The History of the British Post Office

After de Quester had been appointed Foreign Postmaster-General, he published, in 1626, an incomplete set of rates from and to various places on the continent. His charges for "p...

The year 1711 is an important landmark in the history of the British Post Office. England and Scotland had united not only under one king but under one Parliament, the war with...

The Irish mail service was the first to boast a regular sailing packet.[430] The postal expenditure for the year 1598 included £130 for a bark to carry letters and despatches be...

With the inauguration of inland penny postage the Postal Establishment ceased to exist primarily as a tax-collecting agency, and, although maintained as a whole upon a paying ba...

For some time there had been dissatisfaction with the services rendered by the inland posts. It was said that letters would arrive sooner from Spain and Italy than from remote p...

The first telephone brought to England by Lord Kelvin in 1876 was a very crude instrument, useful only for experimental purposes and of interest only as a forecast of later deve...

Previous to the acquisition of the telegraphs by the state, the different telegraphic companies carried on their business in comparative harmony, a harmony which was occasionall...

The important points in the history of the British Post Office are necessarily somewhat obscured by the great mass of less important characteristics which accompanied its develo...

The question of the state's monopoly and the opposing efforts of the interlopers to break this monopoly resolves itself into a consideration of the way in which private letters...

Sir Brian Tuke, writing in 1533, said that the only roads in the kingdom over which letters were regularly conveyed were from London to Dover and London to Berwick.[362] The roa...

The history of the British Post Office starts with the beginning of the sixteenth century. Long before this, however, a system of communication had been established both for the...

The duty of providing horses for conveying letters and for the use of travellers on affairs of state was enforced from the beginning of the sixteenth century by orders and warra...

Foreign rates, 1626. First inland rates, 1635. Rates prescribed by Council of State, 1652. Rates collected by the Farmers of the Posts. First rates established by act of Parliam...

Acc. & P. Accounts and Papers. A. P. C. Acts of the Privy Council. Add. Additional. Cal. B. P. Calendar of Border Papers. Cal. S. P. Calendar of State Papers. A. & W. I., Col.,...

Establishment of first regular sailing packets. Sailing packets in the seventeenth century. Difficulty with the Irish Office. Postal communications with the continent during the...

Reductions in rates of postage, inland, colonial and foreign; and resultant increase in postal matter. Insurance and registration of letters. Failure of attempt to introduce com...

The Post Office Act of 1711. The Post Office as a whole ceases to be farmed. Allen undertakes the farm of the bye and cross posts. Improvements in postal communications during t...

Telephones introduced into England. Judicial decision in favour of the department. Restricted licences granted the companies. Feeble attempt on the part of the department to est...

Condition of the postal establishment at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Witherings' project adopted. Disturbance produced in the Post Office by the struggle between t...

The telegraph companies under private management. Proposals for government ownership and Mr. Scudamore's report. Conditions under which the telegraph companies were acquired. Pu...

Rival methods available for the conveyance of letters. Government's monopolistic proclamation the result of an attempt to discover treasonable correspondence. Competition dimini...

Post roads in the sixteenth century. Speed at which mails were carried in the sixteenth century. Abuses during first part of the seventeenth century. New roads opened. Roads in...

Methods of postal communication in vogue before the establishment of the Post Office. The first Postmaster-General and his duties. Alternative systems. The posts in Elizabeth's...

Horses provided by the postmasters. Complaints concerning the letting of horses. Monopoly in letting horses granted to the postmasters. Reforms during Witherings' administration...