FIRST PENNY POST

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 45, 2 December 1938, Page 8

FIRST PENNY POST

VALUABLE FIND IN ENGLAND. A major philatelic find was reported by Mr Robson Lowe, London, recently, among some material sent in to him to be sold by auction. It was a copy of the very rare Docwra stamp used during the reign of Charles 11., when London had a real postal service with collections and deliveries every hour. The stamp is very like one of the English modern post-marks. It is on a letter addressed to “Mr Peter Clayton, at Sr. Robert Clayton’s house in Old Jury.” It is triangular in shape, the lines of the triangle enclosing the words “Penny Post Paid,” the “T” in the centre indicatiifg that it.was posted at the Temple office. Previously there were only seven of these stamps known, all of which were in the British Museum.

The stamp was issued by William Docwra, a searcher at the Custom House, who organised the service with in the borders of London and its immediate vicinity with headquarters in Lime Street, and seven district offices. He had: twelve collections and deliveries a day, and for a penny collected, delivered dud insured letters and parcels up to a pound in weight, and £lO in value. * The success of the service was immediate, the Government was envious, and the first real postmaster London ever had was haled before the Court of King’s Bench charged with infringement of the Duke of York’s patent, with the result that his post was taken over by the Government, and, having been thoroughly clipped of its advantages, was duly merged in the general* post of the kingdom.

After that London had to wait 160 years for its next penny post, prematurely buried during the War and still awaiting its glorious resurrection.