The postage stamps, envelopes, wrappers and post cards of the North American colonies of Great Britain

by Unknown

PRELIMINARY NOTES.

By E. D. BACON.

New Brunswick is situated between 45° 5′ and 48° 5′ N. lat., and 63° 47′ and 67° 53′ W. long.; its area is about 27,105 square miles. It is connected with Nova Scotia by a low isthmus. New Brunswick, in the early part of the last century, belonged to the French, and was called by them New France. At the peace of 1763 New Brunswick, with the rest of Canada, was ceded by France to Great Britain, and was annexed to Nova Scotia until 1785, when it was erected into a separate colony. It was first colonized by British subjects in 1761, and in 1783 by disbanded troops from New England.

We learn from the following notice, which appeared in The Royal Gazette, published at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on September 10th, 1851, that the introduction of postage stamps into this colony took place on September 6th of that year:

“NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.

“A SUPPLY of POSTAGE STAMPS has been received from England, and will be on sale at this office on and after Friday next, the 6th September. They are of the respective colours and values as under; viz.:

Scarlet	Three Pence.
Yellow	Six Pence.
Pink	One Shilling.

“Supplies will be immediately forwarded to all Postmasters throughout the Province, and through them to the Way Office Keepers, from whom the Public will be able to obtain them at cost prices in any quantities they may require.

“N.B.—The postage stamps should be affixed to the face, or direction side of the Letter, at the right hand upper corner.

“(Signed) J. Howe, Postmaster-General.

“General Post Office, St. John, 1st September, 1851.”

Besides giving us the exact day the stamps came into use, the above notice is interesting as proving which shade of the One Shilling was first issued. One would hardly call any of the stamps of this value pink, as officially designated, but the majority of them are a pinkish-mauve; and these were undoubtedly the stamps referred to in the notice, while the darker shades of mauve, or dull violet, are those of later printings.

The Report of the Postmaster-General of Great Britain for 1857 furnishes us with a list of the Postal rates of the Colony in force at the time of the introduction of postage stamps. It says:

“In 1842 and 1851 measures were successively introduced for the establishment of a low rate of postage.

On Letters not exceeding ½ oz.	3d.
Above ½ oz. and not exceeding 1 oz.	6d.

And so on, 3d. being charged for every additional ½ oz.

“There is an additional charge of 1d. (1½ currency?) each on Letters delivered at St. John and Fredericton, the only places where letter carriers are employed.

“Newspapers are conveyed free.

“On Books, &c., the charge is as follows, prepayment being compulsory:

For a single volume, not exceeding ½ lb. in weight	7½d.
Above ½ lb. and not exceeding 1 lb.	1s. 3d.
Above 1 lb. and not exceeding 2 lbs.	2s. 6d.

And so on, according to the English scale of weight.”

Mr. John Howe held the position of Postmaster-General until May 30th, 1856, when an Act came into force which made the office a political one. Mr. Francis M’Phelim was then appointed in his place, and Mr. Howe became Postmaster of the city of St. John on June 12th in that year. Mr. F. M’Phelim resigned office on June 8th, 1857, and was succeeded by Mr. John Mercer Johnson, jun. The latter resigned on November 2nd, 1858, when Mr. Charles Connell took office. Mr. Connell resigned on May 19th, 1860, and was succeeded by Mr. James Steadman. Mr. A. S. Phair was the Postmaster of Fredericton during these and several future years. Mr. Stephen J. King is the present Inspector of Post-offices, and Mr. E. Willis the Postmaster at St. John. As many collectors are aware, all three stamps of the first issue are found cut in two, diagonally, and used for half their original values. The Three Pence is also known cut in half, parallel to one of the sides of the stamp; and the Six Pence exists divided into four equal triangular pieces, each part being used as a Three Halfpenny stamp, in conjunction with a whole Six Penny, to make up the postal rate of 7½d. I have been unable to find any official notice in The Royal Gazette authorizing the use of any of these mutilated stamps; but an interesting article, published in The Philatelic Record for October, 1886, clearly shows the reason for the bisection of the Three Pence. As the article points out, no half specimen of this value is known used by itself, but the variety is always found obliterated in connection with other Three Pennies or a Six Penny stamp. The paper then goes on to say the half stamp was used to make up the letter rate to England, which was 6d. sterling the ½ ounce, equal to 7½d. currency, or for letters forwarded viâ the United States and British Packet, 8d. sterling, equal to 10d. currency. I have found out that the former rate was in existence on May 1st, 1856, and it had probably been in use some time previous to that date. The latter rate came into operation on January 1st, 1857. Besides the letter rates to England, we learn from the following notice, published in The Royal Gazette for September 16th, 1857, that two of the new rates on Pamphlets, mentioned therein, could only be made up by using half the Three Penny stamp with some of the other values.

“NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.

“On and after the first day of October next the following will be the rates on Pamphlets sent from New Brunswick to Great Britain, viâ Halifax; viz.:

For a Packet, not exceeding 4 ounces in weight, 3d. Sterling, 4d. Currency.

For a Packet exceeding 4 ounces and not exceeding half a pound, 6d.

Sterling, 7½d. Currency.

For a Packet exceeding half a pound and not exceeding one pound, 1s.

Sterling, 1s. 3d. Currency.

For a Packet exceeding one pound and not exceeding one pound and a

half, 1s. 6d. Sterling, 1s. 10½d. Currency.

For a Packet exceeding one pound and a half and not exceeding two

pounds, 2s. Sterling, 2s. 6d. Currency.

And so on, increasing seven pence halfpenny Currency for every additional half pound or fraction of half pound. From the same date printed or Lithographed Letters may be sent like other printed matter under the Regulations of the Colonial Book Post.

“(Signed) J. M. Johnson, Jr., Postmaster-General.

“General Post Office, F’ton, 11th Sept., 1857.”

There is no stipulation that the above rates must necessarily be prepaid, and I have no doubt from the following notice, which was published in the British Postal Guide for October 1st, 1859, that correspondence between the United Kingdom and all the North American Colonies was frequently forwarded either wholly or only partly prepaid from both sides.

“NOVA SCOTIA, NEW BRUNSWICK, AND NEWFOUNDLAND.

“Letters for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, if posted unpaid, or insufficiently prepaid, are now charged on delivery with a fine of 6d. each in addition to the postage.”

A similar notice had previously appeared in the Postal Guide with reference to Canada, and one was published later on in connection with letters for Prince Edward Island.

This addition of a fine of 6d. upon unpaid or insufficiently prepaid letters would naturally cause senders to be anxious to see their correspondence properly stamped, and consequently a good many more cut stamps would be required after the appearance of this notice, which no doubt was published in New Brunswick the same as in this country. We should therefore expect to find a greater number of half Three Pennys postmarked after October 1st, 1859, than previously to that date. As regards the bisection of the Six Pence and One Shilling values, there was not the same raison d’être; but the varieties are probably due to one or perhaps both of these causes: (a) The public seeing the Three Pence was allowed to be used in this way, may have concluded the two other stamps might be similarly employed, and not having the value by them they required at the moment, manufactured it out of either the Six Pence or One Shilling. (b) Or it may be that certain Post-offices fell short of Three Penny and Six Penny stamps, and issued the halves of the two higher values provisionally until a fresh supply of the required value was obtained. Whatever was the true cause of these varieties, whether they emanated from the public or were issued in this state by the Post-office, they were certainly allowed by the postal officials to frank correspondence. I can add no further information about the half Three Penny stamp surcharged 1½d., beyond that found in the article in The Philatelic Record, I have already mentioned, and the remarks in a supplementary paper in the number of that journal for January, 1887. I entirely agree with the conclusions the writer comes to; viz., that the authenticity of the surcharge is open to grave doubt, and that in all probability the variety is altogether “bogus.” At the same time the author is perhaps in error when he says the charge for delivering letters in the towns of Fredericton and St. John in 1857 was 1d. each, and not 1½d. It is true the Postmaster-General’s report for that year speaks of 1d. as the sum charged, but we must bear in mind that this is probably 1d. sterling (all the other rates being quoted in this way), which would therefore equal 1¼d. currency, and 1d. would most likely be given in the list as the nearest equivalent for 1½d. currency. Again, the remark “that when the cents issue took place in 1860 no stamp was issued anywhere approaching to the value of 1½d.” is equally applicable to the value 1d., as the Two Cents stamp was, according to the catalogues, not issued until quite the end of the year 1863.

The annexed notice is found in The Royal Gazette for August 3rd, 1859:

“Post Office Department, Fredericton, 6th July, 1859.

“Part 9, Section 2, of Post Office Regulations is repealed, and the following adopted; viz.:

“Printed Books, Periodical Publications or Pamphlets, under sixteen ounces in weight, can be forwarded by Post in New Brunswick at the rate of one half penny per ounce.

“Printed Music will be allowed to pass through Post in New Brunswick under the same Regulations as Pamphlets.

“Printed Circulars, Catalogues, Hand Bills, and Prices Current posted in New Brunswick will be liable to a rate of one half penny each, subject to the following Regulations; viz.:

“The Postage must be prepaid.

“Each must be in a Cover unsealed, or if sealed, open at the end or side; the word ‘Circular,’ ‘Catalogue,’ ‘Hand Bill,’ or ‘Price Current,’ as the case may be, must be written or printed on the face of the Cover; and each Package must weigh under half an ounce.

“Any of the above mentioned, however, coming into New Brunswick by Post from the United States, Canada, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island, will be subject to one half penny Postage, to be collected on delivery, and must be taxed accordingly.

“(Signed) Charles Connell, P.M.G.”

The postage on the above must, I think, have been prepaid in money until the issue of the One Cent stamp in May, 1860; for it is difficult to see how a halfpenny value could have been improvised out of the three stamps then current.

From the following notice, taken from The Royal Gazette for January 19th, 1859, it will be seen New Brunswick was one of the first, perhaps the earliest colony, to start a Parcels Post.

“PARCELS BY POST IN NEW BRUNSWICK.

“From the 1st February next a Parcel, not weighing over Two Pounds, will be conveyed by mail between any of the Post-offices in New Brunswick. They must be prepaid at the following rates by Postage Stamps only:

For any weight not exceeding 1 lb.	1s. 3d.
For any weight over 1 lb., and not exceeding 2 lbs.	2s. 6d.

“(Signed) Charles Connell, Postmaster-General.

“General Post Office, Fredericton, January 12th, 1859.”

I have now exhausted all the new information I have collected concerning the Postage Stamps of New Brunswick, and I have no further particulars to give you about the stamps issued in 1860, beyond what we find mentioned further on in the Society’s list; neither can I add anything to the history of the Five Cents “Connell” stamp so carefully related in the paper reproduced from The Halifax Philatelist. The stamps of this Colony became obsolete on the 27th of May, 1867, upon the formation of the Dominion of Canada.