Post Office: Incident Warrants: Accounts

This series contains quarterly accounts of warrants issued by the Treasury authorising payment, by the Receiver General, of incident bills incurred by the General, Twopenny and London District Post Offices (the Twopenny Post was replaced by the London District Post in 1844).

Accounts cover a wide variety of items and are arranged under general subject headings, such as 'pensions', 'packets', 'tradesmen' and 'rents'. Entries include the date of issue of warrant, what or whom it is for, date payment is due and the amount. Volumes are indexed by person, subject and place. Warrants are mainly for payments of:

• Pensions, salaries and allowances to chief and senior officers, clerks, sorters, messengers and servants working in the London headquarters departments, including offices of the Secretary and Accountant General, and the Foreign, Inland, Express, Mail Coach, Dead Letter and Ship Letter offices; packet agents; surveyors; postmasters; inspectors of mails, letter receivers and carriers and packet ships; commanders and mates of packet ships, or their widows; letter receivers and carriers in London; and mail guards
• Expenses for mail conveyance by sea, including costs incurred by packet ships operating from Falmouth, Harwich, Dover, Whitehaven, Donaghadee, Weymouth, Milford Haven and Holyhead, and in the West and East Indies, notably hire charges, lighting dues, wages and victualling for captains, officers and crew whilst at sea, out of employ or while the ship is undergoing repairs; and ship letter mails
• Expenses for inland mail conveyance, notably for payments to mail coach contractors; road, bridge and ferry tolls; supply and upkeep of fire arms, time pieces, mail bags and mail guards uniforms; mail coach maintenance; and railway and steam packet company charges
• Compensation for abolished offices or duties
• Tradesmen's bills for items supplied or work done
• Legal expenses, notably relating to investigation, detection, capture and trial of felons
• Rents, taxes and rates for offices in London
• Stationery printing costs
• Transit postage and tonnage dues to foreign post offices
• Travelling expenses, particularly surveyors'
• Advances or loans (covered by imprest warrants) to employees, particularly seamen.

Please see The Postal Museum's online catalogue for descriptions of individual records within this series.

For incident bills accounts of the General, Twopenny and London District Post Offices, 1766-1870 see POST 6

Topics

Clothing

Railways

Taxation

Asia

Pay and pensions

Communications

Until 1969 the General Post Office was a government department and its expenditure was controlled by the Treasury. The Receiver General was an independent appointment, designed to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General.