Page 38 - Fenning_Scoland

1664 Letter from Cockerham to Edinburgh via London post payed Bd'
1

9 111 November1664. Cockerham, Lancashire to Edinburgh via London. Backstamped
with N0 /13 London Bishop mark and endorsed by the Post Office:

1 post payed Bd'

There are two possible explanations for this 8d postage rate:

( 1) The letter was put into the post outside of London, possibly where the road from
Lancaster met the Chester Road:

Postage to London (single letter over BO miles) 3d (12 Charles z c35)
London to Edinburgh (single letter) 5d (12 Charles 2, c35)

(2) The letter was put into the post in London but was a double letter and was
charged at the pre-1660 rate of 4d per single letter instead of Set It is known that
the old 4d rate did continue to be used into the mid 1660's.

London to Edinburgh (double letter) Bd (old rate continuing in use)

This letter was sent from Cockerham, Lancashire (near Fleetwood). The sender, James Murray, probably a kinsman of John Murray, the Earl The letter is addressed:
of Atholl, had just arrived from the Isle of Man after having delivered some letters from Charles Stanley, atti Earl of Derby, to the Bishop at
Bishops Court on the west coast of the island. It contains a description of the conditions of the people on the island [modern English spelling]: For the Ryt Hon!'

'My Lord Bishop .... told us much of the poverty of the island and what straits the people had suffered for want of money'. My Loni
The Earell of Atholl to be
The sea journey from the Isle of Man to Cockerham had been difficult:
'After a long and troublesome journey .... this day about four of the clock I got land at a place called Cokrom [i.e. Cockerham] which is forty miles from Left at Mr James Ines post
Knowsley. For the present I am not In a condition to travel what with a grevious storm at sea and being for six hours a shipboard as wet as water could make Maister at the fott of the
Cannongett in Eel
me, have contracted a grievous cold but so soon as it please God to give me strength I will go to Knowsley' [Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool, was the ancestral
home of the Earl of Derby). Scotland

In 1603 a post office was established
The addressee was John Murray, 2nd Earl of Atholl (1631 - 1703). He was related to the atti Earl of Derby by at the foot of the Canongate as the
marriage as Murray had, in 1659, married the atti Earl of Derby's sister, Lady Amelia Anne Sophia Stanley. terminus for the North post road in
Both the Murray and the Stanley families were ardent royalists and therefore were favoured by King Charles II Scotland.
and, in the early 1660's, the Earls were recovering the estates they had lost during the Interregnum. The first postmaster at the office was
John Murray's career flourished during King Charles's reign. He became a Scottish Privy Councillor in 1661 and John Kinloch. The postmaster in
1664 was James Innes.
Justice General later the same year. A liking for military life brought him command of a troop of horse in 1666,
appointment as captain of the Highland Watch in 1667, colonel of a militia regiment in 1668, and captaincy of
the King's Scottish Life Guards in 1670. In 1672 he became Lord Privy Seal, and the following year was made
Extraordinary Lord of Session. In 1676 the King promoted him to 1•t Marquess of Atholl. Provenance:
J_J_ Bonar collection
Bruce Auckland collection
Three Centuries of Scofflsh Posts, ARB_ Haldane
(illustrated in Plate 2)