From the Dark Side
Philatelist and postal historian Dane Garrod describes what can be found and discovered in the items of communication before the advent of ‘labels with a glutinous wash’
It was at a twice-monthly meeting at a distinguished setting in London of stamp collectors, philatelists, postal historians, call-them-what you-will, that this writer heard someone describe the display on view as being ‘from the dark side’ – it being without postage stamps. Well, that as it may be, but it would seem appropriate to take that phrase and see if it holds truth and value.
Although the postage stamp is dated from 1840, before that time there needed to be evidence on letters transmitted of not only the written destination, but of the amount to be collected for postage, unless free postage was requested. To cast light on the so-called ‘dark side’, which is not really that at all, are two examples that have interesting journeys by foot, horse, and mailcoach, before the railway age transformed direction and speed of delivery. Additionally, they show the usage in final years of the ‘free frank’, the direct descendant of the franking system that began in principle in 1652.
From that year, all letters of Members of Parliament, of Officers of State and Council, were to be carried free of postage cost. Through the years, changes were made, including a new milestone in 1784 that required an MP to write on top of the letter the post town from where it was put into the postal system, the date and the year, as well as a signature at the bottom. By 1795 the squeeze was intensified with permissible weight of each letter reduced from two ounces to one ounce, and up to ten letters sent per day and fifteen received were the maximum allowed for free postage for those that qualified for this service.
From London just before Christmas a member of the aristocratic Villiers family wrote to Lt General Sir Gordon Drummond at Fellbrigg Hall, near Aylsham in Norfolk. With place and date written as ‘London Decer. twenty first 1831’, a double-ring (for afternoon and evening) handstamp states ‘FREE / 22DEC22 / 1831’. Perhaps there were Christmas greetings contained in the letter-sheet from which this address panel was later cut and saved. But Sir George had gone to the south-coast seaside at St Leonards in Sussex for seasonal celebrations, and someone at Fellbrigg Hall added his re-direction address. This was a man with an amazing career as a Canadian-born British army officer of Scottish descent who became Governorgeneral and Administrator of Canada before retiring to England in 1816. Travel was over Christmas and by Boxing Day morning a second free frank was added in Sussex with a single ring for morning - ‘FREE / 26DEC26 / 1831’. If only the Victorian collector had not cut away the rest of the sheet, or even sheets, we may well have had a letter of interest. Perhaps his signature is ‘MBVW Villiers’ with a third uncertain initial, but perhaps it is not.
Nearly two years later, and still before the abolition of the free frank system and the introduction of the penny post, Lord George Cavendish Bentinck, third son of the 4th Duke of Portland, used one of his ten-a-day allowance to write from Ireland to England, another to a seaside resort on the south coast. This cut-out has clearly come from a Victorian album as the edges show, and eight lines of the message although not readable now, can just be discerned on the reverse and also through the album page from the back. Hastily written, at the top is ‘Cork September One / 1833’ and the signature at the bottom is ‘G.bentinck’. A black two-ring handstamp shows ‘FREE / SE 2 / 1833 / DUBLIN’, taken from one city to the other, probably by mailcoach. Thirty-one year old George was writing to a Miss Mills in Brighton, Sussex. After a sea journey, a second handstamp was added in England in the usual red ink, single ring and stating ‘FREE / 4 SE 4 / 1833’.
These are just two examples from perhaps ‘the bright side’, once one has delved into a part of the details that can be readily found for the combination of postal and social history.