Towns that became post-towns between 1738 and 1760

Sources: Data from Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanac (1740), p. 94;

idem, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1760), pp 90-2.

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Among the least of his rewards: Sir William Henry Fortescue and the office of postmaster-general

Prendergast’s successor, William Henry Fortescue, was also Irish-born. He had the added distinction of being the only postmaster-general since Isaac Manley not to have previously sat in the Westminster parliament. Although he cut a figure in his day at both the royal courts of France and England, were it not for a paper regarding his life and times published by A. P. W. Malcomson in the Clogher Record in 1973, he would be all but forgotten today.⁹⁰ It is striking that even this scholarly pen portrait features only a passing reference and little information regarding his twenty-three year term as deputy postmaster-general for Ireland (1761-84).⁹¹ There are a number of possible reasons for this, notably the dearth of surviving Post Office records and the absence of references to the Post Office in his personal papers, which are scattered in a number of repositories.⁹² This lack of relevant material might reasonably be interpreted as reflecting a general disinterest in the Post Office in Ireland on the part of those like Fortescue who, along with this senior position, simultaneously held several others. At the time of his appointment in 1761, Fortescue was MP for Monaghan borough (1761-70); he had previously represented County Louth (1745-60).⁹³ He was also a protégé of George Stone, the London-born Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and one of Dublin Castle’s chief ‘undertakers’ who secured his appointment to the Post Office.⁹⁴ In keeping with tradition whereby all incumbents could be relied upon to vote with the administration, including on such contentious issues as the Money Bill during the early 1750s⁹⁵, when the postmastership fell vacant in 1760, Fortescue was identified as an ideal candidate. His parliamentary voting record testified to his loyalty to the Castle administration, and the fact that he controlled three seats in parliament (County Louth, Monaghan Borough and Dundalk Borough) made him a valuable asset to the Castle administration.⁹⁶ The Post Office position was just one in a long list of prestigious rewards for his loyalty: he was created first Baron Clermont (1770), then Viscount (1776) and ultimately first Earl of Clermont (1777) while in 1795 he was made a Knight of St. Patrick. A. P. W. Malcomson’s summation that ‘Throughout his career he did

90 A. P. W. Malcomson, ‘The Earl of Clermont: a forgotten Co. Monaghan magnate of the late eighteenth century’ in Clogher Record, 8, no. 1 (1973), pp 17-72.

91 Ibid.

92 Ibid., p. 62, n. 105.

93 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1769), p. 99; idem, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (Dublin, 1772); Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish parliament, 1692-1800, vi, 217.

94 Malcomson, ‘Earl of Clermont’, p. 28.

95 Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish parliament, 1692-1800, iv, 217.

96 Malcomson, ‘Earl of Clermont’, pp 19-72, p. 28.

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nothing in particular … but did it rather well’ certainly applies to his performance as postmaster general of Ireland.⁹⁷

Fig 2.1 Portrait, mezzotint, of William Henry Fortescue, first Earl of Clermont (1722-1806) after Thomas Hudson

Source: National Portrait Gallery, London.

Notwithstanding his lack of engagement, Fortescue held the position (the title changed from deputy postmaster general for Ireland in 1761) the establishment of an independent Irish Post Office in 1784. His term coincided with a number of significant improvements, the most impactful being the increased frequency of deliveries of mails and the expansion in the number of post-towns from 137 to 158.⁹⁸ Just how much direct input into these advancements Fortescue had is unknown, but for reasons outlined above, it is likely to have been very limited indeed. When he assumed office in 1761 mail travelled along the Munster and Great North roads three times weekly.⁹⁹ By the time he left office in 1784, it was running six days a week. On the Connaught road the service was stepped up from twice to three times per week. Furthermore, twenty-one new by-posts routes began operation, including Sligo to Donegal and onwards to Killybegs, and the Galway to Ballynahinch route along which the mail was carried

97 Ibid., pp 19-72, p. 19.

98 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1760), p. 102; idem, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (Dublin, 1774), p. 127

99 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1760), p. 102.

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twice weekly.¹⁰⁰ The service connecting Ireland and Britain also improved significantly:

in 1760 there were only three crossings a week, weather permitting, arriving from Holyhead on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday.¹⁰¹ By 1782, the service had improved dramatically to the point that according to Watson’s almanac, ‘English Pacquets are due in Dublin every Day of the Week, excepting Friday’.¹⁰² (A six-day a week service may in fact have been introduced as early as 1768.)¹⁰³ An innovation introduced during Fortescue’s time as postmaster general was the Dublin Penny Post, which began operating in 1773. This was a local delivery network, confined to the city, whereby letters were delivered and collected within defined limits for one penny (see a more detailed examination later in the chapter). Many of these improvements were introduced after 1770 when Fortescue, having been elevated to the peerage, vacated his seat in the Irish parliament, and spent most of his time abroad, living in London and Paris. But while it is extremely doubtful that he paid attention to the Irish Post Office, he took steps to ensure that he remained informed, having appointed his nephew and heir, William Charles Fortescue, as his clerk just three years after he became Postmaster General.¹⁰⁴ Meanwhile, the secretaries got on with running the service. Their identities only begin to emerge during this time, the first known incumbent being John Wilson, who was in turn replaced by John Lees in 1774.¹⁰⁵ While Fortescue was not an active postmaster-general, he did do an important service to the Post Office by deploying his political acumen during the negotiations for establishing an independent Irish Post Office in 1784.¹⁰⁶ Having relinquished his position as postmaster-general, he was compensated with the lucrative position of customer and collector of the port of Dublin, worth £1,000 a year: he held that office until his death in 1806.

During Fortescue’s twenty-three-year term of office, although the number of post-towns increased steadily by twenty-one from 137 to 158 (Map 2.3), the rate of increase (almost one a year) was poor when compared with the immediate aftermath of his resignation when twenty-nine were created in just two years. While demand in the mid-1780s was clearly very strong and the increased frequency of mail deliveries endeavoured to meet that need, there was as yet no attempt to increase the speed or to protect the mail en route. Theft of the mails and the slowness of the service remained

100 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1774), p. 127.

101 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1760), p. 90.

102 John Watson, The gentleman’s and citizens Almanack (Dublin, 1782), p. 101.

103 Watson, The Royal Mail to Ireland, p. 79.

104 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1763), p. 73.

105 Watson, The gentleman’s and citizen’s almanack (1769), p. 99.

106 The parliamentary register or history of the proceedings and debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, the first session in the reign of his present Majesty, ii (Dublin, 1784), 428.

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obstacles to the development of a modern, reliable service, a reality acknowledged in both the print media and correspondence at the time (see discussion later in this chapter). It was only in 1784, after the new Irish Post Office was established and Fortescue had retired, that many significant improvements began to be introduced (see next chapter).

Causation versus coincidence: progress in the absence of leadership

Much about the attitude of the Westminster parliament towards the Irish Post Office throughout the eighteenth century can be deduced from the calibre of men whom it chose to be deputy postmasters for Ireland. Early in the century, when the Post Office in Ireland was in need of serious reform and a reliable ‘Castle man’ was needed, Issac Manley was chosen. Loyal, compliant and conscientious he proved to be, reforming the system, expanding the network, and apparently supplying information to Castle authorities. By the time of his death in 1738, the Hanoverian monarchy was secure, the political situation in Ireland was relatively stable, and the Post Office was fulfilling its expanding role through the increasingly efficient collection and delivery of letters, newspapers, gazettes and so on, albeit working within the constraints of a slowly modernising network and system. The position of Deputy Postmaster for Ireland had become a lucrative and sought after post, in the gift of the Westminster parliament. The next three incumbents ‒ Wyvill, Prendergast and Fortescue ‒ having acquired the office through political patronage, had little direct input into the running of the Post Office. As the country was in a relatively peaceful state, the surveillance aspect of the role was not as vital to the state as it had been at the beginning of the century (or as it would be again towards the end), though it certainly continued. However, during the last third of the century, following the introduction of the Octennial Act in 1768 and with the rise of Protestant patriotism sentiment in Ireland, Westminster once again assumed a more actively interventionist role in Irish affairs.

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