Herbert Joyce
The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066236700
Table of Contents
THE BATTLE OF THE PATENTS 1609-1635
EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND CLEMENT OXENBRIDGE 1644—1660
COTTON AND FRANKLAND Inland Service 1685-1705
COTTON AND FRANKLAND Packet Service 1686-1713
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION 1764-1782
THE NINETIES: OR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
THE BEGINNING OF THE END 1817-1836
SUCCESSION OF POSTMASTERS-GENERAL from 1660 to 1836
SUCCESSION OF SECRETARIES TO THE POST OFFICE down to 1836.
ERRATA
Page 324, sixth line from bottom, for 1713 read 1703. " 339, first line, for 1892 read 1802.
HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE
CHAPTER I
EARLY POSTS
1533–1609
The early history of the posts is involved in some obscurity. What little is known on the subject is touched upon in the first Annual Report of the Post Office, the Report for 1854; but the historical summary there given is, as it purports to be, a summary only. The object of the following pages is nothing more than to fill up the gaps and to supply some particulars for which, though not perhaps without interest, an official report would be no fitting place. The origin and progress of an institution which has so interwoven itself with the social life of the people as to have become one of the most remarkable developments of modern civilisation can hardly, we think, be considered a subject unworthy of study.
It seems almost certain that until the reign of Henry the Eighth, or perhaps a little earlier, no regular system of posts existed in England, and that then and for some considerable time afterwards the few posts that were established were for the exclusive use of the Sovereign. "Sir," writes Sir Brian Tuke to Thomas Cromwell in 1533, "it may like you to understonde the Kinges Grace