The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836

In Short

Herbert Joyce charts the evolution of the British Post Office from its 16th-century origins as a sovereign privilege to its status as a massive national network in 1836. The account tracks how a haphazard system of royal couriers developed into a regulated state monopoly managed by Postmasters-General, private farmers, and ambitious reformers. Across centuries of political turbulence, foreign wars, and economic growth, the department struggles to maintain control over its routes. High postage rates, systemic corruption, and illegal private carriers repeatedly threaten its revenue and operational stability. Joyce demonstrates how public reliance transformed an instrument of Crown authority into an essential civilian utility. The work remains an enduring administrative history because it grounds structural political shifts in explicit legal battles, organizational records, and human friction.

The Story

The history opens when posts exist primarily to serve the Crown. Early monarchs maintain post-houses strictly for sovereign correspondence, permitting ordinary travelers or private letters to use the horses only under explicit regulation. As trade and personal communication expand, the Crown asserts a strict monopoly over letter carrying to protect its jurisdiction and build a self-supporting network. Under Charles I, Thomas Witherings introduces a structured system of postage rates based on distance, opening the official posts to the general public. Witherings requires postmasters to keep fresh horses ready, granting mail precedence over ordinary travelers and restricting private carriers. Political conflict quickly intrudes. Civil dissension leads to Witherings's dismissal, leaving the post under competing parliamentary and royal authorities until figures like Edmund Prideaux and Secretary Thurloe consolidate control and lease the post to private farmers for revenue.

By the late 17th century, urban expansion demands finer arterial connections. William Dockwra establishes the private London Penny Post, introducing local receiving offices, regular collections, and postmarks to track letter movement. The Crown quickly absorbs Dockwra's successful enterprise into the General Post Office in Lombard Street, enforcing its statutory monopoly while squeezing out private operators. In the provinces, postmasters farm local branches, balancing corporate oversight against private profit. Systemic leaks continuously challenge this central authority. Post-boys exchange unbagged letters at local alehouses, common carriers sneak mail alongside their cargo, and London merchants write multiple messages on single sheets to evade high tariffs. Abroad, maritime packet stations at Harwich and Falmouth transport overseas mails, frequently exposed to privateer attacks, severe weather, and foreign conflict during European wars.

Throughout the 18th century, the Post Office wrestles with internal friction and institutional inertia. Reformers step forward to fix broken lines of transit. Ralph Allen reorganizes the cross-posts, curbing illicit letter trade and improving rural connections across England. Yet administrative chaos persists. Conflicts between joint Postmasters-General spark sharp personal feuds, while entrenched officials resist structural oversight. When Lord Tankerville attempts to expose internal financial abuses, Prime Minister William Pitt dismisses him to maintain political harmony in the House of Lords, leaving Lord Carteret in power. Officials like Lord Walsingham bring painstaking, micro-managing oversight to the department, clashing with field innovators like John Palmer, who introduces rapid mail-coach networks, and Charles Hasker, who disciplines mail guards carrying contraband vegetables and unrecorded game in their mail-boxes.

The turn of the 19th century brings external political strain and fiscal pressure. The government relies on high postage rates to raise wartime revenue, prompting widespread evasion and friction with the public. In Ireland, separate administrative bodies handle cross-channel correspondence through cramped facilities like Dublin's six-foot-square British Mail Office. Lord Clancarty and John Foster push to streamline routes and improve Irish transit, confronting resistance from Lombard Street over costs and unremunerative express posts. Despite technological advancements like Thomas Telford's improved road surfaces and the advent of steam packet ships, the post remains burdened by arbitrary rate structures, legal disputes over free delivery limits, and outdated manual letter-checking practices. The historical arc ends on the eve of modern uniform penny postage, depicting a public institution strained between high fiscal demands and growing civilian expectations.

How It Unfolds

The Crown asserts control Early monarchs restrict post-horses and couriers to sovereign business, asserting a strict royal monopoly over communication across the realm. Instructions demand that postmasters maintain dedicated stables to process official dispatches without delay.

Postage opens to the public Thomas Witherings reorganizes the inland and foreign posts, introducing a fixed scale of postage based on distance. The government welcomes public correspondence to make the post-houses self-supporting, giving mail precedence over ordinary travelers on the main roads.

Private innovation meets state absorption William Dockwra launches the London Penny Post, creating a network of receiving houses, frequent daily deliveries, and postmarks. Seeing a profitable competitor, the Crown seizes the enterprise, dismisses Dockwra, and incorporates the local system into the General Post Office.

The cross-posts break official leaks Ralph Allen takes charge of provincial cross-country routes to stop widespread mail evasion. He disciplines post-boys who drop unrecorded letters at roadside taverns and reorganizes rural stages to ensure fees return to the Crown.

Warfare and privateers disrupt the packets Foreign mail packets operating out of Falmouth and Harwich face constant capture by enemy warships and privateers. Official packet service falters during European conflicts, forcing the Post Office to rely on diplomatic intervention and naval escorts to clear sea lanes.

Political feuds derail internal reform Lord Tankerville attempts to root out financial irregularities within Lombard Street, clashing directly with his co-Postmaster-General, Lord Carteret. Prime Minister William Pitt intervenes by dismissing Tankerville to preserve parliamentary support, proving that political expediency overrides internal cleanup.

Mail coaches speed up transit John Palmer introduces armed mail coaches to replace slow riders, dramatically cutting travel times between major cities. Superintendent Charles Hasker enforces strict discipline on coach guards, curbing unauthorized passengers, improper timetables, and illegal freight.

Wartime rates spark public friction Faced with exorbitant postage rates set during the Napoleonic era, citizens and merchants use complex tricks to bypass the monopoly. Courts repeatedly step in to force the department to provide free local delivery in provincial towns and curb extra charges.

The People

• Thomas Witherings wants to transform the disorganized royal post into a systematic, self-sustaining public utility. Impelled by a drive for administrative order, he faces political opposition, trade disruptions, and court rivalries, ultimately ending up dismissed and stripped of his patent during the English Civil War.
• William Dockwra aims to provide cheap, frequent local letter delivery across London through his innovative Penny Post network. Confronted by hostile porters, anti-Popish accusations, and Crown prosecution for infringing on the royal monopoly, he loses control of his creation when the state absorbs it into the General Post.
• Ralph Allen seeks to eliminate systemic revenue loss and rural postal delays across the kingdom's cross-roads. Standing against corrupt local postmasters and evasive post-boys, he successfully farms the cross-posts, reorganizes provincial routes, and secures both personal wealth and state gratitude.
• Lord Tankerville wants to expose financial abuses, patronage corruption, and improper accounting within the Post Office. Impeded by resistant colleagues, entrenched secretaries like Anthony Todd, and political hostility, he ends up abruptly dismissed by William Pitt for being intractable.
• Lord Walsingham strives to enforce meticulous administrative oversight and bureaucratic discipline across every branch of the service. Hampered by chaotic accounting practices and defiant subordinates like Palmer and Bonnor, he fills official margins with crabbed notes, constantly wrestling with departmental discord.
• John Palmer aims to revolutionize post delivery speed by replacing horseback post-boys with a synchronized system of armed mail coaches. Opposed by conservative Post Office traditionalists who distrust rapid transit, he succeeds in establishing the mail-coach system but lives in perpetual conflict with department heads.
• Daniel Braithwaite wants to maintain administrative justice and smooth operational friction between combative officials. Relying on quiet diplomacy, tact, and professional integrity, he protects subordinates from excessive punishments and tempers harsh orders without losing the trust of his superiors.

In Its Own Voice

"The carriage of the subjects' letters was now to be a matter of purchase, and, unless the purchasers were sufficiently numerous, the posts would not be self-supporting."

Joyce explains how opening the post to public purchase under Charles I made civilian custom essential to maintaining the national network.

"Signed, by myself for money paid by myself to myself."

Charles Bonnor offers this candid defense when questioned by Lord Walsingham regarding unvouched financial records for mail-coach contractors.

"I am sorry to say your Lordship is the only postmaster-general I have not had the happiness to serve under with his perfect approbation."

Secretary Anthony Todd writes this weary response to Lord Tankerville during their intense feud over internal financial abuses.

What It's Really About

Beneath the legal struggles and institutional chronologies, Joyce's work explores the friction between central state control and civilian utility. The Post Office begins as a tool of royal prerogative, designed to secure sovereign intelligence and generate Crown revenue. Yet as trade expands, the institution must serve the everyday communication needs of the public to remain economically viable. This dynamic creates an inescapable contradiction: the state enforces a strict monopoly to maximize tax collection, while the public demands cheap, reliable, and accessible delivery.

The text also examines how administrative systems resist structural reform. Internal institutional inertia, personal rivalries, and political patronage routinely delay operational improvements. Progress occurs not through harmonious state planning, but through sudden disruptions introduced by energetic outsiders—such as Witherings, Dockwra, Allen, and Palmer—whose innovations are reluctantly adopted, absorbed, or fought by officialdom. Joyce demonstrates that a public institution's true history is written in the tension between bureaucratic preservation and practical necessity.

Why Read It Today

Herbert Joyce's history appeals to readers who enjoy granular institutional narratives, political history, and the mechanics of historical statecraft. Rather than offering dry administrative summaries, Joyce writes with crisp precision, reconstructing the past through board minutes, legal proceedings, treasury reports, and personal letters. The text captures the physical texture of early modern and Georgian Britain, taking readers into cold post-house stables, roadside alehouses where post-boys swap unbagged mail, cramped packet boats dodging privateers, and the six-foot-square British Mail Office in Dublin.

The book does demand patience with legal intricacies and period detail. Readers must navigate long disputes over statutory rate interpretations, intricate leasing arrangements, and minor departmental squabbles. Joyce assumes a reader comfortable with the political framework of 17th- and 18th-century England, presenting historical figures without dramatic exaggeration. What remains with the reader is a clear view of how modern civil infrastructure was forged: not through seamless administrative foresight, but through centuries of trial, political compromise, legal friction, and relentless public demand.

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