49:. Dockwra was a merchant and a member of the Armourer and Brasiers Livery Company and was appointed a Customs Under-Searcher for the Port of London in 1663. Murray would later become clerk in the excise office of the Penny Post. The London Penny Post mail service was launched with weeks of publicity preceding it on 27 March 1680. The new London Penny Post provided the city of London with a much needed intra-city mail delivery system. The new Penny Post was influential in establishing a model system and pattern for the various Provincial English Penny Posts in the years that followed. It was the first postal system to use hand-stamps to postmark the mail to indicate the place and time of the mailing and that its postage had been prepaid. The success of the Penny Post would also threaten the interests of the Duke of York who profited directly from the existing general post office. It also compromised the business interests of porters and private couriers. The Penny Post was also involved in publishing various criticisms towards the British monarchy, the
81:
110:, published in 1735, he puts the number of receiving houses at over 600. Dockwra's Penny Post delivered letters and packets weighing up to one pound and delivery was guaranteed within four hours, each letter being marked with a heart shaped time stamp indicating the time an item was dropped off for delivery. Because the new postal service was affordable to the general public with its inexpensive flat rate of one penny it became an almost instant success and became the predecessor of the postal systems that later emerged and are still in use today in Great Britain and elsewhere today. To announce the new Penny Post's inter-city mail services public notices were published in several local newspapers (
230:
great, each time more money was needed to finance them the cost of postage was increased dramatically. This led to increasing public dissatisfaction and criticism of the high postage rates. At one point to send a letter across London the rates were as much as a day's wages for many. This went on for more than 100 years, and as a result of the mounting public complaints, a
Committee of Enquiry was finally set up in 1835. Because of the excesses and indiscretions of the postal authorities and the much-needed reforms,
19:
188:
226:
the
English government and the Duke of York at the time fined Dockwra £100 for contempt, claiming it infringed the monopoly of the General Post Office, and took control of the Penny Post's operations in 1682, bringing that enterprise to an end. Less than a month later the London Penny Post was made a branch of the General Post Office. For compensation of his losses Dockwra obtained a pension of £500 a year after the Revolution of 1688.
123:
209:
and porters who also regarded the Penny Post as a threat to the delivery services they offered and who sometimes resorted to assaulting the Post's messengers, tearing down advertisements and committing other acts of violence. There was also concern about the Whig party which was supporting the Penny Post and using it to distribute anti-Catholic and seditious newsletters in an attempt to exclude James II,
154:) but of the few that survive most are in museum archives, and only four are known to be in the hands of private collectors. The triangle-shaped postmark is considered by some historians and philatelists as the world's first postage stamp. Each Penny Post office had its own initial letter. The Penny Post also employed heart-shaped time stamps, one with the abbreviation
133:
71:
and porters to deliver mail or small packages within the city. With the growth of trade and the increase in the population of London (which had about half a million people at that time), there was an ever-increasing demand for a mail system that would serve London and its suburbs. With its cheap flat
225:
Before the emergence of the Penny Post the profits of the existing
General Post Office were assigned by Parliament in 1663 to the Duke of York, who now had similar designs on Dockwra's lucrative Penny Post. As the Penny Post proved to be a great success and a potential new source of constant revenue
208:
When the Penny Post was first launched in 1680 there was much opposition to the new service. Its success took business from the
General Post office, so much so that by 1682 a civil action was brought against Dockwra for having a monopoly on the postal services of the state. There were many couriers
66:
in London and
Westminster to receive and deliver the mail that was bound for destinations outside London proper, but there was no system or provision for the general distribution of letters or parcels within the city of London itself. Dockwra and Murray's Penny Post provided such a service. The new
229:
Over the years successive governments used the profits from the
General Post Office and the London Penny Post as revenue. Much of the revenue that was being generated by the Penny Post was used to finance the various and almost continuous wars with France. Because the demands of the wars were so
146:
When mail was submitted for delivery by the Penny Post the postage rate of one penny was charged and a hand-stamped postmark and time-stamp were applied to the mailed item confirming that its postage had been paid. The triangular postmarks used by
Dockwra's Penny Post account for his fame among
93:
that was formerly owned by Sir Robert Abdy. Dockwra established hourly collections, with a maximum of ten deliveries daily for London and a minimum of six deliveries for the various London suburbs, such as
Hackney and Islington. However Robert Murray was arrested in May 1680, along with another
88:
Several Penny Post offices were established at various points within London where letters that were collected from drop-boxes about the city were sorted and sent out for delivery. Dockwra, Murrey and their partners divided London as far as (inclusively) Westminster and
Blackwall and Hackney and
198:
In these examples the letters in the centre identified the office the mailed item was sent from. L = Lime Street and W = Westminster. In the original
Dockwra triangular postmarks the words PENNY was always positioned on the left side, POST on the right side and PAID at the bottom, top
98:(afterwards James II). This left Dockwra to manage the Penny Post and as such credit is roundly given to him for its designs and further improvements as the Penny Post at that point having only been in operation for a couple of months was still in its developmental stages.
221:
denounced the concern as a design of the Duke of York and the Popish party. As a result, the Penny Post was taken over by the Crown authorities in that year and became part of the existing General Post Office. From that point on the postal rates gradually increased.
181:. The initial letter was located within the triangle; 'L' for the London office, 'W' for Westminster, 'S' for the Saint Paul office, however there is speculation that the 'L' marking may have indicated a mailing from the office in Dockwra's home on
101:
Within two years the Penny Post had grown to such proportions that approximately four to five hundred receiving-houses and wall-boxes had been established at various locations about the city of London, however some of the accounts vary. E.g. in
53:
in particular, which ultimately led to the takeover of the Penny Post by crown authorities. The earliest known Penny Post postmark is dated 13 December 1680 and is considered by some to be the world's first postage 'stamp'.
242:. Because of its simplicity and ease of use the postage stamp brought reform to the post office, much like that of William Dockwra when his hand stamp struck the first letter delivered by the London Penny Post.
67:
Penny Post service proved very useful to London's merchants and to other businesses, and very popular among the citizenry of London, who hitherto had to pay more expensive rates to
158:
designating a morning mailing and one with 'Af.' indicating an afternoon mailing, along with the number of the hour i.e. a numeral '4' indicating a 4 O'clock mailing. (
89:
Lambeth into seven districts with a sorting office for each. They established a Head Office that was set up in the home of Dockwra himself who was living in a mansion on
162:) The triangle postmarks used on letters in 1680 differ somewhat from later examples. The 1680 postmarks are larger, with the shortest side to the triangle at the base.
461:
251:
94:
associate of the Penny Post, George Cowdron, for distributing by means of the Penny Post what was considered to be seditious material criticising the
41:
whose function was to deliver mail within London and its immediate suburbs for the modest sum of one penny. The Penny Post was established in 1680 by
581:
415:
591:
296:
29:
Newspaper ad for Penny Post announcing service and postal rates and the advantages to trade and commerce which it offered.
80:
553:
430:
428:
426:
292:
465:
368:
423:
231:
165:
The postmarks on mailings in 1681 have triangles whose longest side is situated at the base and with the word
304:
405:
586:
343:
46:
103:
596:
543:
436:
256:
63:
38:
279:
William Dockwra and the rest of the Undertakers: The story of the London penny post, 1680-2
8:
210:
95:
90:
549:
437:"William Dockwra and the rest of the Undertakers; The Story of the London Penny Post"
288:
493:
238:, which led to various reforms and the introduction of the first postage stamp, the
520:
68:
42:
404:
72:
postage-rate of one penny, the Penny Post quickly became a commercial success.
575:
419:. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 176–196.
410:
398:
396:
394:
392:
390:
338:
336:
334:
332:
187:
50:
387:
329:
266:
239:
372:
261:
218:
18:
363:
361:
214:
122:
358:
62:
Prior to the advent of the London Penny Post there was only one
213:, from the succession to the throne on the grounds that he was
150:
Four types of triangular postmarks were used to frank mail, (
114:) and notices and posters were also printed and circulated.
132:
173:) There also exist examples of postmarks where the word
464:. The British Postal Museum and Archive. Archived from
454:
535:
491:
287:, Frank Staff, Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, 1993.
313:, J. Hemmeon, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1912.
252:Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain
573:
487:
485:
483:
371:. Docwra Family Research Project. Archived from
128:Lime St. Postmark & heart-shaped Time-stamps
57:
442:. C.J. Cousland & Sons Ltd., Edinburgh, UK
541:
480:
317:The Postage Stamps of Great Britain 1661–1941
344:"William Dockwra and the Penny Post Service"
319:, Robson Lowe, Robson Lowe Ltd, London, 1941
169:inscribed upside-down within the triangle. (
512:
196:~ Postmarks used by the London Penny Post ~
518:
281:, Thomas Todd, Edinburgh, Cousland, 1952.
203:
186:
131:
121:
79:
75:
17:
574:
402:
311:The History of the British Post Office
84:Dockwra plaque in Lime Street, London
582:Postal history of the United Kingdom
369:"Arms of the Armourers and Brasiers"
434:
13:
545:History of the British Post Office
272:
14:
608:
346:. Canadian Museum of Civilization
406:"Post, and Postal Service"
108:Survey of London and Westminster
542:J. C. Hemmeon (18 April 2013).
592:1680 establishments in England
305:Sampson Low, Son & Marston
234:published a pamphlet entitled
1:
403:Ingram, Thomas Allan (1911).
323:
58:Mail services in London, 1680
117:
7:
245:
10:
613:
45:and his business partner,
492:Eunice and Ron Shanahan.
462:"Provincial Penny Posts"
285:The Penny Post 1680–1918
416:Encyclopædia Britannica
523:. The Ozzie connection
204:Takeover of Penny Post
200:
143:
129:
85:
30:
257:Postal administration
190:
141:Postmark used in 1681
135:
125:
83:
76:Premier postal system
64:General Letter Office
21:
468:on 14 February 2010
147:postal historians.
303:, William Lewins,
301:Her Majesty's Mail
236:Post Office Reform
201:
144:
130:
86:
31:
587:History of London
498:The Victorian Web
375:on 5 January 2009
35:London Penny Post
604:
567:
566:
564:
562:
539:
533:
532:
530:
528:
519:E. J. Shanahan.
516:
510:
509:
507:
505:
494:"The Penny Post"
489:
478:
477:
475:
473:
458:
452:
451:
449:
447:
441:
432:
421:
420:
408:
400:
385:
384:
382:
380:
365:
356:
355:
353:
351:
340:
69:private couriers
26:
612:
611:
607:
606:
605:
603:
602:
601:
572:
571:
570:
560:
558:
556:
540:
536:
526:
524:
517:
513:
503:
501:
500:. Victorian web
490:
481:
471:
469:
460:
459:
455:
445:
443:
439:
433:
424:
401:
388:
378:
376:
367:
366:
359:
349:
347:
342:
341:
330:
326:
307:, London, 1864.
275:
273:Further reading
248:
206:
197:
194:
142:
139:
127:
120:
78:
60:
43:William Dockwra
28:
27:
22:
12:
11:
5:
610:
600:
599:
594:
589:
584:
569:
568:
554:
534:
521:"London Posts"
511:
479:
453:
422:
411:Chisholm, Hugh
386:
357:
327:
325:
322:
321:
320:
314:
308:
298:
282:
274:
271:
270:
269:
264:
259:
254:
247:
244:
205:
202:
195:
177:is spelled as
140:
119:
116:
104:Robert Seymour
77:
74:
59:
56:
37:was a premier
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
609:
598:
597:Postage rates
595:
593:
590:
588:
585:
583:
580:
579:
577:
557:
555:9781447480785
551:
547:
546:
538:
522:
515:
499:
495:
488:
486:
484:
467:
463:
457:
438:
431:
429:
427:
418:
417:
412:
407:
399:
397:
395:
393:
391:
374:
370:
364:
362:
345:
339:
337:
335:
333:
328:
318:
315:
312:
309:
306:
302:
299:
297:
294:
293:0-7188-2878-X
290:
286:
283:
280:
277:
276:
268:
265:
263:
260:
258:
255:
253:
250:
249:
243:
241:
237:
233:
227:
223:
220:
216:
212:
193:
189:
185:
184:
180:
176:
172:
168:
163:
161:
157:
153:
148:
138:
134:
124:
115:
113:
109:
105:
99:
97:
92:
82:
73:
70:
65:
55:
52:
48:
47:Robert Murray
44:
40:
39:postal system
36:
25:
20:
16:
561:17 September
559:. Retrieved
544:
537:
525:. Retrieved
514:
504:17 September
502:. Retrieved
497:
470:. Retrieved
466:the original
456:
444:. Retrieved
414:
377:. Retrieved
373:the original
348:. Retrieved
316:
310:
300:
284:
278:
235:
232:Rowland Hill
228:
224:
211:Duke of York
207:
191:
182:
178:
174:
170:
166:
164:
159:
155:
151:
149:
145:
136:
111:
107:
100:
96:Duke of York
87:
61:
51:Duke of York
34:
32:
23:
15:
267:Penny Black
240:Penny Black
219:Protestants
91:Lime Street
576:Categories
527:8 November
472:7 November
446:7 November
379:7 November
350:8 November
324:References
262:Penny Post
435:T. Todd.
199:outwards.
118:Postmarks
24:figure 1
246:See also
215:Catholic
192:figure 4
183:Lime St.
171:figure 3
160:figure 2
152:figure 4
137:figure 3
126:figure 2
112:figure 1
413:(ed.).
156:'Mor.'
552:
291:
217:. The
440:(PDF)
409:. In
563:2018
550:ISBN
529:2010
506:2018
474:2010
448:2010
381:2010
352:2010
289:ISBN
179:PAYD
175:paid
167:PAID
33:The
106:'s
578::
548:.
496:.
482:^
425:^
389:^
360:^
331:^
295:.
565:.
531:.
508:.
476:.
450:.
383:.
354:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
