D is for Dockwra
In the latter half of the 17 century, the national postal service meant businessmen could communicate across the country, yet more local services were not available. The founding of a London service changed all this, and the face of the postal system.
Frustrated at the lack of a local postal service in London, which would allow him and his colleagues to communicate across the capital, merchant William Dockwra took matters into his own hands in 1680, when he set up a private post with the help of his partners Robert Murray and Dr Hugh Chamberlen.
Operating within a ten-mile radius of the city centre, using a large number of receiving houses, the London Penny Post was up and running by April 1680 – evidence suggests the service was launched in March but operations only began a few weeks later. Frequent deliveries, at least within four hours, were offered in exchange for a flat rate of one prepaid penny, which covered postage up to a pound in weight and also included compensation for loss.
Only two covers are known from this period, both of which were discovered in Chichester, and are now thought to be the only examples of the Murray, Chamberlen, Dockwra service which, as it turned out, only lasted a few months. In May 1680, Robert Murray was arrested for distributing a ‘seditious’ pamphlet and so Dockwra carried on alone. When Murray was released he began his own rival service, which is thought to be the first to use handstamps on the letters.
The distinctive triangular handstamps are, naturally, much sought after by postal historians, and despite being termed ‘Dockwra’ markings, it is thought that Murray’s service was the first to use them. The earliest handstamp is dated 13 December, 1680. The mark reads ‘PENNY’, ‘POST’ and ‘PAID’ along the three sides with an ‘L’ in the centre, an abbreviation for an unknown location. Later marks of 19 December and 25 January, 1681 show ‘P’ in the centre, which stood for St Paul’s Cathedral. A later handstamp from 1681 suggests that Dockwra copied Murray’s design for his own service but added indents to each corner. An example of this type with an ‘L’ in the centre (which at this time is known to have been used at Lime Street) is included in the Fletcher Collection at the British Library Philatelic Collections.
The private penny post had a great influence on the postal systems used in later years, but its immediate success obviously irked officials at the Post Office. In November 1682 Dockwra was sued for infringing monopoly laws and was forced to close the service, and just three weeks later the service was resumed, using almost identical practices, under the guise of the Government Penny Post. Dockwra’s fortunes would improve when he later served as Comptroller of the Penny Post, but after three years he lost his position amid accusations of opening and detaining letters.
Markings of the official Penny Post are similar to the earliest, private system’s versions, with the same triangular design in a wide variety of types and which later incorporated abbreviated details of the day the letter began its journey. Some of these later types are as rare as the earlier Dockra marks, but many are relatively plentiful and can still be found today.
The British Library Philatelic Collections are the National Philatelic Collections of the United Kingdom. The Collections were established in 1891 with the bequest of the Tapling Collection, and now about fifty important collections or Archives are held, all of which have been acquired by donation, bequest, or transfer from Government departments. For more information on the British Library Philatelic collections visit the website: www.bl.uk/collections/philatelic