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
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Images of stamps from the collection of
Joe Mahfood. |
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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.
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Images of stamps from the collection of
Joe Mahfood. |
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
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Images of stamps from the collection of
Joe Mahfood. |
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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 Mailİ, 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.
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