Provincial Penny Posts

The early mail service in the United Kingdom catered basically for delivering and receiving letters only to and from the Post or Sub-Post Towns. If you lived outside the post town in one of the neighbouring hamlets, no door-to-door mail service was available unless alternative private arrangements had been made to deliver your letters. This service was usually made with the Postmaster (known as the Deputy) of your local post town at an extra fee – normally one penny.

London, Edinburgh

By the third quarter of the 17th Century, the General Post was working well, with mail being distributed between Post Towns via the Chief Office in London with a fair degree of reliability. But to send letters within London, or any other city, was impossible. No local post existed.

In 1680 William Dockwra, a London merchant, saw this as an opportunity and with a group of associates established a London Penny Post. Dockwra's post was efficiently run and a great boon to Londoners, particularly those who had businesses that benefitted from good communication. Dockwra's penny post accepted letters and packets up to a pound in weight, and delivery was guaranteed within four hours – a big advantage to the London trader. Its huge success was soon apparent to the Post Office but they were quick to point out that they held a monopoly of the post. In late 1682, they suppressed the Dockwra penny post but immediately re-established it as their own, continuing it almost without change for the next hundred years.

Nearly a century later, in 1773, a local private penny post was established in Edinburgh by a man named Peter Williamson. Like the London penny post of 1682, Williamson's post was also suppressed, then taken over by the Post Office in 1793. Francis Freeling, new to Post Office headquarters, visited Edinburgh during this period and was responsible for organising the takeover.

The London, and in particular, the Edinburgh Penny Post were influential in establishing the pattern for the Provincial English Penny Posts that followed.

Provincial Penny Posts

In an Act of Parliament of 1765 provision was made for setting up local penny posts to deliver letters to the surrounding neighbourhood of cities or towns. In the following years, only a handful of large cities such as Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester established local penny posts; and these not until the year 1793. One of the problems experienced was the reluctance of the Post Office to proceed with the establishment of any post unless they believed there was no financial risk.

The first positive move towards the expansion of penny posts came at the beginning of the 19th Century. In April 1801 all postage rates were increased by Act of Parliament. The 5th and 8th Clauses of this Act were important and made possible the local penny posts that were to follow. The 5th Clause allowed the Postmaster General to collect and deliver letters to and from towns and villages surrounding a Post Town at such charges as were agreed with the inhabitants, whilst the 8th Clause allowed the individuals within a village (or the whole of the inhabitants) to indemnify the Post Office against financial losses. The most prominent person (the one who lived in the big house), was often the one to give this guarantee. After all, he probably gained most from a local post.

Many of the early local posts established under the 1801 Act were known as 5th Clause Posts, having their own designated handstamps. Unfortunately, it was found that the local charge (usually a penny) could not be made on free letters or newspapers as before. As a result, from 1808 there was a move from 5th Clause posts to Penny Posts to counteract this anomaly, and from that time the local penny posts grew rapidly till the advent of Uniform Penny Postage in January 1840 rendered them obsolete.

Penny Post Handstamps

In England and Wales, there were five basic types of named penny post handstamp in use between 1811 and 1840 when they were superseded by the new stamps of the Uniform Penny Post. In practice, they continued in use until well into the 1850s albeit they had little use except as town or village namestamps.

Handstamps with a few exceptions were standardised throughout England and Wales and when a new penny post was established, the Office was sent the stamp that was currently being produced and issued from the Chief Office. The 5 basic types of stamp and the years that they were issued are in the image gallery below.

Downloads

The PDF links below are searchable tables listing relevant items in the BPMA Postal History Collection. They have been arranged in alphabetical order of town (Provincial Penny Post table) and 5th Clause town (5th Clause table).

Provincial Penny Postage (PDF, 1.2 MB)

5th Clause (PDF, 61 KB)

Table Glossary

Sources used

Numbering system: 42/1, 43/4, 44/3, 45/2, 47/5

These are BPMA numbers combining two different cataloguing systems: 42/ etc from the British County Catalogue by Willcocks & Jay; and /1 etc from Oxley The English Provincial Local Posts.

Other numbers:

Auck. – Auckland, Bruce Postal Markings of Scotland to 1840 2nd edition. Edited by Ron Stables

Meredith – Meredith, R.W. Old Irish Postage Stamps and Franks

Oxley – Oxley, G.F. The English Provincial Local Posts 1765-1840

W & J – Willcocks & Jay The Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland

Abbreviations

BM = Bishop mark

cds = circular date stamp

circ. = circular

CX = Charing Cross

d.s = datestamp

h/s = handstamp

H/S = handstruck

MX = Maltese Cross

ms. = manuscript

mm = mileage mark

oct. = octagonal

pl. = plate

PP = Penny Post

rect = rectangular

RH = Receiving House

sl. = straight line

TP = Twopenny Post

udc = undated circle

UPP = Uniform Penny Post

Illustrations

Dockwra handstamp on letter

5th Clause Post: 28 Jan 1830

Romford/Penny Post handstamp

MAIDSTONE Penny Post h/stamp

West Moulsey Penny Post h/stamp

Penny Post Handstamps

Cullumpton Penny Post

Okehampton Penny Post

Lynn Penny Post

Halifax Penny Post

Haselbury Penny Post