The Stamp Of History

The Jamaican Postal Service

By Dr. Rebecca Tortello

In 1663 during the reign of Charles II, Jamaica's Lt. Governor Thomas Lynch was ordered to make arrangements for a post office under the management of the Postmaster General of London. Jamaican residents were anxious over the slow rate of mail delivery. In 1671, Gabriel Martin was appointed Postmaster General of Jamaica and Jamaica chalked up another historical 'first' ­ the first English colony to have a post office. Martin established two ­ one in St. Jago de la Vega) present day Spanish Town) and one at the port of Passage Fort (once located at the mouth of the Rio Cobre in St. Catherine). He was granted a monopoly to supply horses to carry mail to and from these posts, but the joy of internal mail service (which never seemed to be organized outside of the capital city) was short-lived. Records show that at some point soon after people were displeased with Martin's work and returned to the old habit of having sea captains carry mail while authorities tried to establish an organized internal and external service. Jamaican residents would send letters in duplicate and triplicate out of consideration for losses at sea due to storms, and/or capture by enemy ships or pirates.

A few decades later, James Wale or (Wales) was appointed Postmaster General but was soon accused by Port Royal merchants of overcharging and dismissed. In the 1690s, all West Indian post offices came under the jurisdiction of New York Postmaster General James Neale who held this position until his death in the early 18th century.

THE 18TH CENTURY: SERVICE EXPANDS

In 1705 one enterprising Mr. Dummer started a packet service that ensured the delivery of some 1,500 private letters to England, even though in a given year out of 12 monthly packets sent, an average of 4 would arrive successfully. Often the mail would contain prayers for safe arrival and abbreviations such as QDC the Latin version of WGP (for Quam/Quem Deus Conservet or Which/Whom God Preserved) and a handstamp noting the letter's point of origin. It would often find its way to an institution known as the Jamaican Coffee House, in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, London. This Coffee House was usually the first stop for ships' captains upon arriving in London, so as to deliver mail and give news to the West Indian merchants gathered there.

After Dummer's death in 1713, regular mail service did not resume until 1745, although in 1711 the act establishing General Post Offices for all Her Majesty's Domains was passed. This created post offices throughout the West Indies under the control of London's General Post Office. Jamaica's post office was re-established in 1720, but the planters had grown so accustomed to merchant sea captains carrying their mail that they greeted its arrival with a good measure of doubt. The packet service method was revived briefly during the late 1700s with the postal service operating ten packet boats (man-of-wars) on two West Indian routes with Kingston serving as one of the main naval bases for the West Indian fleet.

During this century, bolstered by the island's growth due to sugar cultivation, Postmaster General Edmund Dismore (appointed in 1754) oversaw the creation of some 34 post offices throughout the island in Spanish Town, Bailles' Town, Old Harbour, Clarendon, Vere, Goshen, Lacovia, Black River, Savanna-la-Mar, Salt Spring, Lucea, Buff Bay, Port Antonio, St. Ann's Bay, Port Maria among others. Head offices were located at Yallahs, Morant Bay and Martha Brae. Many of these remain active locations today. Letters were generally mailed under the seal of the general post office and delivered to the ship's masters with the ship's name written in the corner of the envelope. The straight JAMAICA handstamp was introduced in 1746 and in 1776 the main post office moved to Kingston's Harbour Street and the postal service operated as a branch of the British Post Office that was to change in the 19th century.

THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES: JAMAICANIZATION AND THE USE OF STAMPS

By the 1840s steamship service had arrived and stamps had been created. Prior to the use of stamps, recipients paid for mail on delivery, so if they refused to pay then no revenue was collected. The brainchild of English Schoolmaster Rowland Hill, the first stamps, the one-penny black and the two-pence blue, each carrying a likeness of Queen Victoria, noted a set rate regardless of distance travelled and went on sale in 1840.

In 1858 Jamaica was given control of her own postal service ­ the issuing of her own stamps was soon to follow. During the period 1858-1860 stamps of Great Britain were used, cancelled with specific Numeral Obliterators, identifying country and town of mailing. Jamaica used these and other British stamps until 1860, when the island began to produce its own with a distinctive pineapple watermark. The stamps were, however, still made in England. Watermarks are mainly for security purposes, making forgery more difficult. Until 1900, when Jamaica's first pictoral stamp of Llandovery Falls was issued, all stamps bore pictures of Queen Victoria wearing a laurel. In 1877 Jamaica joined the postal union and by 1903, bicycles were being used to deliver mail. Daily service intra-island and direct fortnightly service between Jamaica and the United Kingdom had begun. Mail was becoming faster and more efficient and mailboxes were appearing all over, even on passenger trains.

In 1907, following the massive earthquake that demolished much of downtown Kingston, the postal service was only briefly interrupted. It resumed under a Lignum Vitae tree in the yard where the exe cutive branch of the postal service had once stood. Soon after, the main office moved to King Street. A year later, in 1908, the COD system was established. By 1924 there was a post office every 17.8 square miles and soon after Jamaican postcards began to be issued. Before then, British postcards had been the only option.

There have been a few other brief periods with breaks in service: in 1916, by World War I and in the 1940s by World War II. In 1919, work stopped due to a strike.

THE 21ST CENTURY: BRANCHING OUT

Today the main office stands on South Camp Road and is known as the Postal Corporation of Jamaica Ltd. (Postal Corp). It is the responsibility of the Post and Telecommunications Department, a division within the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Science & Technology. The Postmaster General of Jamaica is assisted by two deputies, a senior management team, a team of 11 regional managers and close to 2,800 employees.

In the year 2000-2001, the Postal Corp delivered over 39 million pieces of domestic mail, and processed and delivered over 31 million pieces of mail to overseas destinations.

The corporation is proud to offer services such as Zip Mail©, a next day guaranteed local mail service with tracking facility, DHL and Express mail to the USA, UK, Caribbean and Canada, as well as a Caribbean mail hub at the Norman Manley International Airport. Also offered are the following commercial and government services: pension, social benefits and bill payments, gaming products, phone cards, money transfer, fax and photocopy services, newspapers, magazines, internet access, small business loan generation, loan repayment and collections and automated banking.

With the advent of the Postal Services Act (slated to come into effect in 2004) the Post Office will become a statutory body with full powers under the law, capable of regulating the courier sector and setting market rates for its products and services. Future plans include providing a state-of-the art courier service, private letter boxes at more convenient locations islandwide, commercialised philatelic products and a Postal Museum in Falmouth's recently-restored Georgian Post Office.

NOTES

* The first stamps were much like those in use today. They differed only in that they carried no country name and were intended only for domestic use.

* The first official name for stamp collecting was first timbromania, from timbre, French for stamp. In 1864 the word philately, the current official term for stamp collecting, was used. It comes from two Greek words that mean "the love of tax-free things."

* The most expensive stamp is the 1919-1921 1s inverted frame (£13,000 - £18,000),19 are known. The rarest stamp is the 6d "Freedom from Slavery" stamp (£14,000), of which there are 8 known copies ­ 4 in the Queen's collection and 4 in the hands of private collectors

from: old.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0068.htm

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