Chapter VII

Two days after Witherings' death, namely, on the 30th September 1651, by Order of Parliament, a previous Order of 21st March 1650, touching the office of Postmaster, inland and foreign, was revived, and the Council of State were directed to report their opinion thereon forthwith. On the 4th October, the Committee for the Posts pass an order, "that the Committee sit in the Inner Horse Chamber on Thursday, at 2 P.M., to receive the claims of all persons pretending any interest in the Foreign or Inland Letter Office, as also the propositions of any person about the improvement and management thereof." This invitation to claimants to come forward opened a very large door, as will be seen presently.

It had all along been insisted upon by Witherings that, as his patent for the office of Foreign Postmaster stood in favour of two lives,--his own and that of William Frizell,--the possession of the office was in his right (having many years before bought out Frizell), and must remain of his right so long as either of the two lived. Now, by a provision in Witherings' will, he left £300 a year to Sir David Watkins to execute the office after his death, and to maintain and educate his son Thomas until he should be of sufficient age to take his father's place. Witherings' son died about 1652, and, as a matter of fact, Sir David Watkins carried on the office of Foreign Postmaster, in favour of Witherings' son, and afterwards of his nephew, who became heir, until the 30th June 1653, when a change was made in the whole postal arrangements, both Inland and Foreign.

In response to the invitation of the Committee for the Posts of the 4th October, the following claims were sent in, in addition to the claim of Sir David Watkins. That of Henry Robinson by deputation from Endymion and George Porter, who previously had been granted a deputation by Charles Lord Stanhope. This claim was for both offices, Inland and Foreign. That of Walter Ward, merchant, also to both offices. That of Thomas Billingsley to the Foreign Office; and that of Benedict Moore and William Jessop, on behalf of the creditors and three daughters of Robert Lord Rich, to a payment of £900 a year out of the Foreign Letter Office. A claim was also preferred by Mrs. Witherings, on behalf of herself and daughter, on the ground that a large part of her fortune had been spent in purchasing and developing the Foreign Letter Service. The Council of State and various Committees had much trouble in dealing with these various claims, the legal opinions obtained upon them, which still remain, having apparently been of little use in clearing matters up. The Committees, by way of escape from their difficulties, were fain to throw up the whole business, so far as deciding the question of the claims is concerned; and, proceeding upon a resolution of the Committee on the Posts of the 7th November 1651, it was determined that "the offices should be let to farm." References continued to pass, however, between the Parliament, the Council of State, the Committee on the Posts, and the Irish and Scotch Committee; and it was not till the year 1653 that any final step was taken. In May of that year, the Committee for the Management of the Posts made certain suggestions for the future carrying on of the posts. Among these were, that the Inland and Foreign Posts be placed under one and the same control. That the inland rates should be as follows:--

For single letters to places within
100 miles from London 2d.
do. over 100 " " 3d.
do. to Ireland 6d.
do. to Scotland 4d.

That the Irish mails should go by way of Milford and Waterford, and Chester and Dublin; and that all letters to or from Scotland should circulate by way of Leith or Edinburgh.

That public letters--letters of Government--should be carried free. That the rental for both offices should not be less than £6300 per annum.

Soon after this time tenders were called for, in connection with which the following conditions were prescribed:--

"(1) The undertakers are to be of known integrity and good affection, and responsible in outward estate.

"(2) They are to carry all extraordinary despatches to or from the supreme authority, Lord-General Cromwell, the Council of State, Commissioners of Admiralty, General of the Fleet, General Officers of the Army, Army Committee, and Irish and Scotch Committee, or any person entrusted with the management of a public affair wherein private interest is not concerned.

"(3) All such letters by, as also those to and from, all members of the legislative power, are to be carried free from postage, provided that such as are not known by their seals have an endorsement as follows:--'These are for the service of the Commonwealth,' signed by the persons themselves or their clerks.

"(4) That the sum of £---- be paid by the undertakers of this business every three months.

"(5) They shall receive for single letters carried into Ireland, 6d.; into Scotland, 4d.; to all parts above 80 miles from London, 3d.; to all parts less remote, 2d.--with note of the difference between single, double, and triple letters.

"(6) That a weekly intercourse may be continued between England and Ireland, they are to maintain one or more packet boats weekly between Milford and Waterford, and between Chester and Dublin.

"(7) That besides the several post stages now in use, there is to be a post settled between Dover and Portsmouth, Portsmouth and Salisbury, London and Yarmouth, and Lancaster and Carlisle.

"The persons nominated by the undertakers for posts in their several stages, as also all other officers subordinate to them, shall be approved by persons authorized thereto by the Lord-General and the Council of State."

On the 29th June 1653, offers were considered by the Posts Committee, under the foregoing specification of conditions, as follows:--

Henry Robinson £8041 0 0 per annum. Ben. Andrewes 9100 0 0 " John Goldsmith 8500 0 0 " Ralph Kendall 1103 12 9 " John Manley (with good security) 8259 19 11-3/4 " Richard Hicks 9120 6 8 " Rich. Hill 8160 0 0 "

Two other offers at least had been made; but they do not seem to have been taken into serious account for certain reasons--one being, apparently, that the offerers had prescribed conditions outside the specifications set down.

No time was now lost by the Council of State. On the very next day they passed the following resolution:--"John Manley to carry all packets, public and private, inland and foreign, according to the terms agreed on between him and a Committee of Council for that purpose, and to enter on the execution of the said office to-night, and receive the profits thereof, and a warrant to be drawn for that purpose; power given him to stop all mails of letters carried by any person not authorized by him; and his office for postage of letters to be freed from all taxes." The terms agreed upon as to payment were not those in Manley's offer, but £10,000 a year.

Before proceeding further, it is necessary to revert to the year 1649. In this year the Common Council of London set up a rival post of their own on the several roads leading from London, and, as a report of Prideaux states, they "have employed a natural _Scott_ into the north who has gone into Scotland and hath settled postmasters (others than those for the State) on all that road." The alleged reason for this proceeding was, that the Common Council required another weekly conveyance of letters for their uses. They were pressed to come before Parliament in order that they might set forth their claim to the right of setting up an independent post, but they declined to do so. Prideaux represented that his rivals, besides "intrenching upon the rights of Parliament," would cause a decrease of his revenue; and, under these circumstances, he could not be expected to carry on the business of the Posts; for under the arrangement then existing, the "charge of all the postmasters of England were taken off the State." These representations were made by Prideaux in March 1650. The Government was more arbitrary than particular as to the strict observance of precedents in law, and the Posts of the Common Council of London were promptly put down. But shortly after Witherings' death, in 1651, a combination of men, relying upon the votes of the Parliament of 1642, under which it was declared that the Secretaries of State and Witherings had no exclusive monopoly in the carriage of letters, succeeded in setting up a system of posts in opposition to the officially recognised posts of Prideaux, and actually drove the latter from the field. The men who conducted this campaign against Prideaux were--Clement Oxenbridge, Richard Blackwall, Francis Thomson, and William Malyn. Oxenbridge was Checkmaster to the Collector for Prize Goods (1652); Blackwall was at the same period a Collector for Prize Goods; Thomson is probably a man of the name who, in 1654, resigned his interest in Windsor Little Park and other property (of course, for a consideration), which he had purchased some time before from the State; Malyn appears to have been connected with one or other of the public offices. These men called themselves "the first undertakers for reducing letters to half the former rates." They tell us that Prideaux continued to exact the high rate of 6d. for every letter. In the account given by them of their proceedings, they say that:--"The undertakers, observing this extortive rate to be held up, as well in Witherings' lifetime as after his death,--when the pretence of that illegal grant was ended in point of limitation--and observing that the whole benefit went into one private hand, ... they conceived it would be a work both acceptable to the State and beneficial to the people, to contrive the abatement of those excessive rates; and therefore, maugre all oppositions and abuses of the monopolizer and his interest, they at first dash adventured on postage at the rate of 3d. a letter beyond eighty miles, and 2d. a letter within or to eighty miles; and to make return three times weekly." The "undertakers" thus started upon their venture by reducing the minimum rate for a letter from 6d. to 2d., and by running the mails three times a week instead of once as hitherto. Prideaux tried to put down this combination by reducing his rates and establishing extra mails, but without avail; for the public were so grateful for the reform introduced by the undertakers, that they gave him no encouragement, and he was obliged eventually to give up the business. As Prideaux was written to by the Council of State about neglects on the Portsmouth Road on the 23rd May 1652, his giving up the Posts must have been subsequent to this date.

The rival concerns were carried on, as might be supposed, in a spirit of bitter antagonism, in which the deputy postmasters had their share. Prideaux's agents on one occasion murdered a mounted post riding with the opposition mail, and threw his body into a river; and near the same place a son of one of the old postmasters assaulted another of the rival messengers with a drawn sword. The account goes on to say, that "these practices not accomplishing his (Prideaux's) aim, an Order from the Council of State was procured--not to stop us or our mails, that being too apparently illegal, but in such doubtful terms as might affright the weak from sending their letters to us. Libels also were posted up and down the city by him or his agents, signifying that our mails should be stopped, but his go free. This project failing, Mr. Prideaux, out of a hypocritical pretence of keeping the Sabbath day, by his own warrant commanded his postmasters to require the justices of peace in the several counties to stop our mails on the Sabbath, whereas his own went free." ... "Whilst we were labouring amidst these difficulties, it pleased God to devolve authority on such worthy persons as had from the beginning countenanced us in our work; who, in their first entrance on their management of public affairs, intrusted us with their ordinary and extraordinary despatches." This appears to refer to the period of the breaking up of the Long Parliament, 20th April 1653, when the undertakers "were the only persons who performed the service of conveying the State's despatches."

"We continued to perform the service of the State freely, fulfilling all things concerning the postage of inland letters; we reduced the same into one channel, and entertained as many of the old postmasters as were honest and well affected, according to direction of the Council of State (which constrained us to lay aside divers of those honest persons ready to assist us in carrying on so good a work), took the old post-house in London, where three days a week the State and all persons were accommodated," etc. From this account it seems clear that the old Post system under Prideaux was ousted by the new company, and that the latter had established itself as the recognised Inland Post of the country.

On the very day on which Manley was appointed to the farm of the Posts, the 30th June 1653, he was furnished by the Council of State with a warrant as follows:--"To Clement Oxenbridge, and all others concerned in the inland and foreign post. John Manley having contracted for and farmed these offices, we authorize him to enter on his duties this night, to receive and carry all packets, and to receive the profits to his own use. And you are required to permit him to do this without interruption or molestation." Upon the strength of this warrant Manley proceeded to enter upon his new duties, and, as regards the Foreign Letter Office, there seems to have been no difficulty. But with the Inland Letter Office the case was very different. Up to the day when Manley was appointed, the managers of the Inland Post were hopefully negotiating with the Council of State for the farm of the Posts. Their hopes of success were, however, suddenly blighted. The account of the transactions at this time given by these men, which is somewhat amusing, is as follows:--"After we were withdrawn (from the Council), Col. Rich, after private conference with a member of Council, so represented the business that an Order within half an hour was passed by Council immediately to invest Manley with the management of the inland and foreign letters. He, that very night, without further warning, demanded the letters which we had received, and the profits of the letters then brought to us by our own servants, at our own charges. With much persuasion we prevailed with Manley that the money should be deposited into a clerk's hand intrusted by him, till the pleasure of the Council were known; yet before that could be obtained, Manley, with some old clerks and postmasters of Mr. Prideaux's company, violently with swords broke into our house, where our letters and goods were, thrust out our servants, and by force kept possession. The same night, Manley and others violently broke into the dwelling-house of some of us in Wood Street, demanded the letters there, and would by force have broke into the room where some of us were, had we not by main strength kept the door against them; and he, with threatening speeches, required us not to receive any more letters. On complaint to Col. Rich, he, with rough words, commanded us not to meddle with receiving or sending any more letters, declaring that such was the sense of the Council's Order, and that, if we persisted, those of us who had any employment under the State should be turned out, and soldiers should be sent to our houses to stop persons bringing any letters to us. From real tenderness to the present posture of public affairs in that juncture of time we forbore contest, in expectation of justice from the supreme authority, rather than occasion disturbance." In this hustling way was the post-office business transferred to new hands.