When the public authorities had occasion to transmit a message or to send a packet, instructions were given to their agents to impress relay horses, and also men and boats in the performance of their orders. These agents in their accounts itemized the costs of the food and drink which they consumed in the course of their journeys.[1] About the middle of the century, the principal means of conveying public letters was to superscribe them with the line “for public service,” and then to require the planters in turn to pass the envelope on to its destination under penalty of forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco in case of neglect.[2] In 1692, a royal patent was granted to Thomas Neale to establish post-offices in America for the transportation of private and public mails; and this patent was recognized by an Act of Assembly in 1692 to be operative in Virginia.[3] Neale was required by the terms of this Act to erect a post-office for the Colony at large, and a post-office for each county. Permission was given him to charge three pence per day for every letter which covered only one sheet of paper and which had to be carried a distance not in excess of four score English miles; and six pence when the letter covered a space of two sheets or less. When the number of letters was sufficient to form a packet, the charge for every one not exceeding two sheets was to be five pence, and if the packet con-
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 336, Va. State Library; Hening’s Statutes at Large, vol. II, p. 250; Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1689-1690, p. 206, Va. State Library; Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 98, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 436. A letter of Sam’l Mathews, dated Aug. 24, 1659, written to Governor Fendall, took a month to reach its destination. Robinson Transcripts, p. 270.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. III, p. 112. The Council, it seems, had proposed a post-office in 1689. Randolph MSS., vol. III, p. 447. In 1692, Peter Heyman was appointed deputy postmaster. Ibid., p. 455.
