Page 90 - Fenning_Scoland

Establishment of the Coupar Angus Post Office

Coupar Angus is a small town situated four miles south of Blairgowrie. The town, originally called
Coupar, became known as Coupar Angus to differentiate it from Cupar in Frfe.

A stream which runs through the town before flowing into the River Isla once formed the county
boundary between Perthshire to the west and Angus to the east. The oldest part and majority of
the town lay to the east of the stream and therefore it was logical to assign the town to the county
of Angus. The irony is that, in 1891, the boundary line was moved three miles further east and so
the town is now in Perthshire although it is still called Coupar Angus.

The Coupar Angus Post Office was established on 1st December 1704. At the time only around
thirty post offices were operating in the whole of Scotland.

The group of sheets displayed here relate to the establishment of this post office. It is believed to
be the only such assemblage of documents relating to the opening of an office under the Scottish
Post Office that is in private hands. It includes:

• the November 1704 letter authorising setting up the new post office at Coupar Angus
• the Commission from the Postmaster General of Scotland to appoint the postmaster
• accounts of the revenues from unpaid letters for the first fourteen months of operation
• a letter from the Postmaster General of Scotland regarding the first five months' operation
• various letters showing postal charges to Coupar Angus from the early 1700's

The person contacted to organise the establishment of Coupar Angus's post office was a town
baillie, John Ogilvy. The Postmaster General of Scotland had authorised Ogilvy to decide who
would be the best person to be given the job of postmaster and to insert that person's name in a
space left blank in the Commission. In the event, John Ogilvy decided to appoint himself as
postmaster and never bothered to insert his own name in the Commission.

A map showing the location of Coupar Angus and the road east to Dundee. Letters to and from
Coupar Angus were directed through Dundee's post office: