest upon God. Is hardly dealt with,
+as whatever care and pains he takes, it contribrites not a candle,
+nor a cup of beer as formerly granted; and the taking away of these
+poor petty things is the present reward for the most considerable
+and advantageous service done. Writes all this to him, as being the
+only person to whom he can unbosom himself." We will add but one more
+extract, from a later letter written in Hickes' despair. He intimates a
+desire to wait upon Williamson, but he pleads that "his service is so
+severe that he has not two hours' rest between the post going out and
+coming in, and seldom has half an hour's sleep, by which means he is
+becoming decrepid and dropsical." Then he adds, that "he will wait with
+patience; and if he die without consideration, it will be a comfort
+to know that he has discharged his duty faithfully in all hazards and
+hardships."
+
+Incidentally, Hickes mentions in one of these plaintive letters that
+his salary as senior clerk was £100 a year. He also indicates that Sir
+John Bennet[4] was no favourite with the staff; for he says of him,
+that when he comes into the office "it is with such deportment and
+carriage that no king can exceed."
+
+These letters afford a fair idea of the measures which were being
+applied to the service under Lord Arlington's Postmaster-Generalship.
+
+The paucity of information left to us of the internal working of the
+Post Office in its earlier years, is doubtless due to the fact that
+the books in use under the various Farmers of the Post were removed at
+the termination of each farm, being the property of the farmer, and
+in most cases these books have disappeared with time. Fortunately,
+however,[5] one set of books remains, that referring to the period
+from 1672 to 1677, when, under Lord Arlington, Colonel Roger Whitley
+was Deputy Postmaster-General. These books contain the correspondence
+with the deputy postmasters throughout, the country, and afford much
+interesting information as to the state of the posts in that limited
+term.
+
+Colonel Roger Whitley, as appears by the _Historical Manuscripts
+Commission Reports_, was either the individual of that name who, when
+Governor of Aberystwith Castle, had to surrender to the Parliamentary
+troops, or a son of that person. He was, at anyrate, an attendant upon
+King Charles II. during his exile, and, in the semblance of a Court
+then maintained, he held the position of a member of the Privy Chamber.
+A letter is extant in which the king begs from Whitley the loan of
+£100. At the Restoration, Whitley received the appointment of Harbinger
+to the King, and now the appointment of Deputy Postmaster-General. It
+is not improbable that he was a Cheshire man, from the facts that his
+daughter was married to Sir John Mainwaring of Peover, in that county,
+and that Colonel Whitley himself, or his son, was Mayor of Chester in
+1693. During the time of Whitley's Deputy Postmaster-Generalship, he
+represented Flint in the House of Commons. Andrew Marvell says of him
+that by the farm of the Post Office "he got a vast estate."
+
+In some loose sheets prefaced to the first volume of Whitley's office
+letter-books, referring apparently to the year 1667, is a schedule
+showing a rearrangement of the salaries of the deputy postmasters in
+the country, when Lord Arlington assumed the farm of the Post Office.
+The fragment of the document on the opposite page shows how the matter
+was arranged.
+
+For the renewal of their deputations under the new Postmaster-General,
+the postmasters were mulcted in a fine or payment equal to one
+year's salary as adjudged to be proper to the several offices, the
+rate allowed being about 30s. per mile per annum. Now, as the mails,
+as a rule, at this time travelled three times a week, the rate per
+single-journey mile carrying the mail works out at about twopence and
+one-third of a penny.
+
+It is worthy of note, that on the admission of the deputy postmasters
+to office they were required to pay, in addition to the fine above
+referred to, fees for their deeds of deputation amounting to £3, 10s.
+These fees went to the clerks at head-quarters, among whom they were
+divided, as a payment, apparently, for the drafting and preparing the
+necessary papers. This must have been a heavy tax upon the postmasters,
+the sum mentioned being equivalent in value to at least £14 of our
+present money.
+
+ CHESTER ROAD.
+ +-----------+------------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------+
+ | Miles | | | | Salaries |
+ | (up and | | | Old | according |
+ | down). | Stages. | Postmasters' Names. | Salary. | to Derby |
+ | | | | | Road. |
+ +-----------+------------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------+
+ | | | | £ s. d. | £ s. d. |
+ | | | | | |
+ | 10 Single | London | J. Bennett | 30 0 0 | 10 0 0 |
+ | | | | | |
+ | | | | | |
+ | 10 and 10 | Barnet | Walter Yorke | 40 0 0 | 20 0 0 |
+ | 10 " 10 | St. Albans | Sarah Simpson | 40 0 0 | 20 0 0 |
+ | 7 " 10 | Dunstable | Robert Joxon | 40 0 0 | 17 0 0 |
+ | 13 " 7 | Brickhill | John Younger | 40 0 0 | 20 0 0 |
+ | 10 " 13 | Towcester | Andrew Snape | 40 0 0 | 23 0 0 |
+ | 14 " 10 | Daventry | Valentine Suckborough | 40 0 0 | 24 0 0 |
+ +-----------+------------+-----------------------+-----------+-----------+
+
+ --------------+---------------------------+------------+
+ Salary | | |
+ according to | | |
+ judgement. | | Fines. |
+ | | |
+ -------------+----------------------------+------------+
+ £ s. d. |{ Viz. for riding, £15 } | £ s. d. |
+ |{ per annum, and £6 } | |
+ 21 0 0 |{ per annum for sending } | 21 0 0 |
+ |{ his horse each } | |
+ |{ night to the office. } | |
+ 30 0 0 | | 30 0 0 |
+ 30 0 0 | | 30 0 0 |
+ 25 10 0 | | 25 10 0 |
+ 30 0 0 | | 30 0 0 |
+ 34 10 0 | | 34 10 0 |
+ 36 0 0 | | 36 0 0 |
+ -------------+----------------------------+------------+
+
+The letters of Roger Whitley on subjects relating to the appointment of
+deputies, to the riding work, the packet services, and to his dealings
+with the public, are interesting in many ways. They are somewhat
+curious in language and style, and show a quaint relationship existing
+between himself and his subordinates. To the country postmasters,
+Whitley ordinarily subscribed himself, "your very loving friend," "your
+assured loving friend," and the like. The salaries of the postmasters
+were usually arranged after negotiation by letter, and, in many cases,
+by a subsequent visit from a friend on behalf of the postmasters.
+Whitley rather discouraged visits from the deputies themselves on the
+subject of salaries, and the object of the friend's visit is not very
+clear.
+
+While Lord Arlington had reduced the scale of pay in 1667 to something
+like 30s. a mile per annum, the scale was further reduced under Whitley
+to about 20s. a mile. The postmasters were not entirely remunerated
+by salary. They enjoyed privileges not allowed to other innkeepers,
+which brought them profits and immunities. They had the old monopoly
+of providing horses for persons riding post, at the fixed rate of 3d.
+per mile, with 4d. per stage for the guide. They were exempt from
+serving in the militia and in certain other public capacities, and
+they frequently had relief from the quartering upon them of soldiers.
+This exemption did not, however, apply to the regiments of Guards.
+In some cases, also, they were favoured with a couple of _Gazettes_
+weekly, out of which they probably made something by attracting
+thereby customers to their inns, or by circulating them in their towns
+and districts. From these various sources did the postmasters receive
+a return for their services to the posts. Beyond this, however, the
+riding work brought travellers to their houses; and if the wages paid
+by the Deputy Postmaster-General were not high, the deputy postmasters
+probably "took it out" of the public. At anyrate, Colonel Whitley had
+himself some experience of high charges, as appears by a remonstrance
+made by him to one of his postmasters, as follows:--"I much admire to
+have a bill of charges sent after me (for I use not to leave any place
+till these be defrayed), especially since my son paid all that could
+be demanded, which was judged by all that had skill in these affairs
+to be extreme (or rather unreasonably) dear. Mr. Davies, I made use of
+your house out of civility and kindness to you, but did not expect
+your exactions. I could have had better entertainment, on better terms,
+elsewhere. Consider well of it; and as I have always been civil and
+just to you, so let me receive the like from you."
+
+The postmasters were very dilatory in sending up their moneys to
+the head office, and admonitory letters were daily sent out urging
+upon them greater punctuality. These varied in terms from a gentle
+reminder to the veriest threat. The following is a fair specimen of
+the latter:--"By yours of the 8th you promise to pay the money due for
+last quarter when you receive this quarter's accounts. I am resolved no
+man shall be employed by me (in this office) that does not clear every
+quarter immediately after it is due. Wherefore, I once more require
+you to send up your money upon the receipt of this letter, or I will
+endeavour to get it some other way, and find a more punctual man for
+the employment.--Your loving friend."
+
+Whitley was greatly troubled, or had every reason to be troubled, by
+the very frequent delays of the mails. It would be tedious to cite case
+after case, and more interest will be found to lie in the terms of
+Whitley's letters, two of which run as follows:--
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "To Mr. Sadler, Postmaster of Marlborough.
+
+"I can no longer endure your shameful neglect of the mails. I have
+grievous complaints from Bristol of the prejudice they receive thereby;
+and find that it is 7, 8, 9, or 10 hours commonly betwixt you and
+Chippenham, which is but 15 miles, and ought to be performed in 3
+hours. This is a most abominable shame and scandal to the office; and
+I tell you, Mr Sadler, in few words (for I will not any more trouble
+myself to write you on the subject), that if this be not speedily
+amended, but the like abuse be committed again, you may expect a
+messenger for you to answer it before those that will be impartial
+judges and just rewarders of such shameful neglects. Be advised to look
+better about your business, or you will suffer for it."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ "To Mr Ballard, Monmouth.
+
+"I am tormented with complaints from the gentlemen of Glamorgan and
+Monmouthshires, of the neglect and slow coming of the mails to these
+parts. I observe the labels, after they have passed Gloucester,
+commonly omitted to be dated, that it may not so easily be discovered
+where the fault lies. I have writ so often on this subject that I am
+weary of it; and admire you should be so little concerned, when it is
+evident you are so far from performing your duty as you ought, and are
+obliged to do. I acknowledge to have much respect for you, but cannot
+suffer the public to be wronged by anyone I employ. I pray let this
+neglect be amended, or it will make a breach; consider well of it."
+
+The threat held out in the former of these two letters of a messenger
+being sent for the postmaster was really a serious affair, for it meant
+the taking the postmaster into custody, and his being probably involved
+in expenses to the extent of £20 before he could obtain release.
+
+It might be supposed that the farming of the posts was a most
+unbusinesslike way of carrying on the work of the public conveyance
+of letters. But there is another side to the question; and arguments
+are not wanting that, for the development of the service, the farming
+was, in some respects at anyrate, a very satisfactory arrangement. The
+work was committed to the hands and control of a single individual, who
+was unfettered by Treasury or other restrictions, and who was bound
+to find a sum sufficient for the payment of his rent. He was further
+under the influence of a personal interest in the way of securing a
+profit to himself, and as a consequence, while his tenure lasted, he
+put forth his utmost endeavour to make his office useful to the public,
+and to extend its scope. Further, upon each increase of rent came a new
+incentive to fresh exertions in the way indicated, and the growth of
+the Post Office was steady and rapid.
+
+Whitley was a man of a very conciliatory nature: his letters attest
+it. He was always anxious to please the public. In disputes over
+irregularities, and matters relating to alleged overcharges, he was
+most indulgent. In a letter of apology to Dr. Bathurst, President
+of Trinity College, Oxford, he writes:--"I will not permit him (the
+postmaster) to dispute, but submit my interest to your pleasure, being
+assuredly safe therein. I have ordered him to wait on you, and not
+only to do you right in this matter, but conform with your demands in
+all things; and I humbly beseech you to have that goodness and charity
+for me as to believe me of another composition than to be guilty of
+such low unworthy practices, but own me as one that is ambitious
+of the honour of being esteemed, your," etc. To the postmaster of
+York he writes in a strain advising like conciliatory dealings with
+the public. "I cannot imagine," says he, "why you should not think
+yourself sufficiently empowered by my last and former letters to do
+right to the merchants in all their just demands; nay further, to
+gratify them sometimes in little disputes (though they be in the
+mistake) rather than exasperate and disoblige gentlemen that support
+the office by their correspondence. If you reflect on my last letter,
+you will find that I refer it to you and them to do with me (almost)
+what you please.... I hope when you acquaint these gentlemen with
+what I write, it will give them satisfaction, especially seeing I make
+them chancellors in their own case." In a like matter of dispute at
+Norwich, Whitley writes to the postmaster:--"I know their own ingenuity
+will prompt them to consider the usefulness of this office to their
+commerce, and how we work and travail night and day for them.... I
+never found, in all my experience, that I lost anything by submitting
+to the justice and civility of conscientious men." A similar strain
+of patient forbearance towards the public runs through the whole of
+Whitley's correspondence.
+
+Whitley was at all times alive to the interests of the office and
+himself, by giving additional facilities for the sending of letters.
+Writing to the postmaster of Oxford, he says:--"In my opinion, the
+College butlers may be useful to you in receiving and dispersing
+letters, etc., and I wish you would be in a good correspondence with
+them; and let your letter-carriers call there for letters, to be sent
+to London, immediately before the post goes away, as well as to bring
+letters to them when the post comes in." It was seen that a field for
+extended business presented itself at Tunbridge Wells. Accordingly
+Whitley seizes the opportunity and makes the necessary arrangements,
+giving the postmaster advice and instructions as follows:--"I have
+ordered the mails to go from hence sooner than ordinary, that the
+letters may be at Tunbridge early in the morning; wherefore fail not
+to be there ready to receive them, and then make all possible haste
+with them to the Wells, that the gentry may have them before they go to
+their lodgings." This arrangement would doubtless appeal to the love
+of gossip in the frequenters of the Wells, who would naturally have
+some rivalry to receive the most recent _items_, and to discuss them
+while they lingered over the morning cup. The post-master was further
+ordered to call every post-day "on Mr. Miles, confectioner on the Walk,
+who will deliver you what letters he receives for London or elsewhere."
+During the season the posts ran daily between London and Tunbridge.
+
+The by-letters occasioned uneasiness to Whitley, because he was
+entirely in the hands of the postmasters for the accounting of them. He
+thus defines them:--"By by-letters I mean all letters of your stage and
+branch sent by your agents or boys, to any place but London or beyond
+it." The revenue from this class of letters was a matter of arrangement
+between the Deputy Postmaster-General and the country postmasters, the
+former finding it a convenient plan to farm this correspondence to
+the postmasters. Whitley distrusted the returns of by-letters made by
+his agents, as the following letters to Postmasters show:--"I wonder
+at your great mistake in your by-letters; the account you give me
+amounts to much more by the year, and yet I have good reason to believe
+(I speak it without any disrespect or reflection on you) that I have
+not account of the fourth part of your stage. Your servants may be
+negligent, and boys abuse you; however, I am at the loss; but resolve,
+where I find any injustice of that kind hereafter, to sue the bond, and
+doubt not but some postmasters will be so kind and honest as to give me
+true information." Again, "I find a great decay in our by-letters of
+late. I hope you are a person of more integrity than to design (by this
+means) to beat down the price. Do not do it; I have other measures to
+go by; you will but wrong yourself as well as me. You do not offer the
+third part of the value. However, to avoid suspicion, the trouble of
+accounts, and possibly suits at law, I will let you have it for thirty
+pounds the year (Hull gives fifty), and take the benefit of by-letters
+into the bargain. You know I could have other chapmen." Colonel
+Whitley may have had painful experience of law suits, for he expresses
+himself to one of his postmasters in the following strain:--"Being
+forced by Mr. Vaughan's ill-payment to have recourse to the law to get
+my money, I cannot meet with a sincere attorney, but they juggle and
+will not serve the writ, pretending they cannot; wherefore, relying
+much on your kindness and ingenuity, and having no other way to get my
+right, I send the enclosed writs to you." He gives directions as to the
+serving of them, and adds, that "it will be an extraordinary kindness
+to me."
+
+On the 5th July 1673, Whitley wrote his views on the subject of
+conformity to the postmaster of Belford (Mr. Carr) in the following
+safe terms. In some respects the letter is amusing. It runs:--"I think
+it not only convenient but necessary for every postmaster to conform
+to the late law about the sacrament and oaths; not that it will anyway
+concern me or this office, only in the safety and wellbeing of those
+that relate to it. I pray consult the law itself, being too nice a
+point for me to give my opinion of, and the judges themselves are shy
+in the matter; but on the one hand you are sure not to err, therefore
+that is the safest way." The postmaster of Ware having, by a like
+omission, got himself into trouble, is thus written to:--"I am sorry
+to hear that information is given into the Exchequer of your neglect
+in not taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy and the test lately
+ordained by Parliament.[6] I fear this may be troublesome to you, it
+being unsafe for anyone to bear an office that will not conform to the
+laws established."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: Andrew Marvell says of Bennet that he "got of the poor
+indigent Cavaliers' money £26,000, and other wayes near £40,000 more."]
+
+[Footnote 5: The property of Sir Philip Mainwaring, Bart., of Peover
+Hall, Knutsford, by whose courtesy they have been consulted.]
+
+[Footnote 6: The declaration required was in the following terms:--"I
+do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the Sacrament of
+the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after
+the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+As compared with the sober and temperate style of official
+correspondence in the present day, when a civilly expressed request is
+generally held to convey all the force of a direct command, Whitley's
+letters to his deputies savour of smartness and incisiveness that are
+somewhat striking. Mr. Pye, the deputy at Morpeth, having quarrelled
+with some of the postmasters at neighbouring post stages, by sending
+travellers bound for Scotland by the road through Owler (Wooler)
+instead of by Belford and Berwick, Whitley had to fall upon him. One of
+Whitley's letters to Mr. Pye is as follows:--"I understand you well and
+your designs, but you shall not prevail with me (for all your specious
+arguments or applications to great persons) to countenance you in your
+indirect ways. As for the Scottish lord that _pufft_ at my letter,
+I value it not. I would rather he did so than applaud me for doing
+otherwise," etc. The postmasters were very tenacious of their rights as
+to the posting work, which was probably the most remunerative part of
+their business, and they did not stick at trifles in asserting these
+rights. The postmaster of Dartford, Mr. Glover, got into trouble in
+December 1675 by laying hands upon several French gentlemen of quality,
+Monsieur Vendome among the rest. It appears that these persons had
+hired horses in London for their journey; but on reaching Dartford they
+were pulled off their horses, and forced to take post horses from the
+deputy.
+
+Down to the year 1673, Liverpool was without a horse post.
+Correspondence took place in that year between Whitley and the Mayor
+of the town with the view of improving the service. In one letter
+Whitley writes:--"I agree with you that the trade of that industrious
+place ought to have quicker despatch in its correspondence, and may
+deserve a horse post as well for expedition of letters as conveniency
+of travellers; but if the charge be imposed on the office, the benefit
+will not balance the expense." Negotiations were thereafter entered
+upon with Alderman Chanler of Liverpool, with a view to his taking up
+the work. The proposal was "to carry the Preston mail from Warrington
+to Wigan (as it is now done), to send to Liverpool by a horse post,
+also to Prescod and Ormskirk (if a foot post will not be as convenient
+to this latter), and to carry the mail back again to Knutsford; and I
+hope you will do this for forty pounds per annum." Previous to 1673
+Irish letters from Manchester were carried up to London, to be thence
+forwarded to their destination by way of Chester and Holyhead, from
+which latter place the Irish packets sailed. In this year, however,
+a more direct circulation was arranged: the Manchester letters being
+carried south to Stone in Staffordshire, where, striking the post road
+for Holyhead, they were carried forward with the London mails for
+Ireland. Between London and South Wales the transit of letters was of
+the slowest possible kind, and gave rise to much complaint. On the
+24th July 1673, Mr. Courcy, postmaster of Pembroke, is written to on
+the subject in these terms:--"Yours of the 16th came not to hand till
+the 23rd, the usual despatch of the South Wales posts, 7 or 8 days
+in the way; if you can tell me who opens your bag I know how to have
+satisfaction, but without that discovery I am in the dark, and know not
+what to do."
+
+In London at this period there must have been but one delivery a day by
+letter-carrier. This appears by the terms of a complaint made to the
+postmaster of Harwich concerning the late arrival of the mails, which
+resulted either in the keeping the "letter-carriers in the office to
+attend your bag, or not issue out your letters till the next morning."
+The country mails were at this time due to arrive in the very early
+hours of the morning. In 1676, there were at least seven branch post
+offices in London for the receipt of letters for the mails, and from
+these offices letters were required to be sent up to the central office
+nightly as despatches were made every week-day for one or other of the
+roads, or for foreign parts.
+
+The packet service was the occasion of much trouble and anxiety. The
+French and Flanders packet boats sailed from Dover, and those for
+Holland from Harwich. Whitley had a great deal of correspondence
+with the agents at these two ports on the subject of their irregular
+proceedings. To the agent at Dover he writes:--"There is an
+information that the boats stay at Calais (sometimes) 24 hours after
+the mail is on board to take in goods, and that occasions the irregular
+coming over of the mails." The agent at Harwich is informed that "the
+Commissioners of Customs complain that you refuse to enter and pay
+custom for some rack wine which you (or some of your masters) lately
+took up at sea; they are much offended at it." The same agent has
+conveyed to him, "Lord Arlington's command to require the masters of
+the Holland packet boats not to refuse passage to any English soldiers
+that shall desire to come over in their boats; but that care be taken,
+as soon as they arrive in England, to secure them and put them into
+safe custody. This you are to give them in charge and see it strictly
+observed." The soldiers here referred to were doubtless deserters
+from the English force in Holland, with which country we were then
+(1672) at war. Peace, following this war, was proclaimed in London on
+the 28th February 1674, and the same night an express was despatched
+to the Duke of Lauderdale, a member of the Cabal, then at Edinburgh.
+It no doubt contained tidings of the peace. The instructions issued
+to the postmasters for the special urgency of the express were as
+follows:--"All postmasters between London and Edinburgh are hereby
+required to forward this express with all possible expedition, and not
+detain it in any stage for the ordinary maile, but hast itt away as
+soon as received, as they will answer the contrary.
+
+"Dated at the Generall Letter Office in London past six att night this
+28th Feb. 1674."
+
+Colonel Whitley was greatly annoyed by the neglect to secure letters
+from the merchant fleets when they arrived off our coasts. On this
+subject he writes to the agent at Deal:--"I am much troubled to
+find so small an account of letters from the great merchant fleet
+that came lately into the Downs. Such a fleet was wont to allow me
+7 or 8000 letters, and now I have not so many hundreds. There was
+certainly a great neglect in your boats, which, turning so much to my
+loss, I know not how to pass by." In a similar matter the agent at
+Dover is remonstrated with. "I wonder," says Whitley, "how I came to
+be disappointed of the great abundance of ship letters that came in
+with the last fleet, and were brought on shore at Dover by the pursers
+and others--great bags and portmantlesfull. Here they are carried to
+the Exchange and round the town in great quantities, and those they
+cannot get off they bring to this office. The parties confess that they
+brought them on shore at Dover without control." Dissatisfaction was
+also given through the irregular carriage of freight by the packet
+boats. "I have yours of the 3rd," says Whitley to the Dover agent, "but
+do not understand why your masters should pretend to such a privilege
+as to carry over silver or any commodities in the packet boats without
+giving me account thereof. I find that that practice hath been longer,
+and is more used than you mention. I expect satisfaction. The Harwich
+packet boats would not carry over oysters without my order, and give
+me account of all they do; but I know it much otherwise at Dover." The
+good opinion thus expressed of the virtues of the Harwich people was
+not of long duration, for a few days later we find Whitley writing the
+agent there in the following very irate fashion:--"You are very brisk
+in yours of the 6th; perhaps I may be so too when I see you. I deny
+that you ever told me of your bringing over any goods in the Packet
+Boats upon your own or any merchant's account without paying for them;
+and why should you do it? Are not the boats mine? Should I suffer
+you or others to drive so profitable a trade in my boats, and by the
+assistance and management of my servants (as those seamen are that I
+pay wages to), and I to have no benefit for freight, nor thanks, but
+the contrary? I need not tell you how this comes to be a prejudice to
+me; you are not so ignorant as to require information in the case; you
+are free to follow any lawful callings, but not at my charges, in my
+boats, and with my seamen. You cannot justify it (as you say you can);
+but I will justify that in this and other things you are ungrateful,
+and (perhaps I shall make it appear) unjust too. I have deserved better
+from you."
+
+On the 21st September 1675, a letter is written to the agent at Deal,
+wherein Whitley puts his finger on the cause of the neglects at that
+port. "I am daily tormented," says he, "with the complaints of the
+merchants, and my ears are filled with the noise of seamen's wives
+and others concerning the neglect of their letters, who are now fully
+resolved to redress themselves to His Majesty.... It will be proved
+that your boats very seldom go on board with letters, to force the
+seamen to come ashore to drink at your house.... They go on board other
+ships with brandy and other liquors."
+
+The boats sailing in the packet service to and from Holland were
+Galiot-Hoys, of which three were regularly engaged--two of 60 tons
+and one of 40 tons, and in each six men were employed. The tonnage of
+these boats was not greater than that of a decently-sized Stonehaven
+fishing boat; yet they were supposed to provide adequate accommodation
+for passengers. In 1675, the passenger fare from Harwich to Holland was
+12s. In February 1674, a proposal was on foot for conveying letters
+from Flanders and Holland to Spain and Portugal by way of England, but
+it does not appear that the plan was given effect to. The idea was to
+set up a packet service for this purpose from Plymouth to some port in
+Spain, the boats to be employed being of 40, 50, or 60 tons, "with good
+conveniency of cabins, and able to encounter storms," and furnished
+with crews of not under seven or eight good men. In one of his letters
+on this subject Whitley writes, that "the gentleman that demands £50
+per mensem for a vessel of 60 tons is much out of the way"; and he
+adds, "I have two of that burthen to Holland at a less rate." A service
+of this kind from Plymouth is stated to have been kept up in Cromwell's
+time; but possibly the reference is to the packets set up by Charles I.
+when he was in the West of England and at war with the Parliamentary
+party. The port of despatch then was Weymouth.
+
+Whitley was very sympathetic over the hardships to which the seamen
+were exposed in his service. To the agent at Dover he writes, on the
+occasion of a disaster:--"I am very much afflicted for the loss of Mr.
+Lambert, who had the character of an honest, able man. It was a great
+mercy that the rest were preserved. I pray God send us good accounts
+of our other boats, with better weather. We must resign ourselves and
+all our concernments to the will of God, and depend on His providence."
+On another occasion, he expresses himself thus:--"I pray God keep our
+men and boats in safety these terrible storms; I assure you my heart
+aches often for them." About the same period, Whitley deplores the
+loss of the captain of one of the Dublin packet boats, who was washed
+overboard.
+
+Reference has been made to the packet boats conveying passengers
+as well as mails. These, it seems, were not always kept in a tidy
+condition, and the Deputy Postmaster-General had to speak his mind on
+the subject, drawing an unpleasant contrast between his own countrymen
+and foreigners. "Your boats," says Whitley to the agent at Harwich,
+"are also rendered so contemptible, so nasty, ill provided, and out
+of order, that we do not only lose many passengers, that will not
+venture with them, but it is a reproach to our nation to have such bad
+accommodation, when our neighbours are so neat and exact in theirs." In
+some respects the reproachful contrast is one not confined to Whitley's
+days.
+
+Not only was it the case that separate rooms were not always
+provided at the country post offices for the treatment and safe
+custody of letters, but the following complaints from the Deputy
+Postmaster-General prove that at certain places the letters were
+very carelessly dealt with. To the postmaster of Rochester, Whitley
+writes:--"I hear there is great neglect in your sending out of letters,
+and that there is a great abundance of them scattered about your house,
+especially in your chamber and upon the tester of your bed. This shows
+want of order in your business. You should get some room apart to be
+your office, in which only you should bring your mails, open and close
+them, and where you should sort letters, and let nobody come into it
+but yourself." The position of affairs at Hereford was perhaps worse.
+In June 1675, the postmaster, Mr Philpotts, is thus written to:--"I
+have complaints from persons of very good credit, that their letters
+are not safe in your hands; they do not directly accuse you, but allege
+that your office being kept in the prison, it gives opportunity to
+prisoners, by countenance with some of your servants, to intercept
+letters of business with writings, and whereby the parties concerned
+are much damnified and the office abundantly scandalized."
+
+At Witham, on one occasion, the mail was allowed to lie at the stage
+from ten o'clock at night till six the next morning, "the servants
+refusing to rise out of their beds to forward it." At times the mail
+seems to have been intrusted to anyone who could ride a horse. For
+carelessness in a matter of this kind the postmaster of Sittingbourne
+was challenged, in July 1675, in the following terms:--"Now have you
+completed the score of your neglects and miscarriages, in sending the
+Flanders mail yesterday by a stranger, a Dutchman (without any guide
+or servant of your own), who suffered it to be broke open on the way,
+the Secretaries of States' packets and letters to be visited and tore,
+and many letters lost," etc. About the same time, the postmaster of
+Rochester offended in a like fashion. "You sent the mail," writes
+Whitley, "by a seaman last Saturday, who rid alone, thinking he had
+some gentleman's portmantle behind him; but coming to Dartford, and
+understanding it to be the mail of letters, he presently swore that if
+he had known what it had been, he would have cast it into some ditch
+by the way, for he scorned to be a post-boy." The post-boys employed
+were not certainly of high character in all cases. In an inquiry
+respecting the opening of a mail by the way, Whitley writes thus to the
+postmaster of Colchester:--"I have made inquiry what has become of the
+Post Boy that formerly lived at Whitechapel, whom you rendered such a
+notorious rogue, whose father was hanged, and he deserved the same; and
+I find you have got him to your house, which I much wonder at, you
+knowing him to be such a wicked villain. I cannot conceive any place
+to be more likely for such rogueries to be committed than where such
+are employed." The boys employed were in some cases very young. About
+delays at Sarum, Whitley writes:--"I am apt to believe the boys that
+ride are very little, and so discouraged in a dark night, which may be
+the chief occasion of the slow coming of the mails." Well might the
+little fellows be discouraged in a midwinter's night, riding through
+lonely country, along ill-kept roads lying at times under water and
+full of ruts and stones. Frequent mention is made at this time of the
+waters being out covering the ways, and one postmaster was desired to
+provide "able and high horses" in order to secure the forwarding of
+the mails. In one of Whitley's letters, the road from London to Dover
+is described as the "best and fairest in England," although, compared
+with our own fine system of highways, it may have been a very sorry
+affair. But relatively it carried the palm at the time we are dealing
+with. The horses supplied for riding the posts were at some places very
+poor creatures, and in certain cases the postmasters appear not to have
+had any horses of their own. On the 1st December 1674, the postmaster
+of Berwick was complained of for not having a horse and boy to carry
+the mail for Edinburgh, and for having sent it forward to Cockburnspath
+by carriers, thus causing great delay. On the 15th January 1675, the
+following letter on this subject was written to Mr. Glover, postmaster
+of Dartford:--"This day your boy brought the mail on his back to the
+office, about one o'clock in the afternoon. His horse, as he says, died
+on the way; which was, as I understand, one that was hired, and very
+unfit for His Majesty's service, your boy having been often forced to
+drive him before him. I am also informed that you keep your own horses
+for posters, and hire one for the mail, though never so bad." The Post
+Office certainly did not get the best of the animals.
+
+During the time of Whitley's control of the posts, the Foreign mails
+were closed not only by means of a seal, but also by a chain which in
+some way rendered them more secure.
+
+Great care was taken to avoid complaints from Members of Parliament. On
+occasions when Parliament was about to assemble, or to break up, the
+postmasters were put upon their guard by means of a circular-letter
+addressed to them. On 11th March 1675, the following letter was sent
+out on the subject:--"These are to advise you that the Parliament being
+speedily to assemble, it is probable that many members may come up by
+Post, wherefore I desire your especial care for the speedy and well
+accommodating of them for their satisfaction, and the honour of your
+employment. Also to receive and deliver their letters free during their
+time of privilege."
+
+On the 30th July 1675, the agent at Dover was instructed to facilitate
+the bringing over from the Continent of certain tradesmen, as
+follows:--"His Majesty being informed that there are several weavers
+and other handy craftsmen that are desirous of transporting themselves
+for England, to whom His Majesty (being desirous to give encouragement)
+has commanded me to order you to give directions to your masters of
+the packet boats to give passage to such of these weavers and handy
+craftsmen as shall bring passes with them from Mr. Linch, Consul of
+Ostend, or His Majesty's Minister at Brussels, and are desirous to come
+and inhabit here in England."
+
+Whitley had a long and troublesome correspondence with Mr. Mein, the
+postmaster at Edinburgh, on the subject of settling the remuneration
+to be made to the latter as agent for the English correspondence. Mein
+held an independent appointment from the king as head of the Letter
+Office in Edinburgh, and Whitley was not his master. The terms on
+which the business was arranged are set forth in a letter to Mein of
+the 8th August 1674, to this effect:--"I am content to allow you your
+full 1/8th of unpaid letters from hence, with your £20 salary from the
+commencement of my time till our late agreement of £100 per annum takes
+place; and upon examination you will find that it exceeds what you have
+now contracted for and are content to accept of." At this time two boys
+were employed in Edinburgh to deliver the letters; and the rate of
+postage for one ounce weight from London to Edinburgh was 2s. 2d.
+
+Whenever the king went to reside at Newmarket, Windsor, or elsewhere,
+daily posts were put on between London and the Court, the deputy
+postmasters being required to keep additional horses at call for the
+service.
+
+It is recorded that in the Midlands of England more irregularities
+happened with the post riders than elsewhere. This appears by a letter
+to the postmaster of Lichfield in 1675, wherein it is stated that
+"your riders are oftener lost in the night, and have more unfortunate
+accidents happen to them on your road, than half England besides."
+
+Undelivered letters were returned by the deputies to the head office
+in London once in three months. At this early period (1677), the term
+"Dead Letters" was already applied to these returns. Whitley had reason
+to suspect unfair dealing in connection with returned letters at the
+office of a certain deputy, to whom, in December 1672, he wrote the
+following letter, which explains itself:--"This day Mr. Lambe brought
+me a parcell of Returned Letters from you to ye damage of above eight
+pounds; ye losse being soe considerable and unusuall made me more
+inquisitive into the particulars; and opening 3 or 4 bundles, I found
+that almost all of them had bin apparently opened; which causes my
+greater admiration (wonder), comeing from soe discreete a person (and
+one of soe much integrity and reputation as Mr. Gloyne is esteemed to
+be). If they were opened by ye partyes to whom they were directed,
+they ought to have bin first payd for; when ye contents are read, most
+letters are of small use afterwards. Perhaps ye persons you imploy may
+buy such letters at easy rates, and so impose them on you. I cannot
+tell how to understand it, but under one of these notions, and soe
+must returne them to you; resolving not to submit to such a practise,
+whether it proceed from ye ignorance, corruption (or perhaps want of
+care and diligence) of your officers; the respect I have for you keeps
+me from any reflection on your selfe; onely I must oblige you to more
+circumspection hereafter, for if the like were done in other stages,
+wee should not be able to support ye charge of ye office."
+
+Notwithstanding the sharp and severe terms of many of Whitley's
+admonitions to the postmasters, his letters contain repeated offers to
+serve and oblige them, if only they would do their duty to the office;
+and the same spirit of kindly disposition is shown towards persons
+outside the service. In reply to an application from the agent at
+Harwich, in the matter of finding employment for a relative, Whitley
+writes:--"By yours of the 13th, I understand that a relative of yours
+will be in London this summer, with a design to get some employment,
+wherein I should think myself happy could I be serviceable to him; but
+the world is so altered of late to the disadvantage of young gentlemen
+in point of education, that there is little encouragement to be had.
+In times past (before the wicked rebellion), a nobleman, or great
+officer of State or Court, would have half a score or a dozen gentlemen
+to attend him, but now all is shrunk into a _valet de chambre_, a page,
+and 5 or 6 footmen; and this is part of our cursed Reformation. If I
+can serve you in this or anything else, you shall always find me to
+be," etc. In the matter of a lost horse, belonging to a private friend,
+Whitley engages the services of a postmaster in the West of England,
+with a view to its recovery. He writes thus to the postmaster:--"Sir
+John Hanmer (a worthy gentleman) hath lately lost a large white
+gelding, about 15 hand fulls high, with a blew velvett saddle, silke
+and silver fringe, silver nailes, etc.; the horse trots and gallops,
+but not pace. Me was stole from Chester, and heares is seised on at
+Bristoll. I pray enquire after it; and if it be there, secure it, and
+give me speedy notice, whereby you will oblige," etc.
+
+This kindly spirit was not altogether on the side of the Deputy
+Postmaster-General, for repeated instances are given of good offices
+performed for Whitley, and of presents made to him by the postmasters.
+In many cases Whitley's letters commence with an acknowledgment in
+brief terms, thus: "With thanks for your kind present." It may be
+ungenerous to put a meaning upon these presents apart from mere
+feelings of kindness on the side of the postmasters; but there is
+reason to suspect that the presents often took the shape of money,
+and were the complement of expectation on the part of the Deputy
+Postmaster-General. In one acknowledgment Whitley says: "I have
+received your token, and thank you for it, as coming from an honest man
+for whom I have a great respect and kindness." The "honest man" was
+the postmaster of Manchester. Replying to a letter of the postmaster
+of Doncaster, he remarks: "I thought the seven guineas you sent by Mr.
+Butcher had been in recompence for the damage done me last year in
+your stage in the matter of By-Letters; or a present upon some other
+account; but it seems you intend it to clear what you owed to the
+office at midsummer."
+
+Reference has been made to the exaction of fines upon the
+postmasters at the time of Lord Arlington's assuming the position
+of Postmaster-General. The deputations received by the postmasters
+were generally for a term of a few years; and on their renewal, the
+practice appears to have been to make a present to the Head of the Post
+Office, or at anyrate a present was expected. This seems very clear
+by some letters of instruction sent by Whitley to his confidential
+servant, Saladine, when on a visit of inspection in the West of
+England. In one letter he says: "Haste the settling all my business
+(but on safe terms), that you may haste homewards; get the £10, and
+what you can for the expense of this journey, and get what you can
+for me from the several Postmasters by way of Fine, or Gratuity, for
+renewing their Deputations." The meaning here is plain enough, but in
+a further letter Saladine is given more particular instructions how to
+proceed in the matter:--"I think," says Whitley, "I shall renew (the
+deputations) but for a year, because Lord Arlington hath no more time
+in the farm, but doubtless the Postmasters will be continued if they
+deserve it. Get what Gratuities you can from them, without lessening
+their salaries; or if any will increase their salaries, they must fine
+proportionably--this to yourself." "At Sarum nothing is to be done. Let
+him know I am so sensible of his civilities that he shall be continued
+as long as I have to do in the office. If he offers of his own accord
+to make me a present, receive it; or you may drop some words as if
+others did it, and is usual upon renewing Deputations; but not propose
+it; and make him sensible that I have a greater kindness for him than
+any of the rest. If you can prevail fairly with Mr. Westcombe to make
+a Present, I pray do it; but he is a touchy person, and must be gently
+handled."
+
+Some of the presents and civilities were, however, of a less
+questionable character. From Beccles he receives a red-painted box
+containing a turkey; from Shrewsbury, a cheese; from Newcastle, a
+salmon; and he sends his humble thanks to the gentlemen of Amsterdam
+for their kind present. To Captain Langley, the agent at Harwich,
+Whitley writes: "I have received a single barrel of oysters by a
+Colchester waggon, for which I thank you." The carriage of the barrel
+is stated to have been 9d. At another time he acknowledges to have
+received from Harwich ten lobsters; and to the agent at Edinburgh he
+writes: "I thank you heartily for your kind present of herring. I
+will send to look after them, and they shall be disposed of as you
+desire." To the postmaster of Colchester, Mr Hollister, the following
+request is made:--"I desire you to send me every week two barrels of
+Oysters, and keep an account of them, and you shall be allowed for
+them in your account. But let them be the best; or when you cannot get
+the best, send none." The best were not always forthcoming; for some
+months later, 20th March 1677, Mr Hollister is informed that: "The last
+oysters you sent me were so bad they could not be eaten, and one of the
+last was but half full; if you cannot help me with better, and better
+ordered, I desire to have no more; but if you could get such as are
+very good, and contrive some way to seal the barrels, that they may
+not be abused, you would oblige me to send me 4 barrels a week for a
+month to come." To the postmaster of Hull, Mr Mawson, Colonel Whitley
+makes the following request:--"I pray do me the kindness to bespeak two
+barrels of Ale (as good as you can get), and send it with as much speed
+as you can to Monsieur Muilman, at the Post Office in Amsterdam. Let it
+be sent by an honest, careful (_man_), that will not suffer it to be
+wronged by the way, and presented from me to him. Pray take care that
+it be excellent, and speedily sent, and let me know the cost; I will
+remit the money."
+
+The sums due to the country postmasters for conveying expresses on
+His Majesty's special service were claimed every six months by the
+deputies, whose accounts under this head had to be accompanied by an
+affidavit sworn before a Master in Chancery or other Magistrate.
+The amounts were afterwards obtained from the Exchequer; but it is
+mentioned that the claims for 1674 were only paid shortly before
+January 1677, while those for 1675 were still outstanding at that
+period (1677).
+
+Whitley's correspondence in 1677 discloses a very curious fact, and
+one that has been entirely overlooked or forgotten, namely, that the
+Duke of York, afterwards James II., had at one time the Post Office in
+his own hands; and he has a claim, therefore, to be ranked as one of
+the early Postmasters-General. On the 12th April of that year, Whitley
+wrote the following circular-letter to 155 postmasters, probably the
+whole number of postmasters at the time:--
+
+"The Farm of this office expiring at Midsummer, and his R.H. the Duke
+of York having declared his pleasure to take it then into his own
+management, commands me to give you notice of it, requiring you (if
+you intend to continue your employment as Postmaster of ----) to come
+yourself, or authorize some other to appear for you at this office,
+before the 10th of May next ensuing, in order to your future contract;
+and in the mean time to send me the names, quality, and abode of your
+security, that there may be time to enquire after their sufficiency. If
+you fail herein, care will be taken to provide another for your stage,
+that the Public may not suffer by your neglect. I expect your speedy
+answer, and remain," etc.
+
+Some of the postmasters thought the occasion favourable for asking an
+increase of pay; but Whitley gave them no hopes of success, to one
+of them writing that "his R. Highness will expect all Postmasters
+should serve him on their present terms." Three months after the first
+intimation of the proposed change, a further circular-letter was issued
+to all the deputies as follows:--"This is to give you notice, that as
+money grows due to the office since Midsummer last, you are to order
+payment thereof, by bill or otherwise, to Sir Allen Absley, his R.Hs.
+the Duke of York's Treasurer and Receiver-General, making your bills
+payable to him or his order, enclosing them under cover directed to
+him; herein you are not to fail." These letters seem to leave no doubt
+that the Duke of York actually entered upon the management of the Post
+Office, and carried it on (it may be nominally) for a time in his own
+hands.
+
+In connection with this royal direction of the posts, however, the
+historical records produce a strange complication; because, according
+to the Patent Rolls of 29 Charles II., a grant of the office of
+Postmaster-General for life was made to the Earl of Arlington, dating
+from June 1677, the period when his previous grant for ten years
+expired. Lord Arlington died on the 28th July 1685. Whether it be that
+the Duke of York had entered upon the new situation in the belief
+that he could draw to himself the whole profits of the affair without
+bearing any serious personal burden of troubles and anxieties, and
+found it far otherwise; or whether the new duties interfered in an
+unexpected way with his pursuits of hunting, hawking, and love-making,
+and that he threw aside the more troublesome business in consequence,
+does not appear. We know from the correspondence that Whitley, after
+his term expired, was to continue the management of the office for
+the Duke of York; and as (according to Evelyn), Arlington was "now
+beginning to decline in favour (the Duke of York being no great
+friend of his)," it may be that the Duke was dissatisfied with the
+returns from the office, and entered into it in the position of Deputy
+Postmaster-General, aided by Whitley in the practical management.
+
+As regards Arlington's extended tenure of the position of
+Postmaster-General, it should be remembered that he had not only been
+intimately associated with the King as a Minister of State, but had
+become nearly connected in another way--through the marriage of his
+only daughter and heiress, when an infant, in 1672, to the natural son
+of Charles II. by the Duchess of Cleveland. The son-in-law afterwards
+became the Duke of Grafton; and Arlington's continued connection with
+the Post Office may have been arranged by the king with a view to
+enhancing the Postmaster-General's fortune in the interests of the Duke
+and Duchess of Grafton. All this, however, will remain for elucidation
+when the history of the period is better known.
+
+
+MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS
+
+THIRD EDITION.
+
+THE ROYAL MAIL:
+
+_Its Curiosities and Romance._
+
+By JAMES WILSON HYDE,
+
+SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH.
+
+Crown 8vo. Price 5s.
+
+
+OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+The Times.--"The author of 'The Royal Mail' has served five-and-twenty
+years in the Post-Office, and had it been his fortune to turn novelist,
+like his confrère Anthony Trollope, he would never have been so lavish
+of invaluable materials. The merest glance through his pages might
+suggest subjects or incidents for half a score of sensational romances.
+But the whole of the volume is so full of fascination that once taken
+up it is difficult to lay it down."
+
+Saturday Review.--"Mr. Hyde's work certainly shows that, even at
+the present time, the business conducted by the Post-Office is not
+unfrequently enlivened by romantic incidents; while in antiquarian
+interest it is rich beyond the average."
+
+Pall Mall Gazette.--"This volume is a storehouse of amusing anecdotes."
+
+The Echo.--"The curiosities and romance of the Post-Office have
+furnished Mr. J. Wilson Hyde, Superintendent in the General
+Post-Office, Edinburgh, with a subject for one of the most entertaining
+books of the year. The book is well written, well arranged, and
+thoroughly deserves success."
+
+Graphic.--"Contains a vast number of well-arranged facts, some
+valuable, some curious, about what is pre-eminently 'the people's
+institution.'"
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. LTD.
+
+
+
+
+A HUNDRED YEARS BY POST.
+
+By JAMES WILSON HYDE,
+
+SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH.
+
+Crown 8vo. Price 1s.
+
+
+OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+Daily Chronicle.--"Within the covers of this bright little book,
+Mr. Hyde has managed to present a most interesting picture of our
+Post-Office system in its infant days.... Every page of his book is
+full of interest."
+
+Publisher's Circular.--"We anticipated being interested in this new
+little work, nor have we been disappointed.... Mr. Hyde's book comes at
+an opportune moment, and we have no doubt will be widely read."
+
+Globe.--"This is no dry-as-dust compilation, but a brightly-written
+résumé, full of significant facts and picturesque incidents. The little
+brochure is neatly printed and usefully illustrated."
+
+Scottish Leader.--"It is a prettily got up little volume, containing
+abundance of interesting information, and a number of well-executed
+illustrations."
+
+Scotsman.--" ... his delightful book--gives a very interesting account
+of the more remarkable changes that have taken place in the Postal
+Service during the past century. The book is written with the same
+thorough knowledge of its subject, and the same anecdotal felicity as
+characterised its author's _Royal Mail_. It is well illustrated."
+
+Speaker.--"A chatty description, illustrated by reproductions of quaint
+contemporary prints, of the marvellous changes which have taken place
+in the collection and distribution of letters since the close of last
+century.... Mr. Hyde writes pleasantly, and there is not a page of his
+narrative which is open to the charge of dulness."
+
+Daily Graphic.--" ... A brightly-written narrative. Mr. Hyde gives
+many interesting figures in connection with the rise and growth of the
+various departments of Post-Office work."
+
+Glasgow Herald.--"Mr. J. Wilson Hyde possesses the faculty of throwing
+a halo of romance around the working of the Department with which
+he has been so long connected, and his present volume is fresh
+and vigorous in both matter and tone.... Will serve to show the
+entertaining way in which he treats the subject. His illustrations are
+equally humorous and meritorious."
+
+The North British Economist.--" ... the memories recalled are
+curious and amusing ... there are numerous quaint and interesting
+illustrations."
+
+Queen.--"It gives an account of the work and development of the Postal
+system of Great Britain, and relates some curious details respecting
+the changes that have come about in the course of years. To persons
+interested in this subject, the little volume will be welcome."
+
+
+LONDON:
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+SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, & CO. LIMITED.
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+LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.
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+LONDON: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Early History of the Post in Grant
+and Farm, by James Wilson Hyde
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58717 ***
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2026-06-18 23:58:36 +0000