The History of the British Post Office

by Joseph Clarence Hemmeon

The withdrawal of the sailing packets between England and France in 1689 had interrupted postal communication between England and Spain, since the regular route lay through Calais. Accordingly, packet boats were hired to ply between Falmouth and the Groyne.[465] After the Methuen treaty had been signed and while England and France were struggling in the Spanish Netherlands, it was proposed to replace the old boats between Falmouth and Lisbon by new. In 1703 a weekly packet service, supplied by four boats, was established between England and Portugal.[466]

At the end of the war, Cotton and Frankland contracted with Mr. Macky to furnish five boats to carry the mails between England, France, and Flanders for three years. In 1701, the contract was extended to five years for £1400 a year. Macky was to provide boats and men but not provisions and equipment. In case war broke out, the contract would become void at once. War did break out the next year,[467] and during the war the packet boats from Harwich to Holland were kept very busy. They had been large boats, well manned and formidable enough to take care of themselves in an emergency. They seem even to have become the aggressors at times. William, himself, as was natural, felt a warm interest in them. A stranger in a strange land, misunderstood and personally unpopular, they were the link between him and his home. He thought that speedier boats should be built and that when pursued they should attempt to escape rather than stand up to their pursuers. The government had four narrow, low boats built for purposes of speed. The sailors complained that the new boats were so low in the water that they were constantly being swept by the waves and they themselves were drenched all the time. There is no doubt that William's move was in the right direction, and the men were placated by an increase in their wages. This could be done the more easily since the new boats were smaller than the old and carried fewer men.[468]

At the time of the War of the Austrian Succession, the Dover packets were supplied by a man named Pybus. He agreed to carry mails, passengers, and expresses from Dover to Calais and Ostend. If he could not reach the latter place by sea he was to land the mails and have them forwarded overland. He was to receive as pay the fares of all passengers, but so many officers and soldiers had to be transported free that he was paid what the Treasury considered that he lost by them.[469] A position in one of the packets was so dangerous in time of war that a fund was provided for the widows and children of the killed and for the support of the wounded. This was met by deducting 10d. a month from the pay of each seaman.[470]

In 1803, as a war measure, packets were established between Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta.[471] It was understood that the regular service to Portugal should be discontinued at the same time. In 1812 during Wellington's campaign in Portugal and Spain, the Post Office announced that sailing packets would be despatched to Corunna every fortnight.[472] From Corunna they proceeded to Lisbon before returning to Falmouth. There was some complaint from the mercantile interests on account of the stop at Corunna, since the merchants were more interested in the Lisbon markets than in keeping up communication with Wellington's army.[473]

By the end of 1813, Napoleon had lost control over Europe. The Dutch had freed themselves from French domination. On November 26th a Dutch mail was made up at the Post Office and despatched for Harwich. The regular packet boats were reëstablished and were ordered to land the mails at Scheveningen, a small fishing town three miles from the Hague.[474] Following Napoleon's expulsion to Elba, postal communications with France were resumed. Mails were despatched from Dover four times a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, leaving London at 11 P.M. on Tuesday and Friday and at 7 P.M. on Wednesday and Thursday.[475] Thirteen sailing vessels were stationed at Harwich in 1828, all of them hired permanently. Nine sailed between Harwich and Helvoetsluys, four between Harwich and Gothenburg.[476]

The London merchants in 1837 complained that no mails were made up in Paris for London on Wednesday and Thursday. The mails from Spain, Italy, and Switzerland arrived in Paris on Tuesday and Friday, and Tuesday's mails were not despatched until Friday. An arrangement was asked for by which a daily post might be established between Paris and London. They pointed out that there was a daily post from Paris to Calais, a daily packet service and a daily post from Dover to London.[477] English letters for France arrived in Dover daily at 5 A.M., except on Wednesday and Saturday, were despatched to Calais at once and left Calais at noon for Boulogne and Paris. On post nights,[478] letters did not leave London until midnight, arrived in Dover at 10 A.M., and were often not in time for the Paris mail, which left Calais at noon.[479] The two packets between Dover and Ostend carried the mails four times a week.[480] By virtue of a treaty with Belgium, these packets conveyed letters both ways and the Belgium Government paid £1000 a year as its part of the expenses. The Dover-Calais boats on the other hand carried letters only to Calais, and not from Calais to Dover.[481] Letters from Belgium to Dover went first to London and this held true of any letters from Belgium to England via Dover.[482]

It was provided in 1835 that, after the Postmaster-General had entered into an agreement with any foreign state to collect and account for the British postage on letters sent from the United Kingdom to any such state, it should be optional for a person sending such a letter to pay the whole amount of postage in advance or to pay the British postage only, as had hitherto been the custom, or to pay neither. The entire postage on letters from abroad might also be paid in one sum and the part due the foreign state was then handed over by the English Postmaster-General.[483] In the following year such a treaty was concluded with France, the English colonies also being included in the arrangement. It was agreed that each country should account to the other according to the method of reckoning postage of the country to which the payment was made, a settlement to be concluded every three months.[484]

At the beginning of the eighteenth century William Dummer entered into a contract to supply packet boats for use between England and the West Indies. For this service Dummer provided five boats, each one of 150 tons and carrying 50 men. Each was to make three round trips a year, thus giving fifteen sailings every twelve months from both England and the West Indies.[485] These boats were to make Falmouth their home port, but they often kept on to Plymouth, probably because it was a better place to dispose of their smuggled goods.[486] Poor Dummer was exceedingly unfortunate with his West India boats. The first one to sail was captured on her maiden trip. The receipts did not come up to his expectations. He had supposed that to double the receipts he had only to double the rates, but like other men before and after him he had to learn the effect of higher rates on correspondence.[487] In 1706 he wrote that it was a losing contract,[488] and in the same year the Government released him from the agreement and paid him for two of his lost packets.[489] From a total of fourteen boats provided for the packet service, he had lost nine. The Postmasters-General recommended that for the future the packets should leave and arrive at Bideford, which was less exposed to the enemies' privateers than either Falmouth or Plymouth.[490]

After Dummer's failure, no attempt was made by the Post Office to revive the service until 1745. In that year the Postmasters-General reported to the Treasury in favour of regular packets between Falmouth and some port in the West Indies. The report was agreed to, and orders were given for two new boats to be supplied and for the two boats between Lisbon and Gibraltar to be transferred there.[491] The agent at Falmouth was ordered to see that each boat sailed with its full complement of men, as the captains were accustomed to discharge some of the crew just before sailing and pocket their wages. He was also to make sure that each of the boats sailing from Falmouth for Lisbon, the West Indies, or North America was British built and navigated by British seamen. He must keep a journal, in which should be entered the time that he received and delivered mails and expresses, how the wind and tide served, when the boats arrived and departed, and any delay in sailing which might occur. The captains were ordered to make returns after each voyage of the number of men on board. The crew while on shore should receive their accustomed wages and "victuals" and, if any were discharged, a return was to be made of such discharge, the money due them being turned over to the pension fund. It had become customary for the captains not to pay the men while they were on shore and to retain the money owing them. Finally the agent was to see that the packet boats proceeded to the Roads the day before the mail was expected from London.[492] Packets had already been employed to convey mails to and from Madeira and Brazil[493] and within the next few years others were hired to ply between Falmouth, Buenos Ayres,[494] Colombia, Mexico, San Domingo, and Cuba, and between the British West Indies, Colombia, and Mexico.[495]

In 1815, the Postmaster-General was given permission by Act of Parliament to establish sailing packets between the United Kingdom, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and that part of the East Indies embraced within the charter of the East India Company. Packet rates were also charged for letters carried by war vessels and by vessels of the company, but in the former case the consent of the Lords of the Admiralty for the use of their ships had first to be obtained. Letters to and from China must go by vessels of the company and no others. With the consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury or any three of them, the Postmaster-General might allow the regular sailing packets to import and export all goods, which might legally be imported or exported, but in the case of tea, only enough for the use of those on board should be carried.[496]