Post Office: Letters Patent

This series consists of Royal Letters Patent to Postmasters General and Receiver Generals giving the sovereign's written authority to perform their duties. The series also contains a letters patent for the office of Court Post. The patents give; name of appointee, dates of appointment, salary and duties. All have their seals missing but the original seal attached.

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

The material is arranged in chronological order within subseries.

All pieces are one deed.

Topics

Pay and pensions

Communications

The position of 'head of The Post Office' was first entitled 'Postmaster General' under the Commonwealth Act of 1657. Previously he had been known by various titles, Master of the Posts, Comptroller General of the Posts and Postmaster of England. The Post Office Act of 1660 provided that 'one Master of the General Letter Office shall be from time to time appointed by the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, to be made or constituted by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, by the name and style of his Majesty's Postmaster General'. The appointment was generally not made for a fixed length of term and Postmaster Generals were succeeded upon retirement or resignation.

From 1691 two Postmasters General were appointed to hold office conjointly. At that time one was a member of the Whig party and the other a member of the Tory party. This joint appointment continued as a government policy until 1823, although the political ramifications lost much of their initial importance. Between the years of 1784 and 1831, the Post Offices of Great Britain and Ireland were separate and had separate Postmasters.