The Falmouth Packets 1793-1815 – a Dilemma
Colin Tabeart, RDP
I am currently researching the Post Office’s long-distance packets for this period, including the North Sea packets. The latter sailed twice a week, wind and availability allowing, so are not part of my dilemma. The Lisbon packets sailed weekly, subject to the same constraints, and are also not part of the problem. The New York and Jamaica packet mails were made up in London on the first Wednesday of each month, with the Leeward Island mails made up the third Wednesday of the month. These mails took, on average, three days to get to Falmouth overland, with the packets supposed to sail as soon as the mails were on board. This almost never happened: either no packet was available, or the winds were foul – it was not unusual for the packets to be windbound for a couple of weeks, sometimes much longer. Mails from other post towns were clearly made up to suit the scheduled packet sailing dates, being sent either to London to join the main London mail, or cross post to Falmouth as their instructions specified.
All the postal historians I correspond with who are interested in what packet their letter caught assume that letters were sent by the next packet to leave Falmouth for whatever destination, but were they? Was mail posted after the date made up in London forwarded piecemeal to Falmouth for the next available sailing, or were they held over until the next mail was made up, sometimes 3 or 4 weeks later? This may seem a footling and academic question, but it is vitally important to those who wish to accurately identify what packet carried their letter. As an illustration, below is part of the sailings data for the New York route for 1799. Data marked “*” are taken from the work of John Olenkiewicz, by kind permission, and with grateful thanks. John’s admirably concise tables can be found at Reference 1, including data for the West Indies and South American packets.
Looking at, say, a letter posted in London on 6 April, 3 days after the mail was made up for Grantham, was it sent on to Falmouth to catch the Grantham, which it easily could have done, or was it held in London until the next mail was made up on 1 May? The answer is important to purists, and incidentally to the recipients, because it determines whether that letter went by Grantham or the Mary, with a 12 day difference in arrival at New York. Frequently the time saved would be significantly greater: compare for instance a letter posted in London a few days after the mails closed per Harlequin on 5 Jun: if held over for the Marquis of Kildare it would arrive in New York 48 days after the Harlequin mail.
In a more helpful era the answer would have been provided by an arrival date stamp at New York; sadly for the period under consideration New York did not mark arrival dates. Some recipients docketed their letters with arrival dates, but the practice was seemingly rare in the USA at the time, and I have not been able to find examples from my several correspondents who collect this mail.
Bearing in mind that London would not know if a packet had been delayed at Falmouth for about 3 days, and that it would take another three days for “loose letters” to arrive at Falmouth, would London (or the country post offices) have sent small batches to Falmouth at, say, weekly intervals on the off chance that they would catch an earlier packet? If so, and the packets were delayed for weeks, would the small Post Office at Falmouth be able to cope with what might be quite a large volume of mail seeking a home?
In the course of researching this period I have sometimes come across newspaper reports that say such-and-such a packet carried two mails, usually because losses due to enemy action, or delays caused by quarantine, meant that a packet just was not available. That would seem to suggest that the mails were held over for the next formal mail closure date, but is not definitive. Then there is the other thought that, with all the paperwork associated with making up a mail, would the GPO or country post offices want to do that every week or so for small quantities of letters? London also had to service a weekly Lisbon packet, and four North Sea packets a week, plus the short-range domestic packets to Ireland etc, so they were not short of work.
If any readers have definite information as to the instructions given to the GPO sorters I would be most grateful for formal confirmation of the way that my so-called “loose letters” were handled. Alternately if anyone has letters sent during the period 1793-1815 with positive indications of arrival date, such as a filing annotation, I would equally be pleased to hear from you, with jpeg illustrations please. This applies to all the longer distance routes served from Falmouth in the period, i.e, New York, West Indies, Mediterranean, or South America. I can be contacted at: colintabeart@btinternet.com
References:
1. http://www.rfrajola.com/articles.htm has many excellent articles freely available
2. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/advanced – good when you get used to it, but expensive!
(2018-10-20)