EXTREMELY FINE ORIGINAL HAND-WRITTEN REVOLUTIONARY WAR ACT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, ESTABLISHING THE MASSACHUSETTS PROVISIONAL POST OFFICE. THIS IS ONE OF TWO RECORDED COPIES AND THE ONLY COPY IN PRIVATE HANDS.
By May of 1775 the Port of Boston had been closed to general commerce by the British and the Revolutionary War had begun the previous month at Lexington and Concord. The Boston Committee of Safety recommended that the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts address the problem of the colony's postal service. On May 13, 1775 the Congress authorized an independent post with the main office at Cambridge (Boston being occupied by the British). The act provided service to 13 other key towns across the state and established rates based on shillings and pence. The post lasted only a few months and by November 1775, rates were again expressed in pennyweights and grains of silver, based on the September 30 act of the Continental Congress.
Only two copies of this hand-written act are recorded. The other example is in the permanent archives of the State of Rhode Island
THIS EXTREMELY RARE PUBLICATION IS THE FIRST AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THE QUEEN ANNE POST OFFICE (REVENUES) ACT OF 1710, WHICH ESTABLISHED GREAT BRITAIN’S POST OFFICES IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND INTRODUCED STANDARD RATES FOR CALCULATING POSTAGE IN THE BRITISH ISLES AND COLONIES.
From the 1660s until 1692, various efforts were made by individuals and colonial governments to establish posts in the American Colonies. In April 1692 the first British Parliamentary Act establishing a post office in North America gave the 21-year postal patent to Thomas Neale (1641-1699), a member of Parliament and Master of the Mint and the Transfer Office. Neale remained in England and assigned responsibility for establishing the postal system to Andrew Hamilton, who traveled to America and worked with various colonial governments to develop posts under the Neale Patent. After Neale’s death in 1699, the patent passed to Hamilton and another financial backer, Robert West. The posts in America were never profitable, and the Crown refused to support the enterprise. It effectively ended in 1707. [Source: "Neale Patent Mail, 1693-1707," Timothy P. O’Connor, M.D., Chronicle 237, February 2013].
Parliament’s interest in postal patents as a means to raise revenue grew from the need to finance the War of Spanish Succession, which lasted for virtually all of Queen Anne’s reign. The Post Office (Revenues) Act of November 25, 1710 -- the Act of Queen Anne -- was designed to raise revenue for the Treasury and extended the General Post Office’s authority to all of the colonies under British rule. Significantly, the new law established standard postage rates, prohibited private express carriers from transporting letters not related to goods they were carrying, and completely forbade stagecoach drivers from carrying mail. The full text of the law can be found at http://www.gbps.org.uk/information/sources/acts/1710-11-25_Act-9-Anne-cap-10.php
THIS EXTREMELY RARE PUBLICATION IS THE FIRST AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THE QUEEN ANNE POST OFFICE (REVENUES) ACT OF 1710, WHICH ESTABLISHED GREAT BRITAIN’S POST OFFICES IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND INTRODUCED STANDARD RATES FOR CALCULATING POSTAGE IN THE BRITISH ISLES AND COLONIES.
From the 1660s until 1692, various efforts were made by individuals and colonial governments to establish posts in the American Colonies. In April 1692 the first British Parliamentary Act establishing a post office in North America gave the 21-year postal patent to Thomas Neale (1641-1699), a member of Parliament and Master of the Mint and the Transfer Office. Neale remained in England and assigned responsibility for establishing the postal system to Andrew Hamilton, who traveled to America and worked with various colonial governments to develop posts under the Neale Patent. After Neale’s death in 1699, the patent passed to Hamilton and another financial backer, Robert West. The posts in America were never profitable, and the Crown refused to support the enterprise. It effectively ended in 1707. [Source: “Neale Patent Mail, 1693-1707,” Timothy P. O’Connor, M.D., Chronicle 237, February 2013].
Parliament’s interest in postal patents as a means to raise revenue grew from the need to finance the War of Spanish Succession, which lasted for virtually all of Queen Anne’s reign. The Post Office (Revenues) Act of November 25, 1710 -- the Act of Queen Anne -- was designed to raise revenue for the Treasury and extended the General Post Office’s authority to all of the colonies under British rule. Significantly, the new law established standard postage rates, prohibited private express carriers from transporting letters not related to goods they were carrying, and completely forbid stagecoach drivers from carrying mail. The full text of the law can be found at http://www.gbps.org.uk/information/sources/acts/1710-11-25_Act-9-Anne-cap-10.php
The folio Act of November 25, 1710, is accompanied by two other printed documents: The London Gazette, June 28. 1711, with text of the Proclamation (and other news); and the official publication of the Act of August 17, 1839, the first of the British Postal Reform acts.