SUCCESSION OF SECRETARIES TO THE POST OFFICE down to 1836.
The appointment of Secretary was created by Treasury Warrant
dated the 20th of June 1694.
1694 to 1700.
Name uncertain; but probably Willboyl.
[In 1694 the Postmasters-General urge the creation of the appointment of Secretary; in 1697 they speak of "having sent our Secretary down to Worcester"; and in October 1701, when reporting on a paper which had been referred to them as far back as June 1699, they explain that "by the death of our late Secretary y^e paper has been mislaid and but very lately recovered." That there was a Secretary during this period is, therefore, beyond doubt.
During the same period the Post Office letter books are written in a handwriting as peculiar as it is good; and in the same handwriting, of the identity of which there can be no question, there is in the Frankland-Blaithwaite correspondence, until lately in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, a letter from the General Post Office dated the 27th of May 1697, and docketed thus, the docket having obviously been written at the time of receipt:—"From Mr. Willboyl, Commissioner of the Post Office." Now, Commissioner of the Post Office he certainly was not, there being at that time no such appointment; but it is probable that he was Secretary, and that with this official title, which had been only recently given, Blaithwaite was not acquainted.]
1700 to 1714.
Benjamin Waterhouse.
1714 to 1715.
Henry Weston.
1715 to 1721.
James Craggs.
1721 to (about) 1730.
Joseph Godman.
(About) 1730 to 1737.
W. Rouse.
1737 to 1738.
Thomas Robinson.
September 1738 to July 1742.
John David Barbutt.
July 1742 to December 1762.
George Shelvocke.
December 1762 to July 1765.
Anthony Todd.
July 1765 to January 1768.
Henry Potts.
January 1768 to June 1798.
Anthony Todd (again).
June 1798 to July 1836.
Francis Freeling.
FACSIMILES of FRANKS written before and after 1784, when the obligation to date was imposed.
Before.
The Duke of Grafton, First Lord of the Treasury from 1766 to 1770, commonly called Junius Grafton from the attacks made upon him by Junius.
After.
The Earl of Sandwich, nicknamed by the satirists of the period Jemmy Twitcher. "See Jemmy Twitcher shambles—stop, stop, thief"—an allusion to his shambling gait.
Lord Sandwich was postmaster-general from 1768 to 1771, and afterwards First Lord of the Admiralty.
FACSIMILE of a PAID MONEY ORDER of the year 1802.