Bath 1754, Ralph Allen

I have been scanning and measuring all my Bath handstamps as the first step in working out which ones match the entries in the British County Catalogue and which ones don't.  I have been using an old version of Photoshop but one can do this with free software (eg. GIMP - a different interface from Photoshop which I am used to, so I haven't switched).

Using these software tools one can zoom into an image to measure it to the nearest 0.1 mm - in practice an accuracy of 0.3 mm is about as good as one can get given the normal clarity of the handstamp strikes.

Here is an entire from August 1754 with a nice clear "BATH" straight-line handstamp - when I measure it using the software tools I get a size of nearer 28 x 7 mm than the 27 x 8 mm that is in the BCC (the measurements taken without the serifs as I understand was the standard for the BCC).

The entire is franked "R. Allen" and is probably from Ralph Allen's nephew-in-law.

Ralph Allen died on 29th June 1764.  Here is the inner sheet of another letter from him, headed Prior Park 11th December 1763 (there are no postal markings).

Bath 1712 - Ralph Allen

Ralph Allen became Postmaster of Bath on 26th March 1712, aged 19.  Here is a letter from him dated 29th October 1712, the earliest known surviving letter.

The contents are some accounts: