PROGRESS OF POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

William Bowker (1699-1710) was the last innkeeping postmaster of the town. The first Manchester postmark appears in the beginning of the century on a letter to London, of double weight, and charged sixpence at the old rate of 1660. It is one and a half inches long, printed in one straight line, with a curious ligulation of the capital letters HE and TE. This letter is dated March 12th, 1706. Five years later the rates were altered.

The Post-Office Act, passed 1711, 9th Ann, fixed the new rates as following :

A comparison shows that the new rates were raised respectively id. for single, 2d. for double, and 4d. for oz., while the charge for the hire of post-horses was retained, although of late stage-coaches, running for less than 24d. a mile had been introduced.

The new additional penny charged on letters not exceeding eighty miles and under, of a single sheet, proved an annoyance to the post-office, for people endeavoured to find out other conveyance for their letters, and this clandestine traffic assumed great dimensions. This Act, says Joyce, proved disastrous in its effects on the wellbeing and morality of the nation; it was only mended in 1765.

The next Manchester Postmaster, James Lightboune

* See also the Merchant's Magazine or the Trades-Man's Treasury, chapter xiii., 225-230, by E. Hatton, Gent. 4o. London. 1734.

(1710-1715), represents the new type. He belonged to an old Pendleton family, and seems to have been a yeoman.

We have still a handbill of the Manchester post regulations for 1721.* The post to London or any of the towns in or near the road to London, it states thereon, goes out Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday morning at nine o'clock. In 1660 it went Friday instead of Saturday. The other places to which the post goes are Warrington, Chester, Worcester, Bristol, Ireland, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster, Kendal, Carlisle, Dumfries, &c.; Rochdale, Yorkshire, Edinburgh, &c., which indicate the chief places with which Manchester kept up a business correspondence. A facsimile of it is reproduced.

Letters were then divided into: London letters: county letters, from one part of the county to another; by or way letters, passing between any two towns on the great roads, stopping short of London; and cross-post letters, crossing from the great road to some other.

Lancashire letters were comprised with the English or South British or inland letters.

This is the proper place to introduce the immortal Ralph Allen (1720-1764), whose merits and benevolence have been sung by Pope:

Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

He is one of the great figures in the history of the post service. The son of an innkeeper, at St. Blaise, he rose by sheer aptitude and genius to the postmastership of

*There is a copy in the Reference Library and one in Peel Park Museum, from the latter it has been kindly copied out for me by Mr. Mullen.

Bath, and at the age of twenty-six offered to take in farm the by and cross letters. He was accepted, and originated the wonderful development of that great and well-woven system of cross posts, which at the period of his death extended to, and crossed all parts of the country. He was a most indefatigable administrator, who spared neither time nor money in helping forward any scheme or proposal for the formation of new connecting lines conducive to the welfare and interest of the trade. To this he joined a most amiable disposition, only exceeded by his great modesty. In his position he may be described as a national benefactor. Defoe at an early time (1727) shows the effect of his influence. Let me quote his words:

In my second journey I came from Lancashire, where you are to note that all this part of the country is so considerable for its trade that the Postmaster General (by which we must of course understand with Allen behind him, to whom the honour or merit is principally due) has thought fit to establish a cross-post through all the parts of England into it, to maintain the correspondence of merchants & men of business, of which all this side is full. This cross-post begins at Plymouth, & leaving the great Western Post road of Exeter behind, comes away North to Taunton, Bridgewater & Bristol, from thence goes on through all the great cities & towns up the Severn, such as Gloucester, Worcester, Bridgenorth & Shrewsbury; thence by Chester to Lpool & Warrington; from thence it turns away East and passes to Manchester, Bury, Rochdale, Halifax, Ieeds & York & ends at Hull. The shop keepers & manufacturers can correspond with their dealers at Manchester, Liverpool & Bristol, nay, even with Ireland directly, without the tedious interruption of sending their letters about to London, or employ people at London to forward their packets.

To him Manchester is under particular obligation.

In a pictorial (undated) handbill, with the "Prospect of Manchester," describing the new post regulations, to be seen in the scrapbook in the Chetham Library, we find, in addition to the places mentioned in the regulations of 1721 Chesterfield, Mansfield, Worksop, Nottingham, Rotherham, Sheffield, Derby. The inclusion of these is

connected with a bit of romance and entirely due to everready Allen. Joyce* alludes in detail to this interesting episode. In 1736 the Duke of Devonshire, who had been spending the summer at Chatsworth, was much struck with the delay of letters between Chesterfield and Manchester, and begged the Postmaster General to remedy this. At that time, we must understand, there was no post between these two places. Allen, to whom the matter was referred, without waiting to consult the local surveyor, at once gave his instructions. There should certainly be a post between Manchester and Chesterfield. Derby must also share in the benefit, and this again could not be done without erecting a stage between that town and Nottingham, which being already in direct communication with Chesterfield, Lincolnshire must also be considered, and so he likewise connected Nottingham and Newark and Lincoln. The entire district, including not Chesterfield alone, but Sheffield, Nottingham, and Mansfield, was doing a very considerable trade in Manchester ware, but the letters which passed between these towns and Manchester were chiefly sent with the goods by carrier. Of post-letters there were few. Notwithstanding this and the cost of putting on a new post to Chesterfield, Allen carried the whole of these alterations with effect at his own expense. The Postmaster General received the duke's gracious thanks, but Allen, to whom all this was due, did not so much as appear in the transaction. This, in postal regard certainly historical, little handbill has the post to London still triweekly. Thanks to Allen, the post service was increased to six days, during the course of 1755, for Manchester, so

* Joyce, pp. 165-7.