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William DOCKWRA
" In 1680, a merchant named William Dockwra organized the London Penny Post, which delivered mail anywhere in London for a penny. Dockwra introduced the practice of postmarking letters to indicate when and where they had been posted.
The London Penny Post became so successful that the government took control of the operation in 1682." [qf: IBM World Book]
William Dockwra and his partner Robert Murray launched such a service on 27th March, 1680, with much publicity, and offered to carry letters, and parcels, within the London area for the sum of one penny. They started with a Head office in Lime Street, [ a few hundred yards from the General Post Office ] and 7 Sorting Offices. In two years it had grown so much that they required between 400 and 500 Receiving Houses, with messengers who delivered between 5 and 15 times every day. The mail was marked with date and time stamps to show when and where the letter was posted, and that the penny postage had been paid. The Duke of York, - the King's brother - complained, claiming it infringed the monopoly of the Post Office, [established in 1635] from which he received the profits, which had been granted to him by Parliament in 1663. As a result, Dockwra lost his Penny Post and it was incorporated into the General Post Office, which had thereby gained an efficient organised postal system.
William Dockwra was offered a pension and later appointed as Controller, but eventually Dockwra was accused of mismanagement and lost job and pension. [Qf. R.T. van Capelleveen ]
The above excerpts summarise William Dockwra's part in British Postal History. The following background references may be of interest to anyone wishing to research the subject further. [Qf. CALENDAR OF TREASURY PAPERS 1702-1709]
Background: 8 March,1702: Accession of Queen Anne.
William Dockwra, having established the London Penny Post in 1680, styled after the same which had first operated in Paris, was not receiving the pension promised him by the late King. He therefore appealed to Queen Anne ..... nothing was guaranteed, for as Sidney, Lord Godolphin, who was made Lord High Treasurer on 6 May,/1702 (resigned August,1710) said, "Many debts of King William III were declined to be liquidated by her Majesty."
About June 17, 1702.
35: The case of Wm. Dockwra, of London, merchant.
In 1680 he had set up the penny post, which proved a most beneficial service to the public.
He had no sooner brought it to perfection than the late King James (when Duke of York), at the instigation of some evil men in the ministry, caused 20 actions to be brought at one time, and two of £10,000 apiece at another, pretending that the setting up the penny post was a breach of the Act for settling the Post Office on him.
The law was wrested, and a special verdict was denied, and so he was deprived of the benefit of his invention, the statute law 22 J. I., [James I] which gives to every subject who is author of a new invention for the common good the sole benefit and profit thereof for 14 years, not being regarded.
Mr. Dockwra and his family of 9 children remained sufferers for many years until the revolution, at which time he printed his case.
The King at the recommendation of the House of Commons granted him a pension of £500 per ann. For a term which expired at Midsummer 1700, out of the profits of the penny post. The King had promised him employment. He had received nothing for a year and a quarter, and had no other dependence than the pension, having sunk most of his children's fortunes in the undertaking, and notwithstanding the pension, he was many thousand pounds the worse for setting up the penny post.
He (Mr. Dockwra) hoped His Majesty would appoint the payment of the £625 to Michaelmas last, and continue the pension till he was settled in some good office, and not suffer his wife and children to be forgotten or want. And he hoped his three sons, qualified for public service, would find a generous preferment, as a mark of reward for the memorable service their father had done for the King and kingdom, which would last for ever.
This case, although drawn up in the summer of 1701, does not appear to have been dealt with, but was brought forward again in the following year, for on the back is this Minute:- "17 June 1702. When any imploymnt (sic) fals yt is proper for him my L(or)d is willing to move ye Queen in his behalf." (2 pages)
About June 22, 1702.
55: Petition of William Dockwra, of London, merchant, to the Queen, setting out the facts as are found in his case, previously described under date 17 June (No. 35).
In addition he says that, at Lady-day 1697, he was appointed controller of the penny post at £200 per annum and improved the income from it [by] £200 per annum, but was put out of the office at midsummer 1700, and his eldest son also, who gad been with him all the three years and a quarter; praying for present help and for a settled benefit for the future.
Referred to the Lord High Treasurer, 22 June 1702, to report on, who on 11th August 1702, referred it to the postmasters general.
[Cotton & Frankland]
There is also a copy of the votes of the House of Commons of 16 May 1690, which recommended him to His Majesty.
The following is the last clause in the body of the petition:- "Your petitioner therefore prostrates himself at your Majesties feet, the throne being the refuge of the oppressed subjects and unhappy sufferers; never believing that your Majesties incomparable goodness & intirely (sic) English heart, can let a faithful English subject be forgot, & his family languish into ruine (sic), meerly for doing good to his country; but that ye petitioner shall finde speedy redress from so admiral a Queen, whose piety and justice so conspicuous when in a private state, must, by advancing goodness, as well as greatness, establish the throne and render it more illustrious." (3 pages)
Nov. 6, 1702.
51: Report of the Postmasters General to the Lord High Treasurer, on the petition and case of Mr. William Dockwra, who had set up the penny post office. [See Vol. XLIV. 56.] Dated 5 Nov. 1702.
Minuted:- "Read to Queen 17th Mar. 1702. He shall have an employment when anything happens proper for him." (2 ½ pages).
[CALENDAR OF TREASURY PAPERS Vol. LXXXII. 1702, Oct.13 - Nov. 30]
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One might feel sympathetic to Dockwra despite being well off, before and after founding the London Penny Post.
"Before Dunellen was incorporated as a borough [in 1887] it was part of Piscataway Township and at one time the personal property of William Dockwra, secretary of the Board of proprietors of East Jersey. East Jersey had been sold to the proprietors by Sir George Carteret, [Q. Related to Edward Carteret? (PMG 1820-1839)] who had received it as his share of a grant from the Duke of York, brother to King Charles of England. The Proprietors held all of the territory, but parcels were apportioned among the individual proprietors as dividends. One of these areas lay along Green Brook, and the region of Dunellen fell into Dockwra's hands. His thousand-acre tract is shown on the "Map of the Raritan River, Millstone River, South River, Green Brook, etc.," prepared by John Reid in 1683. A map, somewhat later, shows 2,000 acres on Blew Hills and the adjoining 1,000 acres on Bound Brook as the property of James Alexander, surveyor-general.
"On May 9, 1702, Bourgon Bourgon, a Huguenot, and his son-in-law, Jan Coverson paid 400 pounds to William Dockwra, a London merchant for 2,000 acres of land in Hillsborough, Somerset County, New Jersey. It was bounded on the north and northwest by the Raritan and Millstone Rivers." [qf. OUR BROKAW/BRAGAW HISTORY, MY BROKAW FAMILY LINE, by Deborah E. Kroll]
Reading:
The Penny Post by Frank Staff
"While we are familiar with the name of Rowland Hill, who in 1840 established Uniform Penny Post in this country, less well-known is the pioneering work of William Dockwra, who created an efficient Penny Post in London as early as 1680 with four or five hundred Receiving Houses to take in letters, seven Sorting Offices and very frequent deliveries. Other pioneers include Ralph Allen of Bath, who developed Bye-way and Cross Roads Post throughout England and Wales in 1720, Peter Williamson, who organised a Penny Post in Edinburgh in 1773-4, and John Palmer, who devised the first mail-coach service in 1784 from Bristol to London.
The study of postal history opens up wide possibilities and is a fascinating subject of interest to the social historian as well as the philatelist. The Penny Post not only gives the historical background of a reform, but indicates the range of items that may still be obtained by the keen collector - early date-stamped envelopes, broadsheets and pamphlets, letter scales and stamp boxes, personal correspondence and newspaper cartoons - and the book itself is illustrated with a remarkable collection of photographs and line drawings.
" [qf.Lutterworth Press Paperback with 23 plates and 38 figures. ISBN: 0 7188 2878 X Price: £12.50/$25.00 Published January 1993 ]
....."shortly after 1692.... Dockwra is heard of in America, and is recorded in the American Dictionary of National Biography, in association with Andrew Hamilton the appointed deputy to Thomas Neale, who held a Royal patent to establish and operate the posts in North America. Hamilton's interest may have been due to his relations with William Dockwra, an East Jersey proprietor, who had established a penny post in London". It is however, almost certain that Dockwra was never in America, but, as was common in those days, he was probably represented over there by proxy. He was associated with the Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey (The Board is still in existence today) as Secretary and Registrar, and owned, at the time of his death, one-twelfth of the State. In connection with this project Dockwra acted as proxy for the Earl of Perth, which indicates that Dockwra was indeed a man of substance, and of good social position......"
[qf. The Penny Post 1680-1918 by Frank Staff, courtesy of Eunice Shanahan]
Dockwra died in 1716 and was buried in the Churchyard of St. Olave in the Old Jewry.[qf. Eunice Shanahan]
