USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 42
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his Post-Office commission. He returned forthwith to America, pur -. sued the Post-Office scheme with the greatest energy and remarkable success, and when he died, on April 26. 1703, he left the Post-Office in the worthy hands of his son, John Hamilton, who continued as Post- master-General to 1430. Andrew Hamilton made the first attempt at a certain union and a certain legislative uniformity between the col- onies from New Hampshire to Virginia. His patent granted a postal monopoly for all America and the West Indies. His unique service, besides establishing a weekly mail between Piscataqua ( Portsmouth ), N. H., and Philadelphia, consisted in getting each colony to pass a postal act in harmony with every other, and in obtaining subsidies.
Virginia fixed the rate of postage at 3d. a letter up to eighty miles, and Héd. beyond. New York helped liberally; in 1694 it voted a subsidy of £50 for three years. New Hampshire gave a subsidy of L20 a year. Connecticut voted free ferries to the postal service. And Massachusetts, beside passing the great Post-Office Act of 1693, gave liberal supplies. The Massachusetts Post-Office Act, passed for the effectual encouragement of the general Post-Office, for the better pres- ervation of trade and commerce, and "for the quicker maintenance of mutual correspondence amongst all the neighboring Colonies and Plantations," including the West Indies, gave llamilton's deputy Post- master at Boston a monopoly, with authority to charge 2d. for ship letters; Ad. for a triple letter, then called a packet; fid. for Rhode Island letters, which included carriage; 9d. for Connecticut letters; 12d. for New York letters; 15d. for New Jersey and Pennsylvania; 2s. for Maryland and Virginia; 2d. for Salem; 4d. for Ipswich and New- buryport : 6d. for Piscataqua (N. H.). For letters delivered at houses, not being called for within forty-eight hours after their arrival at the Post-Office, the Postmaster was to have Id. each. Private posts were prohibited under a fine of £40 for each offence, one-half to go to the Governor, one-half to the Postmaster-General. The incoming mail was to be marked with a receiving "print" showing the date. Hamilton was required to maintain "constant posts" between Boston and the points named, and " all letters of publick concernment for their Majesties' service " were to be carried free. The Act was once renewed, but proved somewhat premature. The Privy Council rejected it; yet it stood as far as the nature of the case permitted. A regular postal service between Portsmouth, N. H., and Virginia was at that time financially impossible.
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In the same year, 1693, Hamilton appointed Duncan Campbell Post- master at Boston, authority for the appointment having been conferred by the Neale patent and the Province Act. Very little is known of Campbell. In 1696 he lost a daughter; he himself appears to have died in 1202. He wrote numerous petitions for aid from the Province. In 1691 Hamilton was voted $25 for two years: a similar vote for one year was passed in 1696; his deputy at Boston desired freedom from taxes, and a license to sell liquor; he affirmed that the "charges of this Post-Office are thrice the income." He died insolvent, his estate being appraised at 61, 312 14 5; the debt allowed being [2, 861 15 5. The creditors received eight shillings in the pound. Campbell appears to have dealt also in books, his estate including twenty Hebrew, Greek, and Latin folios; fifty-eight Latin folios; one hundred and forty-nine Greek and Latin folios and quartos, etc. The probate records mention him July 29, 1402, as recently deceased ; his widow, Susanna Campbell, was executrix; John Campbell helped in settling the estate, and ste- ceeded him as Postmaster. Duncan Campbell appears to have been Postmaster of Massachusetts; he certainly was " Master of the General Letter Office," as distinguished from the offices of Salem, Ipswich and Newbury: John Campbell was " Master of the Post-office of Boston and New England," and " Postmaster of New England." Hle filled the place worthily, though he was removed in HIS, probably because his office did not pay enough to the Postmaster-General in London
John Campbell was born about 1653; Andrew Hamilton appointed him Postmaster of Boston and New England about 1202. On April 24. 1:01, he began the publication of the weekly News-Letter, the first suc- cessful newspaper in America. In the great fire of 1411 Campbell's entire establishment was destroyed; in 1218 he retired from the Post- Office, for the reason that it was not as remunerative as the Postmaster- General in London desired; his wife died in 1222; Campbell died in 1128, leaving behind him an honorable name, numerous records, and two married daughters, Sarah being the wife of James Bowdoin, and Elizabeth the wife of William Foye. Both sons-in-law were Councillors of Massachusetts; Foye was Treasurer of the Province for many years, and Bowdoin's name was destined to occupy an eminent place in the history of Massachusetts. Campbell's home and place of business was in Cornhill, now Washington Street, below School Street. He had the respect and confidence of his fellow townsmen to a remarkable degree, and he carried himself with dignity and self-respect under many em-
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barrassments and difficulties,. In his postal career he witnessed the virtual transfer of the Neale patent to Andrew Hamilton, the adminis- tration of John Hamilton, the superseding of the patent by the Parlia- ment Act of 1:10, and his own unjust removal, embittered by the frivolous attacks of his successor, who himself came to an ignominions end. The men who laid the actual foundation of the American postal service were Scotchmen by birth. In Het 25 John Campbell was president of the Scots' Charitable Society, which he had joined, in 181. as a " stranger." At the time of the great fire, in 1;11, he had a house in Pudding lane, now Devonshire Street.
In John Campbell's days there was a weekly mail in summer, fort- nightly in winter, between Portsmouth, N. I., and Philadelphia. it followed the shore line, the offices at Worcester, Springfield and Hart- ford being established later. The post routes deviating from the main line were called cross-roads but were mostly or all established after Campbell's reign. In 1:03 he computed the cost of the mail service between New Hampshire and Philadelphia at 6680, of which he charged two-thirds to the account of New England. To cover this expense of $3; 15 6 a month, he reported a revenue of C1! 12 8 a month from the Boston Post-Office: and $9 1 & due from the Post-Offices under his ju- risdiction ; leaving a monthly deficit of G15 8 2. On the basis of actual receipts for the week preceding this report, the receipts being [2 11 10 on inward mails, and Cl 11 on outgoing matter, he computed a deficit of g225 for the year. He announced at the same time that Hamilton was "out of purse, several years ago, {1, 100 sterling in setleing " the American Post-Office, and that Hamilton " was necessitated to take a mortgage of said [ Neale | patert, or else have nothing, so that the priv- iledge of said patent now devolves upon Collo: Hamilton and hisheires." Campbell expressed great discouragement.
The Province, however, sustained him liberally. He was exempted from militia duty " during his employment as Postmaster;" for his first year in office he received C20; Clo for the next, when the News-Let- ter was begun: and another payment up to October 30, 1206, After the great fire of 1111, no Province aid having been given since 1906, he received an indirect allowance of (112 3 11. With this payment the Neale patent ended, and the Post Office passed under the control of Parliament law, which continued until 1715, and is embodied in the in- teresting Act of 1:10, and the "Collection of the Statutes now in force relating to the Post-Office," New York: 111, 11 pp. The rates es-
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tablished by Massachusetts were continued until 1:11, when the new rates, established by Parliament, took effect. For the rest, Campbell struggled with the same problems that still tax the Post-Office. He ad- vocated the prepayment of postage; he fought for the monopoly of the service ; he demanded that the public use the nearest Post-Office " un- der some penalty;" and he suggested that "all persons concerned in said [ Post ] Office shall be free from watchings, trainings, or any public service [for the Province |, and either freed from rates, or excise free, or some other benefit equal to it." In other words, he claimed for the postal service something like national allegiance only. A later law ex- empted the Post-Office from militia and jury duty; but this was in part repealed, and as yet the postal force struggles, like Campbell, for a self- sustaining service, the members of which are to enjoy a certain im- munity from local burdens, on the ground that they render general and generous services to the country at large.
The British Post-Office Act of 1710, known as 9 Annae, e. 10, was oc- casioned by the expenses of the war that ended with the peace of Utrecht-a peace not wholly beneficent to the interests of English- speaking America. Incidentally the Act made the Post-Office tributary to the national exchequer; previously its profits had gone to the Crown. The memorable instrument was fitly called " An Act for establishing a General Post-Office for all Her Majesty's Dominions; " it authorised the appointment of a Postmaster-General for Great Britain, Ireland, North America, and the West Indies; and it required the establishment of "chief letter offices" in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, the " Leward Islands," and New York. Of the gross receipts £100 a week and all in excess of £111,461 1: 10, this being the total income of the British Post-Office in the year ended September 29, 1:10, was to be at the dis- posal of Parliament, With a disregard of American interests not foreign to Parliament, the British Post-Office was allowed less than $75,000 for the conduet of its business; specific postage rates were preseribed for the American Post-Office; the revenue from America was to be cov- cred into the exchequer; and the American Post-Office was either to live on nothing, or to receive a share of the £75,000 allowed for the management of the British Post-Office, And yet the Act was accepted without protest. Hamilton appears to have sold his Post-Office rights and property acquired under the Neale patent; he was continued as Postmaster-General; and the Virginia Burgesses declined to grant
Osborn Heures
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postal subsidies on the express ground that the Post-Office was "suffi- ciently established by an Aet of Parliament."
In theory, the Postmaster-General at London was supreme, and ap- pointed all his subordinates, the American Postmaster-General included; in practice, the latter managed the American service, and appointed his own subordinates. The Act provided for free ferries in the Amer- can postal service; and seetion 44 of the Aet charged the members of the postal service not to meddle with any elections, under a penalty of £100, half to go to the poor, half to the informer. The postage rates for America were prescribed in section 6 :
New York to London 1 shilling.
New York to West Indies. 4 pence.
New York to within 60 miles. 4 pence.
New York to Perth Amboy, " Bridlington," or any distance from 60 to 100 miles 6 pence,
New York to New London or Philadelphia. . 9 pence.
New York to Newport, Providence, Boston, Portsmouth, R. I., or Annapolis, 1 shilling. New York to Salem, Ipswich, Piscataway, or to Williamsburg in Virginia_ 1s. 3d. New York to "Charlestown," S. C 1s. 6d.
It will be noticed that the consent of the Colonies was not asked. Under the Neale patent the rates of postage in America could be and in part were established by the Colonies, There was some opposition to the Post-Office monopoly in Virginia; but Hamilton was not greatly resisted in his work. Alexander Spotswood, his successor, aided the enterprise as early as 1:10, though regretting the absence of a postal curreney, tobacco alone being used for that purpose in Virginia, Ham- ilton, who was justly respected, tried in vain to make the Post-Office pay for itself.
Meanwhile he was not wholly free to do as he preferred. 1n 1418 the London authorities removed John Campbell, the New England Postmaster, and appointed Philip Musgrave in his place. Musgrave's appointment was dated June 27, 1218, in London, on September 13. possibly before the arrival of Musgrave's appointment, Hamilton placed William Brooker in charge-a step he had occasion to regret. Mus- grave took possession of the Boston Post-Office in the summer of 1:20. thus ending the stormy interregnum of Brooker. To be the equal of Campbell, Brooker started a paper of his own, called the Gazette, the first number of which appeared on December 21, 1:19. Ile undertook to assail the reputation of his predecessor, but was forced to retire before many weeks from the Gazette as well as from the Post-Office. In the
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same summer he married an heiress, Joanna Richards; but the heiress stipulated through John Hamilton that she should retain full control of her property. Shortly afterwards Brooker became insolvent, and on February 28, 1:20-1. he assigned his property rights to John Boydell and others. He owed some [635 in all, £100 to Postmaster Musgrave. After this he disappears from the records of the time; his widow sur- vived until 1:59, when she left numerous bequests, among them the Brooker fund for poor widows still held by the City of Boston. Brook- er's successor in the Boston Post-Office was Philip Musgrave, a man of good standing, who continued the Gazette, and died in May, 1225, leav- ing a fair estate. Ile appears to have had interests also in England. His son William was rector at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire, and in settling the estate remittanees had to be made to London, the executor, John Boydell, paying £3 in Boston for £1 sterling payable in Eng- land. The Massachusetts pound and the pound sterling were not the same, and Massachusetts had an inflated paper currency almost throughout the eighteenth century.
The next Postmaster, Thomas Lewis, served less than a year, when he died. His administrator, John Boydell, collected 654 1 6 from Henry Marshall, who succeeded Lewis as Postmaster, and served until 1432, when he died. Marshall was a rich man. His funeral was a great event, the estate paying $64 11 3 for funeral rings alone. While Lewis was Postmaster, John Hamilton was replaced by Postmaster- General Alexander Spotswood, who was appointed in 1:30, and served until 1439. It is likely that Hamilton was removed for not making satisfactory remittances to the exchequer in London. When Lewis died, John Boydell, acting as attorney for Postmaster-General Spots- wood, collected £166 4 6 from the estate; and one postrider, John Thomas, collected £32 18. The country Post-Offices in New England were still subordinate to the Boston office; it was still the fashion to deliver mail matter before the postage due was collected ; and though the revenue was small, new offices were established. In 1:32 Bristol, R. 1., had its Post-Office, and Spotswood, who had been interested in the postal service as early as 1440, could boast that he was Postmaster- General of North America, including the West-India Islands, " to bene- fit trade and promote his Majesty's revenue." The domestic mail was intended to go and come once a week; the Post-Office was usually in Cornhill, now Washington Street, below School Street; in 122; it was " on the north side of the Town House;" under Marshall it was usually
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described as being in King Street, now State Street. The Postmaster generally lived in the Post-Office ; and as Postmasters did not pay postage on their own mail matter, they were usually publishers of highly re- spectable, if not lively, newspapers.
Upon the death of Marshall, John Boydell, the Register of Probate, took the Post-Office, but retired in 1931. He had the special confidence of the people, and had previously become familiar with postal affairs. lle died in 1:39. Upon retiring from the Post-Office in 1234, he was succeeded by Ellis Huske, who was a remarkable man, though his name is almost forgotten. He lived in Portsmouth, N. H., where he took a leading part in affairs, accumulating a considerable fortune, which he bequeathed to his son John, who became a member of Parliament and was greatly disliked in Boston for the part he took in the American Stamp Act. The father was not an outspoken patriot. It appears that he was born about 100. In 1220 he married Mary Plaisted. They had four children : John, who became famous or notorious; Olive, who mar- ried John Rindge; Anne, who married Edmund Quincy, jr. ; and Mary. who married John Sherburne. Governor Belcher appointed Huske Naval Officer at Portsmouth in 1230; while he was Postmaster of New England, he was also Councillor of New Hampshire; from 1439 to 1:54 he was a member of the Supreme Court, finally as chief justice of New Hampshire. Immediately after his appointment as Postmaster, he began the publication of our third newspaper, the Post-Boy, which was a mild supporter of Governor Belcher and the cause of Joy- alism. Huske continued the Post-Boy and the Boston Post-Office either until his death in 1455, or until the advent of the Franklins in the AAmerican Post-Office. He was Postmaster of Boston as late as Decem- ber 23, 1451. But if he ever was anything like Postmaster-General, he was replaced in 153 by Franklin and Hunter. In the Boston Post- Office he was succeeded by John Franklin, the brother of Benjamin.
The work in the Boston Post-Office during the Huske period was done by deputies, William Brock serving until 1248, and afterwards Samuel Holbrook, later on master of the school in Queen Street, now Court Street. Both deputies were men in good standing. Brock had arranged a new set of account books for the Town of Boston in 1743, and Holbrook was for a time Deputy Secretary of the Province. Their chief, Huske, may be said to have been the last of the royal Postmas- ters in Boston; he certainly was the last to be loyal to the crown. Though he was Postmaster of Boston, and publisher of a Boston paper
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that claimed to be issued " by authority," he belonged in New Hamp- shire. His Boston office was in Dock Square, " near the Conduit, at the head of the Town Dock." In 1445 it was removed to Queen Street, now Court Street, near the prison. His descendants, through his daughters, are numerous and justly honored.
From Huske we proceed to the American Post-Office-American in character, and American before long in law, if not in energy. For as yet the Post-Office was a small affair. It is doubtful whether the entire receipts of the American Post-Office under Parliament law ever reached the sum of $25,000 in any year. Out of this the salaries of the Post. masters, the transportation of the weekly mail between Maine and Georgia, and the profits of the British exchequer had to be defrayed. The English Postmaster-General complained of the returns he received ; the American patrons of the Post-Office did not complain, except of slow mails, and did not hasten to make the postal service remunerative. Boston remained the chief Post-Office in New England, and apparently in charge of the New-England country offices; but the Act of 1410 made New York the central office of the country. The Postmaster- General had his office in Philadelphia or New York, until it was re- moved to Washington.
Benjamin Franklin was American Postmaster-General from 1753 to 1224 under British authority, and 1:15-16 under the authority of the Continental Congress. He appointed his brother John to succeed Huske as Postmaster of Boston. John Franklin published the first list of unclaimed letters then in his office; it appeared in the News Letter, originally John Campbell's paper, and indicates what territory was served in 1955 by the Boston Post-Office. He died on January 30, 1456, and was succeeded by his stepson, Tuthill Hubbart, who continued until the Boston Post-Office was lost in the storms of the Revolution. Hubbart's service as Postmaster ended about 1126, or possibly during the siege of Boston. He died in 1808 at the age of eighty-eight. Ile had been for forty years an esteemed underwriter. From 1480 to 1181 he served as Selectman. Benjamin Franklin's fellow Postmaster-Gen- cral, from 1753 to 1461, was William Hunter, of Williamsburg, Va. ; then John Foxcroft, of New York, from 1461 to 17:4.
With the dismissal of Benjamin Franklin and the retirement of Tut- hilf Hubbart from the Post-Office, ended the dominion of Queen Anne's Post-office Act over America. Our early Post-Office was distinctly American, it acted under American law, and received support from the
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colonial governments. This ended when Parliament prescribed post- age rates for America, and when the Postmaster-General in London undertook to remove the honorable Postmaster at Boston and to appoint another in his place. When the Post-Office was identilied with the Province, the official mail of the Province was carried free; when the Post-Office was made a feeder of the British exchequer, at least in theory and by statute, the Province was required to pay postage. In 1218 Huske presented a bill for $151 11 10; in 1:19 his deputy, Samuel Holbrook, charged AS 15 for a Province packet or large letter to Rhode Island, and £12 6 in 1750 for a large packet received for the the Province from New York. In 1458 Tuthill lubbart presented a bill of $54 1 4 for postage against the Province; for the two years ended September 25, 1160, the bill was g31 3 4, and the fact was no doubt noticed that these bills of 1458 and 1260 ended with Michael- mas, or the same period when the British exchequer closed its accounts. For three New- York newspapers, carried three years, the Boston Post- Office charged £: 16, or at the rate of Its. H. a year each. That was in May, 1:61; and in 1:65 Deputy-Postmaster Hubbart presented a bill of £40 19 9 for postage against the Province. His last bill against the Province was for 636 10 1, covering the period from July 5, 1423, to June 18, 18:4.
Benjamin Franklin was appointed American Postmaster-General to make the British Post-Office in America acceptable to the people; he did not succeed ; he could not succeed; and very likely he did not care to succeed, though he intimates that he made ample remittances of Post-Office profits to London. In 1256 Governor Dinwiddie called it " shameful tediousness" that his letters were five weeks in coming from New York to Virginia. In 1;61 Franklin was scolded because the mail between New York and Philadelphia went by the way of Trenton instead of Perth Amboy, as originally; in 1264 the Earl of Halifax wanted a Post-Office map of America, Moll's sketch map of 1429 having been forgotten or thought insufficient. The authorities in London were not satisfied ; the American Post-Office authorities were distinctly dis- satisfied, despite Franklin's personal popularity, and the people were ready for a change of system. The change came abruptly, it took place all along the line, and the Post-Office was the first independent Department organised by independent America. Its origin was political ; its purpose, political union.
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The British government dismissed Franklin, previously called " our joint Deputy Postmaster-General of America," in January, 1614, osten- sibly for his connection with the Hutchinson letters. In the same year the Province Congress of Massachusetts met; and while Boston was in the hands of a British army the Province Congress organised a post- office for Massachusetts, and the Continental Congress established the American Post-Office. On May 13, 1145, the Province Congress at Watertown established fourteen Post-Offices in Massachusetts: Cam- bridge, which stood also for Boston; Salem, Ipswich and Newbury, where there had been Post-Offices for fifty years; Haverhill, George- town, Worcester, Springfield, Great Barrington, Sandwich, Falmouth in Barnstable County, Plymouth-all in Massachusetts proper; and Fal- mouth in Cumberland County, besides " Kennebeck or Wells " in Maine. The first Postmaster at Cambridge under the Province Con- gress was James Winthrop, appointed May 13, 155; he soon resigned, and on July 8, 1445, Jonathan Hastings was appointed in his place. After the evacuation of Boston by the British, Hastings removed his Post-Office to Boston, on April 25, 1346, and administered it until ISOS. Hastings, who was born on August 2, 151, belonged to a respected family in Cambridge; his father was a distinguished patriot, and it was from his house, on June 11, 1545, that Joseph Warren went forth to Bunker Hill, glory, and death. Jonathan Hastings was also a Har- vard graduate in the class of 1168. His descendants are still living. The Province Congress of 1945 preseribed the following rates of post- age for Massachusetts, payable in the " lawful money of this Colony:"
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