ABSTRACT
Apart from Mary Hill’s work The King’s Messengers and Dr Stone’s Calendar The Inland Posts, to both of which I am indebted for many references, a number of other books have been written on the history of the English post, some for the serious reader, most of a popular nature. Of the former, three Post Office officials, William Lewins, Herbert Joyce and Wilson Hyde, com posed sound and very readable accounts. Their starting points are late, for Lewins devotes only four pages to English posts before the reign of Henry VIII, Joyce begins in 1533, reaching 1609 after seven pages, and Hyde starts in the seventeenth century. Lewins provides occasional references to his sources but Joyce and Hyde give virtually none. Another Post Office employee, J. G. Hendy, wrote in 1903 a most useful unpublished manuscript The Early History of the English Post with references, but he too gives little about events before Henry VIII. Previous to these books there was the 1844 Report of the Secret Committee On The Post Office presented to the House of Commons. This was the result of an enquiry set up by the House into the law regarding the detaining and opening of letters. The report included transcripts of various records, some medieval, relating to early posts. Those writers who knew of its existence used it as their starting point. I refer to it particularly because it contains several lengthy documents printed in full.
