



Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, S.D., The Philatelic Digital
Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)







------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber's Note:

In the plain-text versions of this book, superscripted letters are
represented with curly brackets, as in W{m}. For detailed information
about this transcription, please see the end of the text.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




              Papers from the Historical Seminary
                      of Brown University

  Edited by J. FRANKLIN JAMESON, Ph. D., Professor of History


                              II

               THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIAL
                          POST-OFFICE


                              by
                        MARY E. WOOLLEY


            Reprinted from the Publications of the
               Rhode Island Historical Society


                       PROVIDENCE, R. I.
                             1894




EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLONIAL POST OFFICE.


A letter written in 1652, by Samuel Symonds of Ipswich, to John
Winthrop, Jr., at Pequot, says: "I cannot say but its besides my
intentions that I write not more frequently unto you; I can onely plead
this for my excuse (soe farr as it will goe)... and the uncertainty
when and how to convey letters."[1]

[1] _Mass. Historical Collections_, 4th Series, Vol. VII., p. 128.

A glance at the correspondence of that period shows that Mr. Symonds was
not the only one inconvenienced by the "uncertainty when and how to
convey letters." With no domestic postal service the writers of that day
were dependent upon individual bearers and pressed neighbors, relatives,
merchants, sea captains, any and every one whom they could reach, into
the service. Indians were often used as messengers. Roger Williams
writing to John Winthrop, at some time in the '30's, speaks of word "by
this bearer Wequash whome (being a Pequt himselfe) I commended for a
guide in the Pequt expedition;" again, "I pray let your servant direct
the native with this letter;" and at still another time, "From your owne
hand (by Robin Causasenamont)."[2]

[2] _Mass. Historical Collections_, 4th Series, Vol. VI., pp. 242, 256,
276.

John Endicott writes to John Winthrop, April 13, 1638: "Your kinde lines
I receaued by Mascanomet;" and a letter from the Isle of Wight (near
Long Island), dated "Aprill 27, 1650," says, "I resavid yours by the
Indian."[3]

[3] _Mass. Historical Collections_, 4th Series, Vol. VII.

Until 1639 there is no trace of a postal system, but under the
_Massachusetts General Court Records_, of that year[4] (Nov. 5th), is
the following entry: "For preventing the miscarriage of letters,... It
is ordered that notice bee given, that Richard Fairbanks, his house in
Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from
beyond the Seas, or are to be sent thither;... are to be brought unto
him and he is to take care, that they bee delivered, or sent according
to their directions and hee is alowed for every such letter 1d. and must
answer all miscarriages through his owne neglect in this kind; provided
that no man shall bee compelled to bring his letters thither except hee
please."

[4] _Mass. Colonial Records_, I., p. 281. _Mass. Historical
Collections_, 3d Series, Vol. VII., p. 48.

This action on the part of the Massachusetts General Court was, as far
as can be discovered, the first effort by the colonies to provide a post
office. Eighteen years later, June 12, 1657, an ordinance was passed[5]
by the director general and council of the New Netherlands, forbidding
the boarding of incoming vessels until visited by the governing officer
and the letters delivered, the penalty for evading the law being fixed
at thirty guilders.[6]

[5] Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands.

[6] Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, pp. 379, 380.

Since private shippers were in the habit of taking letters from the New
Netherlands and Curacoa, without placing them in a sealed bag, the
directors of the West India Company, at the chamber in Amsterdam, in
1659 (October 30) adopted a resolution requiring captains of vessels to
enter into bond not to carry letters to Holland from New Netherlands or
Curacoa, unless received from persons authorized to collect them, under
penalty of one hundred Carolus guilders; and on the second of the
following June (1660) the director general and council of the colony
passed an ordinance warning citizens to observe this resolution. A box
was placed in New Amsterdam, in the office of the secretary of the
province, for the receipt of