Page 105 - Fenning_Scoland

1708 'Free' Letter following the Acts of Union, 1707

On 1 st May 1707 the Acts of Union came into effect. The Scottish Parliament
ceased to exist and 45 men who had been Commissioners in that parliament
were co-opted to represent Scotland in the House of Commons of the first
Parliament of Great Britain. These Scottish MPs qualified for the franking
privilege and letters to and from them were carried free of postal charges.

261h February 1708. Leith to London 'Free' letter.

Mr William Nisbet of Dirltoune a member of the British parliament

to be left att old mans coffee hous, London
Bearing an Edinburgh Bishop oval mark (an uninked impression) FE/26 and a
London Bishop mark MR/3. Charged 5d sterling in manuscript, the Edinburgh to
London single letter rate, the charge then being deleted and the deletion initialled
by a Post Office official to show that the letter, being addressed to a Member of
Parliament, was eligible for free postage.

The letter is addressed to 'Old Man's coffee house' which was situated near
Chafing Cross on the riverside. It was one of London's oldest coffee houses, first
recorded as 'Man's coffee house' in 1666, having been established by a
Scotsman, Alexander Man. His son, Edmund Man, later ran it until 1728.

William Nisbet of Dirleton, Haddington represented Haddingtonshire in the
Scottish Parliament before 1707 and was chosen to be one of the 45 members
to represent Scotland in the first British Parliament after the Acts of Union took
effect in 1707. This parliament sat between 23ro October 1707 and 3ro April 1708.

This letter was written during the short period in which this first British Parliament
sat and is therefore one of the earliest examples of a 'Free' letter originating in
Scotland addressed to a Scottish Member of the House of Commons.