Post riders - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Post riders or postriders describes a horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

and rider postal

Mail

Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

delivery system that existed at various times and various places throughout history. The term is usually reserved for instances where a network of regularly scheduled service was provided under some degree of central management by the State or State licenced monopoly.

These networks included predefined routes known as Post-roads complete with distance markers

Milestone

A milestone is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at intervals of one mile or occasionally, parts of a mile. They are typically located at the side of the road or in a median. They are alternatively known as mile markers, mileposts or mile posts...

and waypoint

Waypoint

A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation.-Concept:Waypoints are sets of coordinates that identify a point in physical space. Coordinates used can vary depending on the application. For terrestrial navigation these coordinates can include longitude and...

s. Unlike other forms of mounted courier

Courier

A courier is a person or a company who delivers messages, packages, and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for...

, post riders collected and delivered mail over the course of their route, meeting with other riders at scheduled times and scheduled places to exchange forwarded items. In this way correspondence could pass reliably from rider to rider and cover a considerable distance in a reasonable time at reduced cost.

While some integration with local postal services

Local post

A local post is a mail service that operates only within a limited geographical area, typically a city or a single transportation route. Historically, some local posts have been operated by governments, while others, known as private local posts have been for-profit companies...

in larger centers occurred, by and large the post riders were a separate entity under separate management and tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

structure.

History

While relay

Relay race

During a relay race, members of a team take turns running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating parts of a circuit or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games...

rider networks were a common feature of every ancient empire, these were primarily for the exclusive use of the government or military and carried no civil correspondence as a rule. What differentiated postriders from these earlier efforts was that they were open to the public and created for the public convenience. The other distinguishing feature was that post riders operated on a schedule.

The Hanseatic League

While in the case of the post riders the shift from royal messenger to public courier must be seen as evolutionary, there were some notable early examples. The Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

had a regular mounted service as early as the year 1274 between the principal towns of the League as well as the fortified castles which protected the merchants in their commerce. Business and diplomatic messages were handled by the service equally. Well organised, it had its own post-horses that were used exclusively for the letter service; at each stop the time of the receipt and dispatch of the post-bag was written upon the face of each letter.

The Holy Roman Empire

On behalf of the far-flung Habsburg dynasty, of the The Holy Roman Empire, Franz von Taxis set up a courier network that grew to cover all of Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

by the middle of the 16th century. Permanent post stations were built about a day's journey apart. Over time, these stations became important economic centers: They were meeting places, inns and public rooms, trade centers and stable

Stable

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...

s. Post stations became important centers for the development of village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

s and cities. While not solely used for government traffic, private use of this service required a licence from the State.

Elizabethan England

It was in England, during the Elizabethan period where the post rider truly began to serve all comers almost in spite of the declared restrictive policy of the Government as regards to their public use. Merchants and farmers, constables and innkeepers, soldiers and sailors were using the Posts, attesting to the remarkable standard of literacy of the ordinary people.

A huge number of horses was involved in this operation as each stage was only about 10 miles, after which a fresh horse was used. In most cases the horses were kept at Inns or Hostelries. There was also for the first time, a system of Post Roads although the original usage referred more to the fixed routes of the service than the thoroughfares themselves.

The American Colonies

In the American Colonies postal routes were farmed out to contractors who promised to deliver the mail within a certain area for a set length of time. When mail was first delivered to a town, the townspeople would have to come to a central location, usually the general store, to pick up the mail. It was here in the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

that the post riders would provide the longest and most complete service before being eliminated by other forms of transport.

In 1780 the system consisted of only of a Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General

The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...

, a Secretary

Secretary

A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...

/Comptroller

Comptroller

A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...

, three surveyors, one Inspector of Dead Letters, and 26 post riders, 75 post offices and about 2,000 miles of post roads. Postmaster

Postmaster

A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...

s and post riders were exempt from military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

duties so as not to interrupt service. These post-riders were allowed the exclusive privilege of carrying letters, papers and packages on their respective routes, and any person who infringed upon their rights was subject to a fine. The post riders had to make good time, specified clearly, and milestone

Milestone

s came into their own to measure progress.

Significant early legislation that affected the post-riders included an act of the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

in 1838 that declared that all railroads in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

were post roads. The act had a twofold effect: it increased the use of railroads to transmit the mails and limited the use of post riders to postal districts that were not on railway routes. In those areas of the country that were not on railroad routes, mail was carried by contractors, and the transportation of mail by any means other than by water or railroad was called star route service.

Operations

A typical schedule taken from The Virginia Gazette, March 21, 1766 shows an example of the type of service the post riders provided:

"THE publick is hereby desired to take notice that the Hampton rider will arrive in Williamsburg every Tuesday and Saturday at noon, come through York town, and return to Hampton the same evening. That the Hanover rider will set off from Hanover town early every Monday and Friday, to meet the Hampton rider in Williamsburg at noon every Tuesday and Saturday, and return to Hanover town on the Wednesday and Sunday nights. That the James river rider will set off from Hanover town, by the way of Richmond and Warwick, to Petersburg and Blandford, and return to Hanover town on Tuesday and Saturday nights. That the Fredericksburg rider will set out every Monday morning from Hanover town, by the way of Todd's bridge, and arrive at Fredericksburg on Tuesday night, where he exchanges mails with the Northern rider, and returns to Hanover town every Thursday. That a rider will set off from Fredericksburg every Wednesday, to be at Hobb's Hole that night, where he exchanges mails with a rider from Urbanna, and returns to Fredericksburg on Thursday night. And that on Friday morning a rider proceeds with the mail to the Northward.