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| 1506 |
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Franz von Taxis is named the
Hapsburg Empire’s Postmaster General and is given exclusive right to
deliver the royal mail. In 1506, the Taxis family begins delivering mail
for paying customers.
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| 1516 |
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Early in the reign of Henry VIII, by around 1516, a Master of
the Posts is appointed. Brian Tuke is the first to hold the title.
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| 1619 |
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In England, Mathew de Quester and his son become “the first
and permanent Postmasters of England for Forraine [Foreign]
Parts.”
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| 1635 |
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In July, an English Royal Proclamation “for the settling of
the Letter-Office of England and Scotland” is issued and decrees that
the Royal Posts are open to the public. While the public has been using
the mail system for some time, this proclamation makes such use
official.
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| 1639 |
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Marie de l’Incarnation
arrives in New France where she founds the Ursuline congregation.
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| 1657 |
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In England, An Act for the Settling of the Postage of
England, Scotland, and Ireland is passed and provides for
establishment of a single General Post Office for the distribution of
domestic and foreign mails and is to be headed by one Postmaster
General.
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| 1660 |
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An Act for Erecting and Establishing a Post Office (12
Charles II [1660], c.35) is passed by the British Parliament. It
establishes rates and requires ship captains to hand over letters to the
General Post Office for delivery.
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| 1677 |
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On May 23, 17 merchants in Boston petition the General Court of
Massachusetts Bay to stop people from snooping through their mail. The
“sundry merchants” appeal to the court to protect correspondence
from meddling competitors and nosy customers who freely open and read
letters not intended for them. Bemoaning a lack of
privacy, the
businessmen also complain that many letters were stolen:
“…several of us being sensible of the loss of letters; whereby
Merchants especially, with their friends and employers in forraigne parts
are greatly damnified; many times the letters imposted and throwne upon
the Exchange so that who will may take them up.” The merchants ask
the Court to hire “some meet person to take in and convey
Letters” and “to sett the prices on letters.” The court
selects John Hayward, “the Scrivener,” to accept mail and direct
it to the intended recipients.
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| 1680 |
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In England, on 1 April, William Dockwra, a London
merchant, establishes a “penny post” service for London and
Westminster.
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| 1693 |
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During the administration of Intendants Talon, Boutroue,
Duchesneau, Demeulle, Champigny, and Beauharnois, a courier system is used
for government dispatches. While no organized postal service exists to
serve the general population, early records show that, in 1693, Pedro Dasilva, a
Portuguese citizen living in Québec, is paid for transporting a
packet of letters between Montréal and Québec. On 23
December 1705, Intendant Raudot commissions him to convey official
dispatches as well as those of private persons within the colony of New
France. Dasilva continues this service until his death in 1717 when he is
eventually succeeded by his son-in-law, Jean Moran.
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| 1704 |
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Publication of the book Le secrétaire des demoiselles;
contenant des billets galans avec leurs réponses sur divers
sujets. Letter writing is a way to combat solitude in a colonial
environment, but it is also perceived as an art to be cultivated. The art of letter
writing has certain rules that must be respected.
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| 1711 |
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In June 1711, the British Parliament reorganizes the Post Office
then serving England, Scotland, and Ireland. The legislation, An Act for Establishing
a General Post Office for All Her Majesty’s Dominions (9 Anne
[1710], c.10), calls for uniting the Post Offices of England and Scotland
and for the establishment of a General Post Office in Ireland and in the
colonies of North America and the West Indies. The new General Post
Offices are to have a monopoly on mail handling. Fixed rates for delivery
within England, Scotland and Ireland are introduced, and, for the first
time, postage rates are established between London and the British
Dominions in North America. In North America, mail couriers are exempted
from ferry fees.
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| 1721 |
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In January, Sieur Nicolas Lanoullier is granted the exclusive
right to establish a postal system between Montréal and
Québec. Lanoullier proposes to open post offices at Québec,
Trois-Rivières, and Montréal, and to maintain
messageries, or an express service, and a line of post houses under
the authority of a maître de poste.
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| 1723 |
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By 1723, regular communications with France are established and
letters are sent free from Québec to La Rochelle, France. Letters
to and from Paris are carried via La Rochelle on payment of seven sols.
Letters destined elsewhere in New France or to France are delivered by
private arrangement. The service is irregular because it depends on the
ships calling at Québec and La Rochelle.
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| 1732 |
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Intendant Hocquart of New
France issues an order prohibiting anyone from boarding ships in the
harbour at Québec before the mail has been taken ashore.
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| 1737 |
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Completion of construction of the King’s Road along the St.
Lawrence River between Montréal and Québec. Jean-Eustache Lanoullier
de Boisclerc, the chief road commissioner of the colony from 1731,
gives the final impetus for a project that has progressed very slowly
since its initiation in 1706.
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| 1753 |
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Benjamin Franklin and William
Hunter are appointed the first Deputy Postmasters General in North
America, effective 10 August. They find the Post Office in the British
North American colonies poorly operated, plagued by slow deliveries and
deeply in debt. The two new deputies reorganize the service and, by 1761,
deliveries improve markedly. For the first time, a surplus is transmitted
to the General Post Office in London. William Hunter dies on 12 August
1761 and is succeeded by John Foxcroft as joint Deputy Postmaster General
with Benjamin Franklin.
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| 1754 |
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In April, a notice appears in the Halifax Gazette
announcing the establishment of a post office outside the South Gate. This
unofficial post office is considered the first post office in Canadian
history. An official post office is established the next year.
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| 1759 |
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New France falls to the British invasion and the colony is under
military rule until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. A rudimentary military
postal system is established between Québec and Montréal and
between Montréal and Albany until the creation of a civil
government in 1763. The system accepts private, mainly merchant mail, but
is quite haphazard. The service is supposed to operate fortnightly but it
is inconsistent because its efficiency and timeliness depend on the
vagaries of the weather, the freezing over of Lake Champlain and
messengers who travel on foot or by birchbark canoe.
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