The Early History of the Colonial
Post-Office

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]

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]

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]

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.”

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]

Since private shippers were in the habit of taking letters from the New Netherlands and Curaçoa, 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 Curaçoa, 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 letters, and for all those capable of registry, three stivers in wampum were to be paid. These movements on the part of Massachusetts and New Netherlands concerned foreign letters simply; until 1672 there were apparently no arrangements for the transmission and delivery of domestic letters. In December of that year, there was an effort to start a monthly post between New York and Boston, a project originating with Francis Lovelace, governor of New York. In a letter to John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, dated December 27, 1672, he says:[7] “I herewith present you with 2 rarities, a pacquett of the latest intelligence I could meet withal, and a post ... by the latter you will meet with a monthly fresh supply; so that if it receive but the same ardent inclinations as first it hath from myself, by our monthly advisers all publique occurences may be transmitted between us, together with severall other great conveniencys of publique importance, consonant to the commands laid upon us by his sacred majestie, who strictly enjoins all his American subjects to enter into a close correspondency with each other ... this person that has undertaken the employment I conceaved most proper, being voted active, stout and indefatigable.... I have affixt an annuall sallery on him, which, together with the advantage of his letters and other small portable packes, may afford him a handsome livelyhood.... The maile has divers baggs, according to the towns the letters are designed to, which are all sealed up ’till their arrivement, with the seal of the secretarie’s office, whose care it is on Saturday night to seale them up. Only by-letters are in an open bag, to dispense by the wayes.... I shall only beg of you your furtherance to so universall a good work; that is, to afford him directions where, and to whom to make his application to upon his arrival at Boston; as likewise to afford him what letters you can to establish him in that employment there. It would be much advantageous to our designe, if in the intervall you discoursed with some of the most able woodmen, to make out the best and most facile way for a post, which in processe of tyme would be the king’s best highway; as likewise passages and accommodation at rivers, fords,