Post Office: Private Office Papers: Rowland Hill

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0813 POST 100 Series
Held at	: British Postal Museum and Archive: The Royal Mail Archive   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/ ›
Full title	: Post Office: Private Office Papers: Rowland Hill
Date(s)	: 1836-1879
Level of description	: Series
Extent	: 40 volumes, 239 files
Name of creator(s)	: No further information available

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Rowland Hill is remembered today as a key reformer of the British Postal Service. In 1840, he introduced the Universal Penny Postage which decreed that letters of a given weight should all cost the same to send, regardless of the distance. For example, letters up to ½ ounce cost 1d (14gms/0.5p) to send and postage was prepaid, using the world's first adhesive stamp.

He first advocated his plan in a pamphlet published in 1837 and the system was recommended for adoption by a Committee of the House of Commons the following year and put into effect in 1840. Hill was appointed as adviser to the Treasury to introduce the postal reforms. He strove to create a more efficient postal service that everyone could afford. His reforms ranged from encouraging people to insert letter boxes in their front doors to creating London's first postal districts. The appointment was terminated following a change of government in 1842. He was recalled to the Post Office in 1846 and appointed Secretary to the Postmaster General, and succeeded Colonel Maberly as Secretary to the Post Office in 1854. He retired from Office in 1864 and died in August, 1879.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

This series of records comprises the private office papers of Rowland Hill including, Rowland Hill's Post Office Journals, extracts from the volumes of Secretary's minutes to the Postmaster General and some original documentation relating to those minutes, volumes of Rowland Hill's minutes to the Postmaster General, correspondence and general material relating particularly to postal reform and including a copy of all volumes of 'History of Penny Postage' by Sir Rowland Hill, KCB (published by William Clowes & Sons).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Please see Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Public Record

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

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Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

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Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry checked by Barbara Ball

Rules or conventions:

Compiled in compliance with General Internation Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G) second edition 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997

Date(s) of descriptions:
Entry checked June 2011