Postmaster General of the United Kingdom

history

The Postmaster General in the United Kingdom is a defunct ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act of 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs. This would subsequently extend to telecommunications and broadcasting.

The office was abolished in 1969 by the Post Office Act 1969. A new public authority governed by a chairman was established under the name of the "Post Office." The position of "Postmaster General" was replaced with "Minister of Posts and Telecommunications"; subsequently such functions generally fall within the remit of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

History

In England, the monarch's letters to his subjects are known to have been carried by relays of couriers as long ago as the 15th century. In 1510, Sir Brian Tuke was appointed as "Master of the King's Post". In 1609 it was decreed that letters could only be carried and delivered by persons authorised by the Postmaster General. 1660 saw the establishment of the General Letter Office, this would later become the General Post Office (GPO). A similar position evolved in the Kingdom of Scotland prior to the 1707 Act of Union.

In 1657 an Act entitled 'Postage of England, Scotland and Ireland Settled' set up a system for the British Isles and enacted the position of Postmaster General. The Act also reasserted the postal monopoly for letter delivery and for post horses. After the Restoration in 1660, a further Act (12 Car II, c.35) confirmed this, the previous Cromwellian Act being void.

Former Postmasters General of England and the UK

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Two Postmasters General

 From 1691 to 1823 there were two Postmasters General, to divide the patronage between the Whigs and Tories. {| class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Year!!colspan="2"|1st Postmaster-General!!1st Party!!colspan="2"|2nd Postmaster-General!!2nd Party |- |1691rowspan="2" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="2" | Sir Thomas Frankland rowspan="2"| |style="background-color: " | | Sir Robert Cotton |- |1708 |style="background-color: " | Sir John Evelyn |- |1715 style="background-color: " | | James Creggs | |style="background-color: " | |Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis |- |1720 style="background-color: " | |Galfridus Walpole | |rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3"|Edward Carteret rowspan="3"| |- |1725 style="background-color: " | |Edward Harrison | |- |1733 rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3" |Thomas Coke, 1st Baron Lovel
(Earl of Leicester from 1744)rowspan="3" | |- | 1739 style="background-color: " | |Sir John Eyles | |- |1745 style="background-color: " | |Everard Fawkener | |- |1759 rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3"| Robert Hampden, 4th Baron Trevor rowspan="3"| |style="background-color: " | |William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough |- |1762 style="background-color: " | |John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont | |- |1763 style="background-color: " | |Thomas Villiers, 1st Baron Hyde | |- |1765 style="background-color: " | |Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham | |style="background-color: " | |William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough |- | 1766 style="background-color: " | |Wills Hill, 2nd Viscount Hillsborough | | rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | | rowspan="3"|Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer rowspan="3"| |- | 1768 style="background-color: " | |John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich | |- |1771 rowspan="7" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="7"|Henry Carteret
(from 1784 Baron Carteret) rowspan="7"| |- | 1782 style="background-color: " | |The Viscount Barrington | |- | 1782 style="background-color: " | | Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville»Falmouth packet archives accessed 9 June 2008 | |- |1783 style="background-color: " |
Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley |
|- | 1784 style="background-color: " | |Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville | |- |1786 style="background-color: " | |Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon | |- |1787 rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3" |Thomas de Grey, 2nd Baron Walsingham rowspan="3" | |- | 1789 style="background-color: " | |John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland | |- | 1790rowspan="2" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="2"|Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield rowspan="2"| |- | 1794rowspan="2" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="2"|George Townshend, 1st Earl of Leicester rowspan="2"| |- |1798 rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3" |William Eden, 1st Baron Aucklandrowspan="3" | |- | 1799 style="background-color: " | |George Leveson-Gower, Baron Gower | |- |1801 rowspan="2" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="2" |Lord Charles Spencerrowspan="2" | |- | 1804 style="background-color: " | |James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose | |- |1806 style="background-color: " | ,|John Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort | |style="background-color: " | |Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire |- | 1807rowspan="3" style="background-color: " | |rowspan="3"|Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichesterrowspan="3" | |style="background-color: " | |John Montagu, 5th Earl of Sandwich |- | 1814 style="background-color: " | |Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty | |- |1816 style="background-color: " | |James Cecil, 1st Marquess of Salisbury | |}

A single Postmaster

In 1823 the idea of a Whig and a Tory sharing the post was abolished.

References

»Falmouth Packet Archives

home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "Postmaster_General_of_the_United_Kingdom ". | compliance | January 13th 2009