Postal Rate Change between May 1839 and February 1840

This sheet with three letters, all going from Monksilver to Tiverton, illustrates the change in postal charges that happened in a nine month period from May 1839 to February 1840.

Pre-Stamp, How did Post Offices know what to Charge ?

When an item of mail was posted, the Postmaster or a clerk at the Post Office where the item was posted wrote the postal charge on the front. If the postage had been prepaid the charge was written in red ink, otherwise it was in black. Each Post Office needed to know what to charge when an item was posted, whatever the destination. By the 1800s at least (and maybe before) each Post Office was provided with a printed book or a large printed sheet for wall display, probably both, at least for the larger offices. These books or wall charts listed every post town and "principal place" in the country, with blank columns for local postmasters to fill in the charge from his own town and, in the case of the wall charts, also the towns through which letters should be routed (not always London).

"A List of Post Towns and Principal Places; with the full Postage of a Single Letter to and from Falmouth according to the actual Routes of the Post"

Not many have survived, in part because such books and charts would have been useless once they were out of date and it would have been dangerous to have them still around when a new set of rates came into force. Postmasters were probably instructed to return or destroy any such outdated material so as to prevent the wrong rates being used. The illustration above shows a portion of a wall chart for Falmouth from sometime between 1812 and 1823.

On 6^th November 1813, Christopher Saverland, Packet Agent and Postmaster of Falmouth wrote to Francis Freeling, Secretary to the P.M.G.:

"Please send half a dozen lists with London and cross post postage filled up" [Post 48]

Given the quantity requested it seems possible that each Receiving House was to be given a copy; they must have had this postal rate information available otherwise people would not have been able to prepay their postage if they so desired.

It is unclear who actually completed these columns in the books or wall charts. It may have been done centrally or possibly it was a task that the G.P.O. would have delegated to local postmasters who might be better placed to handle it than the London office. The letter above implies that it was done centrally (at least on request).

There were also publications for the general public published for His (or Her) Majesty's Stationery Office, which itemised the postage from London to all Post Towns and Principal Places, like the one shown below from 1830.

Sample page.

More on Castle Cary charges

According to "A List of Post-Towns and Principal Places with the Postage of a Single Letter to or from London according to the Actual Routes of the Post" published for His Majesty's Stationery Office in 1830, the postage in the General Post from London to Castle Cary should be as follows (see scans below):

• To Castle Carey          9d  (in italics which I take to mean that Castle Carey was not a Post Town)
• To Shaftesbury            9d
• To Shepton Mallet     10d
• To Wincanton              9d  (The post road moved so that Wincanton became a Post Town in 1830 and took over the 5th Clause Post instead of from Shaftesbury)

This indicates that at least by 1830 the correct postal rate in my previous post should have been 9d - so why were some letters charged 10d between the middle of 1825 and 1827 ?  If you have any examples of letters from London to Castle Cary in this period (1824 to 1830) please let me know what they were charged.

Castle Cary inhabitants overcharged for their Post ?

Just to stop any campaigns for reimbursement, this was in the 1820s.

First some background.  In the early 1820s Castle Cary became part of two 5th Clause Posts, one from Shaftesbury (for mail from the south and London) and one from Shepton Mallet (for mail to the north.

The map above shows the route for the mail that came via Shaftesbury which is the route that this relates to.

A 5th Clause Post was so-called because it was enacted in the 5th clause of the Act of George III, Cap. VII in 1801, and allowed the Post Office greater flexibility in setting charges to cover the expense of establishing local posts. The postal charge for the local post could be set by agreement or 'convention' with the local inhabitants, who agreed to cover any deficiency between the revenue coming in from the local post and the costs going out.

I've been reading up about this in the Somerset & Dorset Postal History Group Journal, where there is a whole article about the intricacies of the post and the different handstamps.  I then found another article about the Castle Cary Penny Post handstamp, which seems to have been used sparingly between 1824 and 1827 (just after the 5th Clause Posts had been set up).  This second article had details of 5 entires with this Penny Post handstamp - including the postage charges.

All the entires were from London, the postal rates did not change over the period, so you would expect the charges to be the same (or double or triple for double or treble letters).  Well, they weren't. The table below shows the details of the entires, with the postal charge in the right-hand column.

Date	Other marks	From	To	Charge
25.11.1824	"No.2"	London	Ditcheat	1/6d  (double)
early 1825	"No.2"	London	Ansford	9d
24.6.1825	"No.2"	London	Castle Cary (Mr Mathews)	10d
20.5.1826	"No.2"	London	Ditcheat	1/8d
5.3.1827	"No.2"	London	Ditcheat	1/8d

OK, so what should it cost ?

One would expect the mail coming from London to come to Shaftesbury in the General Post, and the charge for that is what you'd expect to see on the front of the entires.  Shaftesbury was deemed to be 104 miles from London (it had a mileage handstamp "Shaftesbury / 104").  Between 1812 and December 1829 the rate for 80-120 miles was 9d. so that is what one would have expected to see.  The London postal clerks would not know any details of local postal matters like the 5th Clause Post so there wouldn't be any charge for that included.  It would be up to the Castle Cary Receiving House to get the money for the postage from the recipient, and they would demand the extra 1d for the 5th Clause Post then.

The first two entires in the table above show this postage charge, 9d for a single letter and 1/6d for a double letter (one with two sheets of paper).

Alternatively, it is possible that a letter could have gone from London to Shepton Mallet and then to Castle Cary via the Shepton Mallet Fifth Clause Post.  Shepton Mallet was 135 miles from London so would have incurred a 10d. (120-170 miles) charge (or 1/8d. for a double letter).

The remaining three examples have been given a 10d. General Post charge (or 1/8d. for a double letter).  This was not a total charge that included the Fifth Clause Post because the double letter charge was double the single letter one (and the Fifth Clause 1d. did not double with the number of sheets).  This is compatible with a route via Shepton Mallet.

So, did the post route to Castle Cary change from via Shaftesbury to via Shepton Mallet ?  Or did perhaps the time of day a letter was posted determine which mail coach was used ?  If this was the case the inhabitants of Castle Cary were at the mercy of the Post Office as to what they got charged for a letter.

My second thought on looking at the postal rates is that there is alternative explanation for the higher charges seen on the later three entires, that it was due to human error.

It appears that before the 5th Clause Posts were introduced that Castle Cary was a Post Town, and based on its mileage handstamp was deemed to be 145 miles from London.  The postal rate for 120-170 miles was 10d. and this appears to be what the last three entires were charged (or 1/8d. for a double letter).  Did the London Post Office clerks for the later entires remember Castle Cary at 145 miles from London, and calculate the charge should be 10d. ?  ... rather than looking up Shaftesbury and doing the first calculation ?

The other markings on the entires (the "No.2" cancel) show that the entires did come via the 5th Clause Post. So one must assume that the Receiving House demanded a further 1d. for the 5th Clause Post.

Thus out of a sample of 5 entires, 3 (60%) look like they were charged more than they could have been, by 1d. or 2d, perhaps because they went the long way, via Shepton Mallet, or just perhaps because a Post Office clerk was working the charge out based on old postal routes.

Somthing I've just learnt ....

... that in 1797 the way mail that went via London was charged, was altered.  This was associated with the postal rate rises enacted in the Act of 1796, which was effective from 5th January 1797.

Before 1797, a country letter passing through London had to pay two separate charges.  Entires usually show two rate marks.  The first, representing the charge to London, was generally crossed out and replaced by the total, with a figure often preceeded by "in all". 

From 1797, there was just one charge for the total distance.  The entire may still show two rate marks as old habits took a while to die away.