Falmouth Packet Archives 1688-1850 | home
Chronology (Timeline)
If you are interested in a REAL timeline, to which you may add your own column to display your subject,
I have created an MS Excel spreadsheet to display subjects in chronological order.
An abbreviated (Acrobat pdf) version can be seen
here
This 18-page PDF can be printed and pieced together as a wall map...
but the depth of related textual information is contained within cell 'comments' windows.
Due to the file size, loading will be slow, please be patient - it should be worth the wait.
If you cannot open Excel files, first download MS Excel Viewer
Meanwhile, a brief introduction to Falmouth & Postal Packet history
1542-44 Building of Pendennis castle begun and finished. (Governor John Killigrew)
1567-1580 Burghley mapped Falmouth Harbour [Royal MSS 18.D.111, British Museum]
1598 Walter Raleigh, on his return from Guiana [Guyana] promoted Killigrew's haven
proposals for what was then a very small hamlet by 'Arwinkle' [Arwenack]
1613 Smithwick hamlet started to grow - became known as "Penny-come-quick"
1655-56 George Fox was imprisoned at Pendennis. (en route to Launceston "At night
we were brought to a town then called Smethick but since since known as Falmouth."
1661 Falmouth was officially incorporated, in the same year;
Harwich
became a postal packet port.1686 "...there was only a naval agent and his clerk at Plymouth. It was by no
means certain that the town [Plymouth] would be selected for a [navy] dockyard
1688 "Protection of Packquett (sic) Boats JAMES R. II
You are not to impress into our service any of the six persons hereunder belonging to
Given under our Court at Whitehall the 6th of October 1688,
By His Majesty's Comand (sic) S. Pepys
To all Commanding Officers of our Shipps (sic) Pressmasters and others whom it may concerne,
1. Anthony Deleau. 2. Jasper Moone. 3. David Williams. 4. Peter Foster. 5. Dennis Matthew. 6. William Ambrose.
[Treasury Letter Books 1686-1695 ]
1688 (December) The War of Spanish Succession ended when Spain accepted the independence of Portugal.
1688 Falmouth was chosen as the best location for the Post Office packet station.
1689 (January) A fortnightly packet service from Falmouth to the Groyne.Corunna, Spain
1690 December, Point Froward was approved as the locality, to construct a stone dock at Plymouth, from Dummer's plans and under his supervision.[later used by HM Packets]
1694 Plymouth Dock and buildings were completed towards the end of 1694.
(Lansard. MSS.847.) The first vessels built in the new yard were the advice boats Postboy and Messenger,
launched on 3 April, 1694.The advice boats were built chiefly from the waste of the Anglesea, 49-guns.
1694 Edmund Dummer held the appointment of Surveyor-general to the Navy [from 1692-1698] and supervised the construction of a number of exceptionally fast packet-boats for the Post-Office packet service from Harwich to the Low countries
(Alan. W. Robertson, A History of Ship's Letters, p.B8/A.)1698 Daniel Gwin was dismissed from his offices and fined £10,000
1702 Dummer proposed a monthly service to be operated by 4 ocean-going packets (Sloops) calling at Barbadoes, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis and Jamaica. On June 30th, the Crown agreed his plan and granted special concessions. He was permitted to fly the Queen's colours on his ships, his crews were exempted from impressment for naval service, and he was granted a letter of marque for the duration of the War of the Spanish Succession.(1702-1713)
1702 The first trans-Atlantic mail service directly sponsored by the Post Office was inaugurated on October 21st, 1702, with the (first only, thereafter Falmouth) contract sailing from Portsmouth for Barbados of Edmund Dummer's packet Bridgeman.
1706 Falmouth complained Packets were often returning to other ports, and lodged a protest with the Postmaster General. [ref. to Plymouth & Dummer]
1711 Dummer's service to the West Indies discontinued (completed 53 voyages 1702-11)
1713 Edmund Dummer died penniless. His widow petitioned for a pension, and was supported by the Navy Board. (£300 p.a., shared with her daughter)
1737 Benjamin Franklin accepted the postmaster's job in Philadelphia
1745 Post-Office packet service to the West Indies (on Dummer's plan) [until 1749]
1755 June 16. The first land battle between England and France for control of N. America
1755 New York services commence, with the Earl of Halifax & General Wall, see P.Gaz
1755 Barbados & Jamaica packet route re-established by GPO
1757 Franklin arrives at Falmouth, narrowly avoiding disaster in the General Wall packet.
1763 4 Packets on Falmouth - New York route
1764 Service from Falmouth to Pensacola, St. Augustine, Savannah & Charlestown (SC)
1765 Benjamin Barons appointed PMG for the southern district of American colonies
1774 Franklin dismissed as Deputy PMG North America
1775 July 26, Franklin appointed Postmaster General, under the Continental Congress
1778 Five packets on the service from Falmouth - Charlestown, South Carolina
1780 Franklin commissioned American privateers
Both are very readable accounts which, like Benjamin Franklin's account of his 1757 passage to England in the General Wall packet, provide us with reliable cross-referencable material.
1801 Richard Trevithick completed his first full sized road locomotive in Camborne.
He demonstrated it to the public on Christmas Eve with his cousin Andrew Vivian at the controls.
1801 Holyhead was chosen as a packet station, and, 15 years later made the terminus of the Great Telford Road.
[CHECK: to Kinsale, or Dun Laoghaire (pre-1822) ?]
1803 Richard Trevithick builds an improved steam carriage, which was shipped to London in the Little Catherine (1801), a temporary packet commanded by
John Vivian
(1784-1871) nephew of Andrew Vivian, Trevithick's business partner.
1803 Loss of the Lady Hobart. (Winter packet sailings to Halifax were stopped)
1807-08 Nov 1807 - Oct 1808, packets ceased to visit Lisbon. (due occupied by the French)
1808 Five packets in Service from Falmouth - Brazils
1810 Three packets in service from Falmouth - Surinam
1810 
Mutiny at Falmouth - by crew of Prince Adolphus, on 24 Oct.1810.
6 Nov - end of January, 1811, service operated from the Fountain Inn, Plymouth
1810 GPO ordered three Packets to sail for Surinam
1817-20 Fir in Falmouth,Symonds of Little Falmouth, Flushing
1818 The first regular Post Office Packet Service was established between Holyhead and Howth, 9 miles N. E. from Dublin.
1819 Savannah, built for NY - Havre packet service, 1st steam aux trans-Atlantic crossing
1820 9 East coast packets were in service with Hellevoetsluis and Cuxhaven
1823 Admiralty take over running of the postal packet service (Astraea.... -1843)
1827 39 packets, all under Naval Commanders & Admiralty orders
18 were Post Office “contract” [hired] vessels & 21 Admiralty packets1829 Loss of HMP B on Ragged Island Nova Scotia
1833 The Irish packet station was moved from Howth to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire)
1833 Royal William sailed with paying passengers from Quebec to Cows & Gravesend
1834 HM Steamers employed to convey mails: Falmouth to Iberia, Gib, Malta, Egypt.
1835 St. Anthony lighthouse commissioned by Trinity House
1835 King WILLIAM IV bestowed patronage on the Cornwall Polytechnic Society
1835 St. Anthony Lighthouse established - at the entrance to Falmouth's harbour.
1838 Sirius steamer sails from London - Cork - New York, beating the Great Western
1838 HMP Brig Ranger (1835) driven on Trefusis shore (recovered using wedges)
1838 Peninsular & Oriental Company (rdtf) steamships under contract to Iberia & Med.
1840 Cunard (rdtf) Lines won the steam contract for North American mails, from Liverpool.
1841 Royal West India Mail Co.,steam contract to West Indies & Mexico, from Falmouth
1843 HMS Astraea, the navy's packet 'mother ship' left Falmouth for Southampton.
1843 The Navy had 3 steam vessels using the (Archimedes) screw, and one iron vessel
1846 The Meridian of Longitude & the Chronometer enabled calculation of Longitude.
1850 6 Dec. - Seagull, the last scheduled postal packet sailing from Falmouth
1857 HM Post Office becomes the Electric Telegraph Company's Office in Falmouth
1870 Calls for a Fog Can at the Lizard
1897 Tenders invited for erection of a time-ball apparatus on the tower of Pendennis Castle
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