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Postal service, colonial

In 1639 a post-office was established in Boston at the house of Richard Fairbanks for “all letters which are brought from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither.” The Virginia Assembly passed an act in 1657 for the immediate transmission of official letters from plantation to plantation on penalty of one hogshead of tobacco for each default. The government of New York established a monthly mail to Boston in 1672, and in 1676 the colonial court of Massachusetts established a post-office in Boston, appointing John Heyward postmaster. The first parliamentary act for the establishment of a post-office in the English-American colonies was passed in April, 1692, and a royal patent was granted to Thomas Neale for the purpose. He was to transport letters and packets “at such rates as the planters should agree to give.” Rates of postage were accordingly fixed and authorized, and measures were taken to establish a post-office in each town in Virginia, when Neale began his operations. Massachusetts and other colonies soon passed postal laws, and a very imperfect post-office system was established. Neale's patent expired in 1710, when Parliament extended the English postal system to the colonies. The rate on a single letter from London to New York was one shilling, and four pence additional for each 60 miles. The chief office was established in New York, to which letters were conveyed by regular packets across the Atlantic. A line of post-offices was soon after [274] established on Neale's old routes, north of the present city of Portsmouth, N. H., and south to Philadelphia, and irregularly extended, a few years later, to Williamsburg, Va. The post left for the South as often as letters enough were deposited to pay the expense. Finally an irregular postal communication was established with Charleston. In 1753 Dr. Franklin was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the colonies. It was a lucrative office and he held it until 1774, when he was dismissed because of his active sympathy with the colonists in their quarrel with the ministry. For a while the colonial postal system was in confusion. William Goddard, a printer, went from colony to colony making efforts to establish a “constitutional post-office,” in opposition to the “royal mail.” When, in 1775, almost

Stamping-table in a large post-office.

every vestige of royal power was swept from the colonies, the Continental Congress appointed (July 26) Dr. Franklin Postmaster-General.

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