ABSTRACT
A proclamation was issued on 15 May 1609 forbidding any person to carry packets or letters to or from any city or town, by foot or horseback, ‘except only as shall be lawfully appointed for that service’. It declared a state monopoly of the carriage of letters though there is no evidence that this was imposed nationally or that it was applied to the carriers. The postal routes from London to Edinburgh and to Dover were the only ones open throughout every year of King James’s reign and use of the others was intermittent. Lord John Stanhope ’s long experience as Master of the Posts and the series of complaints he had received must have taught him that some dependable means of financing the postal service was essential. As early as 1626 a London trader, Samuel Jude, had offered a postal service to the Commissioner of the Navy, the Farmers of the Customs, the East India Company and other merchants.
