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    The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office
    The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office
    The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office
    Ebook70 pages53 minutes

    The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office

    By Mary Emma Woolley

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office

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      Book preview

      The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office - Mary Emma Woolley

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Early History of the Colonial

      Post-Office, by Mary E. Woolley

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office

      Author: Mary E. Woolley

      Release Date: March 30, 2011 [EBook #35715]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POSTOFFICE ***

      Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, S.D., The Philatelic Digital

      Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

      Transcriber’s Note:

      This book contains Unicode characters, such as c̄ (c with combining macron). You may need to change your browser’s character encoding or use a different font in order for them to display properly.

      For detailed information about this transcription, please see the end of the text.

      Papers from the Historical Seminary

      of Brown University

      Edited by J. Franklin Jameson, Ph. D., Professor of History

      II

      The Early History of the Colonial

      Post-Office

      by

      Mary E. Woolley

      Reprinted from the Publications of the

      Rhode Island Historical Society

      PROVIDENCE, R. I.

      1894

      EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIAL POST OFFICE.

      A letter written in 1652, by Samuel Symonds of Ipswich, to John Winthrop, Jr., at Pequot, says: I cannot say but its besides my intentions that I write not more frequently unto you; I can onely plead this for my excuse (soe farr as it will goe) ... and the uncertainty when and how to convey letters.[1]

      A glance at the correspondence of that period shows that Mr. Symonds was not the only one inconvenienced by the uncertainty when and how to convey letters. With no domestic postal service the writers of that day were dependent upon individual bearers and pressed neighbors, relatives, merchants, sea captains, any and every one whom they could reach, into the service. Indians were often used as messengers. Roger Williams writing to John Winthrop, at some time in the ’30’s, speaks of word by this bearer Wequash whome (being a Pequt himselfe) I commended for a guide in the Pequt expedition; again, I pray let your servant direct the native with this letter; and at still another time, From your owne hand (by Robin Causasenamont).[2]

      John Endicott writes to John Winthrop, April 13, 1638: Your kinde lines I receaued by Mascanomet; and a letter from the Isle of Wight (near Long Island), dated Aprill 27, 1650, says, I resavid yours by the Indian.[3]

      Until 1639 there is no trace of a postal system, but under the Massachusetts General Court Records, of that year[4] (Nov. 5th), is the following entry: "For preventing the miscarriage of letters, ... It is ordered that notice bee given, that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond the Seas, or are to be sent thither; ... are to be brought unto him and he is to take care, that they bee delivered, or sent according to their directions and hee is alowed for every such letter 1d. and must answer all miscarriages through his owne neglect in this kind; provided that no man shall bee compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please."

      This action on the part of the Massachusetts General Court was, as far as can be discovered, the first effort by the colonies to provide a post office. Eighteen years later, June 12, 1657, an ordinance was passed[5] by the director general and council of the New Netherlands, forbidding the boarding of incoming vessels until visited by the governing officer and the letters delivered, the penalty for evading the law being fixed at thirty guilders.[6]

      Since private shippers were in the habit of taking letters from the New Netherlands and Curaçoa, without placing them in a sealed bag, the directors of the West India Company, at the chamber in Amsterdam, in 1659 (October 30) adopted a resolution requiring captains of vessels to enter into bond not to carry letters to Holland from New Netherlands or Curaçoa, unless received from persons authorized to collect them, under penalty of one hundred Carolus guilders; and on the second of the following June (1660) the director general and council of the colony passed an ordinance warning citizens to observe

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