William Dockwra

William Dockwra (c. 1635–1716) was an English merchant who along with his partner Robert Murray created the first Penny Post in London in 1680. In latter 17th century London there was no official postal system for mail delivery within the city of London and its suburbs. Dockwra's London Penny Post was a mail delivery system that fulfilled this need. His system worked so well that it compromised the interests of private couriers and porters and royal officials alike.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Early life

Dockwra was born in the

Grosvenor family

the richest family in England by the 19th century, and this connection was to prove beneficial to Dockwra's own fortunes.

Dockwra was apprenticed to one of his father's fellows in the

Armourers' Company, but his career subsequently took a variety of turns. In the 1660s he obtained a position at the Custom House. By the 1670s, he was a merchant in the African slave trade, but he suffered major losses when a ship in which he had a large share was seized for breaching the Royal African Company's licensed monopoly, and in the 1680s he was involved in the development of Jersey in the United States, being appointed to the board of the East Jersey Board of Proprietors in 1683.^[5]

The Penny Post

On 1 April 1680, Dockwra established the first

Rowland Hill's 1839 reforms of the British postal system). Dockwra obtained a patent for his service, but unfortunately for him the profits from the government-operated General Post Office had been granted to the King's brother the Duke of York. Dockwra was required to surrender his patent and pay £2,000 in compensation. His fortunes improved after the Duke, by then King James II, was expelled from the country in 1688. In 1690, Dockwra was granted a pension of £500 a year (equivalent to £92,792 in 2021); then in 1697, he was appointed as comptroller of the penny post. He was dismissed in 1700, however, after an investigation into his conduct of the business, including complaints that he had moved the central office from Cornhill

to a less convenient location and had opened and detained correspondence.

Later life

Dockwra was appointed as the London agent for the sale of lead from the Grosvenor family's lead mines in Wales, and had become the senior partner in a brass smelting business based in Esher. This project introduced some technical innovations and helped to reduce England's dependence on imports, but it was not a financial success for Dockwra, who lost control of the business. He is believed to have been poor at his death.

Publications

A Penny Well Beſtowed. Or a Brief Account of the New Deſign contrived for the great Increaſe of Trade, and Eaſe of Correſpondence, to the great Advantage of the Inhabitants of all ſorts, by Conveying of LETTERS or PACQUETS under a Pound Weight, to and from all parts within the Cities of London and Weſtminſter; and the Out Pariſhes within the Weekly Bills of Mortality. Broadsheet published April 1680.^[7]
The practical method of the penny-post. Being a sheet very necessary for all persons to have by them with an explanation of the following stamps for the marking of all letters. Pamphlet printed by George Larkin, London, 1681.

References

^ K. W. Anthony. "Dockwra's London Penny Post". The Stamp Collector's Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
^ "Arms of the Armourers and Brasiers". Docwra Family Research Project. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
^ Eunice and Ron Shanahan. "The Penny Post". Victorian web. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
^
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7724. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

^ "Early Warren Landower Called Swindlet and Scroundrel". Warren History. 1 (4). Warren Township, NJ: Warren Township Historical Society. Fall 1990. Retrieved 12 June 2009.
^ Bierman, Stanley M. The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors. New York: Frederick Fell Publishers Inc., 1981, p. 9.
^ Staff, Frank. The Penny Post 1680–1918. London: Lutterworth Press, 1964, p.45.

External links

[Dockwra's_London_Penny_Post-1] K. W. Anthony. "Dockwra's London Penny Post". The Stamp Collector's Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 7 November 2010.

[Arms_of_the_Armourers_and_Brasiers-2] "Arms of the Armourers and Brasiers". Docwra Family Research Project. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2010.

[The_Penny_Post-3] Eunice and Ron Shanahan. "The Penny Post". Victorian web. Retrieved 7 November 2010.

[ODNB-4] 
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7724. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

[5] "Early Warren Landower Called Swindlet and Scroundrel". Warren History. 1 (4). Warren Township, NJ: Warren Township Historical Society. Fall 1990. Retrieved 12 June 2009.

[6] Bierman, Stanley M. The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors. New York: Frederick Fell Publishers Inc., 1981, p. 9.

[7] Staff, Frank. The Penny Post 1680–1918. London: Lutterworth Press, 1964, p.45.

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