ABSTRACT
These Account Book references record payments made for the delivery of letters into and out of Northaw, Chatsworth and Hardwick. 1 They offer a series of snapshots, across particular dates and locations, of the wide range of means and methods by which Bess could send or receive a letter. That not a single one of the letters mentioned in the Account Books can be matched to an extant letter is indicative of the number of letters that must have been lost, as well as of the slippage that occurs between historical sources. Nevertheless, combining Bess’s letters with her Account Books opens up a wealth of information about distances, delivery, payments and personnel. It is information that reveals the layered and multifaceted nature of early modern postal networks, of which it is worth providing an overview here, before moving on to consider particular aspects that infl ected the delivery and reception process. The postal network, including its development and logistical mechanics, has been documented by Philip Beal and Mark Brayshay. 2 However, by focusing on the letters of one individual in this chapter it is possible to gain a vantage point from which to survey its complexities from, as it were, the inside out, and from the user’s point of view. The advantage here is in the opportunity to reconstruct how one individual could utilise so many different facets of the postal network, as well as the motivations and circumstances for doing so. There is also the opportunity to add further evidence for letter-writing as a process, one which involved multiple stages and was implicated within various social connections and relationships. At the same time, by considering how Bess utilised the transport and delivery options available to her, we gain further insight into how she so successfully operated within and negotiated her way through the structures and hierarchies of early modern culture and society.
