Ilminster Miscellany

A miscellany of yet more Ilminster items today, starting with a receipt for a deposit of one guinea into the Savings Bank, sent in June 1896.

The OHMS envelope below, sent to Ilminster in 1920, is from the Charity Commission and has a "CHARITY COMMISSION" handstamp on the front.

Here is a Domestic Servants insurance renewal form for 1 male indoor domestic servant, 1 female indoor deomstic servant and "yes" for occasional servants.  I don't know if this was insuring the servants against accidents or was insuring the holder against accidents caused by the servants !

Here, from 1921 and 1922, are two charges for Vicarial Tithe Rents.  They were sent as printed matter and received a triangular undated cancel.

This is a copy of the contents of one of the charges.

During WWI British farmers were guaranteed a good price for their cereal crops, however in 1921 when the Corn Production Act was repealed there was a major slump in agricultural land prices.

 

Goods were often sent by the railway, with GWR being a major user of perfin stamps.  Here are a couple of Advice of Goods forms from 1921 with perfins.

 

... a copy of the contents from 1922.

Finally in this miscellany is a receipt for Fire Insurance from the Phoenix Assurance Company in 1923.

Some Ilminster Postage Due covers

Here is a selection of covers with Ilminster postage due marks starting with two postcards from 1904 and 1910 that have been sent without a stamp and received "1D / 401" postage due marks.  "401" was the post office number for Ilminster.

Another postcard sent in 1907 with manuscript "Contrary to Regulations 1d to pay".  The charge does not relate to the torn stamp (which probably happened after it was sent) but to the glitter on the front of the postcard, which meant that it was liable to the letter rate.

Posted unpaid on Christmas Day in 1908.

Two underfranked postcards from 1922 and 1923.  The postcard rate was 1d from 29th May 1922 (having been more than 1d before that).

Here's an example from the earlier period (13th June 1921 to 29th May 1922) when the postal rate was 1½d, the postcard only having a 1d stamp.

An unfranked postcard in 1929 had 2d to pay.

In 1942 this unfranked envelope had 5d to pay.

Great Western Advertiser 1844

Here are an envelope and a letter-sheet advertising "THE GREAT WESTERN ADVERTISER FOR THE COUNTIES OF Gloucester, Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Hereford and Monmouth, and those of South Wales" sent in November 1844.

Some Bristol Ship Letters

Here are a few Bristol Ship Letters (as a change from Ilminster !), starting with one from 1787.  The letter does not have any postal charge markings which may be because it was a consignee letter which would have been exempt from the ship letter charge.  It has a "SHIP-LRE / BRISTOL, 123" handstamp - a number of examples of this have a malformed or unclear final digit but this example is fairly clearly a "3".

Another ship letter with a a "SHIP-LRE / BRISTOL, 123" handstamp, from December 1787.  I cannot work out how the overall postal charge of 1/1d was calculated.

The example below from 1809 has a "Ship Letter / crown / BRISTOL" handstamp with contents relating to the sale of a house in Jamaica.

The letter below from 1813 has a red framed "BRISTOL / SHIP-LETTER" handstamp.  There were two rates of ship letter at this time, 4d for those that went in a sealed bag on a regular packet service and 1d for letters sent on a ship not chartered to provide a service by the post office.

The Ship Letter mark below from 1815 is a rarity - the "POST PAID WITHDRAWN SHIP LETTER" handstamp indicates prepayment was made at Bristol and then the letter was sent on a non-packet boat.

After the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post in January 1840, Ship Letters were charged a uniform rate of 8d including postage to their UK destination.  The letter below has a clear Agent's cachet for Collomb & Iselin in New York.

The letter below from February 1841 has two different cachets, a HARNDEN'S PACKAGE EXPRESS & FOREIGN LETTER OFFICE, BOSTON" cachet and an "AMERICA / L" cachet used by Cunard at Liverpool.  By 1841 Liverpool had taken over most transatlantic journeys from Bristol.

Here is an example of a letter from August 1841 that was marked to go via the Great Western from Bristol but actually went from Liverpool, bearing a red "SHIP LETTER / LIVERPOOL" datestamp.

Ilminster Squared Circle cancels

Overlapping with the duplex cancels, Ilminster used a squared circle cancel from 1881.

The cancel was recut.

And recut again to include the time rather than a code.

Further Ilminster - Barred Numeral cancels

Here are a further series of items from Ilminster, exhibiting a variety of "401" barred numeral cancels, starting with horizontal ovals (known from May 1844 to September 1863).

Ilminster also had a 4-bar vertical oval.

As a complete aside, this next item did not go through the post but is a piece of postal stationery from November 1870 advertising a public meeting about forming a volunteer rifle corps in the town (it does fit here in date order).

Ilminster also had a 3-bar vertical oval cancel (known 1873-1880).  The envelopes below may look like they have duplex cancels but it is two separate cancels, a vertical oval cancel and a circular one.

The large "1" on the item below was a redirection fee (the envelope was from Dorchester to Ilminster and was redirected to Honiton).  The "1" would have been applied in Ilminster.

With the advent of the duplex cancels the clerks only had to apply one cancel.  The first was a 4-bar cancel.

This was followed by a 3-bar cancel.

More Ilminster - 1842-1855

Another in a series of items from Ilminster, starting with a "Wessex" cancel - a cancel of an adhesive stamp or impression with a datestamp rather than a Maltese Cross before the issue of barred numeral cancels in 1844.  The one below is from June 1842.

The next item, from September 1843, has a boxed "No.3" handstamp from Hinton St George.  This cover is an example of 'proper' cancelling of the period, with a Maltese Cross cancel of the stamp and a dated handstamp (in this case an "ILMINSTER" single-arc in red) on the reverse.

The Ilminster single arc handstamp is known used in blue from 1844 to 1851.

Ilminster had the "401" barred numeral cancel - until the issue of the duplex cancels post offices had to cancel the stamp with the barred numeral cancel and then put a dated handstamp on the reverse.

The dated double-arc handstamp was used in a number of colours.

Some of the colours are difficult to see.

The item below has a "Missent to / Ilminster" handstamp, only known used in 1839 and in 1855.