Thomas Witherings (died 28 September 1651) was an English merchant and postal administrator who established the Royal Mail public letter service. He was a politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640.
Witherings was the second son of a Staffordshire family and his uncle Anthony Withering and brother were courtiers. He was harbinger to the Queen Henrietta Maria and may have had Roman Catholic leanings at the time, although later he was a Puritan. [1] Witherings was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Mercers on 16 February 1625. [2]
In 1632, Charles I approved the appointment of Witherings as the Postmaster of Foreign Mails together with William Frizzell. Although the Postmaster was only responsible for official mail, it had become the practice to provide a service for City of London merchants dealing with the continent. [3] In April 1633 Witherings was sent on a visit to the Calais and Antwerp to regularise the foreign mail service. [4] However, by August 1633 rivalry had broken out between the two postmasters and both Witherings and Frizzell were suspended for a few months before being reinstated.
In 1635 Witherings proposed to Charles's Council to "settle a pacquet post between London and all parts of His Majesty's dominions, for the carrying and recarrying of his subjects letters" [5] To justify the expenditure Witherings included an argument that "anie fight at sea, anie distress of His Majestie's ships (which God forbid), anie wrong offered by anie nation to anie of ye coastes of England or anie of His Majestie's forts…the newes will come sooner than thought. [6] In 1635 a state letter monopoly formally came into being and the public institution of the Post Office was created. [7] It was used to raise revenues to sponsor state activities including war. The King's proclamation dated at Bagshot on 31 July 1635 which established the letter-office required Witherings to "settle a running post or two to run day and night between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back in six days". [8] Under Witherings' organisation a public postal service was established with post offices connected by regular routes established, throughout the country, along the lines of communication used by the Tudor armies. Witherings opened the first post office at Bishopsgate Street in October 1635. [9] The King charged Witherings with building six "Great Roads" to aid in the delivery of the post, of which the Great West Road was one. [10] Postmasters on each road were required to provide horses for the mail at 2½d a mile [7] and a conveyance tariff was fixed. Postage was paid on receipt of the letter by the addressee. Difficulties arose because Lord Stanhope held an overlapping position of Master of the Posts in England and Foreign Posts, and was responsible for the deputy postmasters that Withering had to use. This situation continued until Stanhope was dismissed in 1637. [11]
In April 1640, Witherings was elected Member of Parliament for Morpeth in the Short Parliament. [12] Also in April 1640, he was deprived of his position in charge of the post-office and letter-office for abuses in exercising his duties. [7] Over the next two years a wrangle continued which concluded that the sequestration of Withering's post had been illegal, but the result was not to restore Withering but to assign them to the Earl of Warwick. [13]
In 1644, Witherings was assessed by the Committee for the Advance of Money for £800, but ended paying £550. [14] In 1646 Witherings purchased the Nelmes estate at Hornchurch from the Naunton family who as Royalists were suffering financial difficulties. [15]
In April 1649 information was laid against Witherings that he had assisted George, Earl of Norwich in the 1648 Royalist insurrection in the county of Essex during the Second Civil War. He was imprisoned and his property seized, but he was released without charge and his property restored in May. [16]
By 1649, Witherings had been reinstated as Postmaster of Foreign Mails and on 18 August 1649 he became Alderman for Bishopsgate ward. [17]
In June 1651 the charges raised against him in 1649 were levelled against him again with further accusations. These were dismissed on 25 July 1651. [18]
In August 1651, Witherings died on his way to worship in Hornchurch church. He was buried in the chancel and the inscription on his tablet recorded he was "second to none for unfathomed poilesicy, unparallelled sagacius and devining Genius; witness his great correspondence in all parts of ye Christian world". [19] He left his estates at Nelmes to his nephew William Witherings. [15]
Witherings married Dorothy Oliver, daughter of John Oliver of Wilbrougham. She brought him a reasonable fortune and £105 a year of her land was sold to help him procure the post of Postmaster. [20]
Emerson Park is a suburban neighbourhood in the London Borough of Havering, east London. The neighbourhood developed as two large housing estates built on the 550 acres (2.2 km2) estate of Nelmes manor in the parish of Hornchurch. Emerson Park estate to the south started construction in 1895 and Great Nelmes estate to the north was begun in 1901. It is located north of the Romford–Upminster line and a station opened at Emerson Park in 1909. The mansion of Nelmes survived until it was demolished in 1967 to avoid preservation by the Civic Amenities Act and was replaced with a small housing estate called The Witherings. Emerson Park is located 15 miles (24.1 km) northeast of Charing Cross in Central London.
Sir Edward Nicholas was an English officeholder and politician who served as Secretary of State to Charles I and Charles II. He also sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He served as secretary to Edward la Zouche and the Duke of Buckingham in the Admiralty and became a clerk of the Privy Council. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War and accompanied the court into exile, before assuming the post of Secretary of State on the Restoration.
John Colepeper, 1st Baron Culpeper was an English peer, military officer and politician who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1642–43) and Master of the Rolls (1643) was an influential counsellor of King Charles I during the English Civil War, who rewarded him with a peerage and some landholdings in Virginia. During the Commonwealth he lived abroad in Europe, where he continued to act as a servant, advisor and supporter of King Charles II in exile. Having taken part in the Prince's escape into exile in 1646, Colepeper accompanied Charles in his triumphant return to England in May 1660, but died only two months later. Although descended from Colepepers of Bedgebury, Sir John was of a distinct cadet branch settled at Wigsell in the parish of Salehurst.
Sir Oliver St John was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640-53. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet was a Welsh courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1649.
Henry Grey, 10th Earl of Kent, known as Lord Ruthin from 1639 to 1643, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and succeeded to the title Earl of Kent in 1643.
Edmund Prideaux of Forde Abbey, Thorncombe, Devon, was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament, who supported the Parliamentary cause during the Civil War. He was briefly solicitor-general but chose to resign rather than participate in the regicide of King Charles I. Afterwards, he was attorney-general, a position he held until he died. During the Civil War and for most of the First Commonwealth he ran the postal service for Parliament.
Daniel O'Neill was an Irish army officer, politician, courtier and postmaster general. He was part of the O'Neill Dynasty of Ulster, the nephew of Owen Roe O'Neill and the great-nephew of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
Henry Parker (1604–1652) was an English barrister and political writer in the Parliamentarian cause.
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver ; it was overseen by a Government minister, the Postmaster General. Over time its remit was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire.
William Beale was an English royalist churchman, Master in turn of Jesus College, Cambridge and St John's College, Cambridge. He was subjected to intense attacks by John Pym from 1640, for an unpublished sermon he had given in 1635 supporting royal prerogative. According to Glenn Burgess, Pym's attention to Beale was because he exhibited a rare combination of Arminian or Laudian theological views with explicit political views tending to absolutism.
Thomas Erle was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War.
Unton Croke was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1628 and 1640. He supported the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.
Richard Ferris was a wealthy merchant from Barnstaple in Devon, England who served as a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1640 and served twice as Mayor of Barnstaple in 1632 and 1646. He founded the Barnstaple Grammar School, otherwise known as the "Blue School".
William Singleton was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 2023.
He fought briefly on the side of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War.
John Barker was an English draper and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1653. He supported the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War.
John Gayer or Gayre was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1646.
Abraham Reynardson was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1649.
The postal service of the British Army is today provided by the British Forces Post Office but its origins may be traced back to Saxon times.
Edward Hyde (1607–1659) was an English royalist cleric, nominally Dean of Windsor at the end of his life.