The Dumfries Post Office, 1642-1910. 41 



Quester "being stricken in age," the office of Postmaster of 

 England for Foreign parts was, by thie recital of a patent dated 

 15th March, 1632, made to devolve upon Wm. Frizell and 

 Thomas Witherings as deputies of the elder De Quester. 



Nothing of note is afterwards heard regarding William 

 Frizell, but Thomas Witherings soon proved himself a man of 

 marked ability, keen in business, and shrewd in organisation. 



The success that attended these foreign posts under his able 

 and energetic management would seem to have awakened a desire 

 for a regular and more efficient service by the inland posts, for we 

 find Thomas Witherings appointed to manage a system of public 

 posts to be grafted under the chain of deputy postmasters already 

 existing upon the roads and under the direction of Stanhope. 



By this appointment a third control of the Posts was intro- 

 duced, and it is not, therefore, a surprise to find that such com- 

 plex arrangements did not work smoothly. The controversies to 

 which they gave rise resulted finally in Stanhope being driven from 

 office. 



As soon as Witherings was legally secure in his place he 

 seems to have set himself assiduously to the task of reorganising 

 a system of inland posts. In less than a year he had established a 

 regular service of postal communication between London and 

 Edinburgh " to go thither and come back again in six days ; and 

 to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post 

 town in the said road ; and the posts to be placed in several places 

 out of the road to run and bring and carry out of the said roads 

 the letters as there shall be occasion, and to pay 2d for every 

 single letter under fourscore miles; and if 140 miles 4d ; and if 

 above then 6d ; and to any part of Scotland then 8d." 



The system would appear to have been successful, for steps 

 were speedily taken to monopolise the service, and in 1637 it was 

 further ordered by proclamation that no other messengers or foot 

 posts were to carry letters except those employed by the King's 

 Postmaster-General, unless it was to places not touched by the 

 King's posts, and with the exception of common known carriers 

 or persons carrying a letter to a friend or messengers sent on 

 purpose. 



It is not to be imagined that the formation of this monopoly 

 took place without opposition. On the contrary, it gave rise to 

 general dissatisfaction, as a result of which a Committee of lh= 



