AN
HISTORICAL SUMMARY
OF THE
POST OFFICE IN SCOTLAND,
COMPILED
FROM AUTHENTIC RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS.
BY T. B. LANG, Esq.

CONTROLLER, SORTING DEPARTMENT, GENERAL POST OFFICE, EDINBURGH.

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY W. H. LIZARS, ST. JAMES' SQUARE.

1856.

NOTE.

This Historical Summary, compiled by Mr. Lang, was originally contained in a Letter addressed to the Secretary to the General Post Office in Scotland, with a view to its being included in the Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, presented to both Houses of Parliament at the commencement of the present Session, but it not being considered necessary to include the whole Summary in the Report, Extracts only were published in the Appendix. The whole Summary is therefore now printed, with his Grace's sanction, for private distribution.

AN

HISTORICAL SUMMARY

OF THE

POST OFFICE IN SCOTLAND.

The earliest records that can be found relating to the conveyance of Despatches or Letters in Scotland, do not date earlier than the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In these early records, special messengers for the conveyance of the King's Despatches and Correspondence are called "Nuncii" or "Cursores;" but the information as to their mode of travelling, and regulations for their guidance, is imperfect and limited. Messengers of this description were also employed to convey despatches from foreign countries, for which they received gratuities on their arrival at the Scottish Court. About the year 1500, the name of Post is found to apply to messengers travelling with the utmost rapidity then attainable in charge of despatches.[1] On the 1st of April 1515, the English envoy in Scotland wrote from Stirling to Henry VIII. of England—"This Friday, when I came home to dyner, I received your most honorable letters by Post, dated at your mansion, Greenwich, 26th March."[2] These letters, which appear to have occupied five or six days in transit from Greenwich to Stirling, must have been conveyed by one of these special Court Messengers.

It was not long after this period that the municipal corporations and private persons of consequence also introduced messengers of this description. For example, in 1590, a Post was established by the Magistrates of Aberdeen for carrying their despatches to and from Edinburgh and other places of royal residence. They appointed a person for conducting these despatches, under the name of the Council Post, who was dressed in a garment of blue cloth, with the town's armorial bearings in silver upon the right sleeve.[3]

In 1635 a public Post was first established in Britain, under Government authority by Charles I.[4] Its main object was to establish regular and certain communication between London and Edinburgh. The journey was limited to three days, and the rate of Postage for a single letter was fixed at 6d. sterling. Mails were despatched between these two cities usually twice a week, sometimes only once.

About two years after this period, the Post as the medium of communication, became so insecure, that in 1638 a person in England wrote to his friend in Scotland—"I hear the Posts are waylaid, and all letters taken from them, and brought to Secretary Cooke; therefore will I not, nor do you, send by that way hereafter." The Post at this time was called the Merchant Post, but it did not prosper.[5]

In 1649, the Commonwealth took the Scottish Posts under its jurisdiction, and in connection with that measure they appear to have removed many, if not all the officers. The Posts were then placed upon a better footing, and the system was still further improved by Cromwell. In 1654 the Postage from England to Scotland was lowered to 4d. sterling. In 1656 the revenues of the Post Office in Great Britain and Ireland were farmed to John Manley, Esq., who was appointed Postmaster-General, and the rate of Postage in Scotland was fixed at 2d. for a single letter under 80 miles, for all distances above 80 miles 3d., to England 4d., and to Ireland 6d.[6]

On the 16th December 1661, Charles II. re-appointed Robert Mein "Sole Keeper of the Letter Office in Edinburgh," an office from which he had been removed during the Commonwealth.[7]

By grant under the Privy Seal, dated at Whitehall on the 14th September 1662, King Charles II. bestowed upon Patrick Grahame of Inchbrakie the office of Postmaster-General of Scotland[8]—"officium precipui magistri cursoris lie Postmaster-Generall et Censoris omnium cursorum dicti regni Scotie"—for all the days of his life, with power to appoint Postmasters at the stages necessary for forwarding the King's letters from place to place. The grant conveyed to Grahame all the rights and privileges which any Postmaster-General had previously enjoyed in Scotland, and specially bestowed on him a salary of £500 Scots yearly.[9]

On the 16th September 1662, the Privy Council of Scotland commissioned Robert Mein, merchant,[10] and Keeper of the Letter Office, Edinburgh, to establish posts between Scotland and Ireland, and ordained that Linlithgow, Kilsyth, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Dumboag, Ballintrae, and Port Patrick, should be stages on the route, and granted him the sum of £200 sterling, to build a packet boat to carry the Mail from Port Patrick to Donaghadee, and further gave him the sole privilege of carrying letters on this line of road, for which he was allowed to charge for each letter to Glasgow, 2s. Scots, and from