Note 143 — Chapter I · THE ORGANIZATION OF THE POST-OFFICE.
Reading edition
The following list of Postmasters-General before this period, taken from a return made to the House of Commons, March 25, 1844, may not be uninteresting to some of our readers. After Sir Brian Tuke, the first "Master of the Postes," we find his successors to have been Sir William Paget, one of Henry VIII.'s Chief Secretaries of State, and John Mason, Esq. "Secretary for the French Tongue." "The fees or wages" of each of these functionaries are given at 66l. 13s. 6d. a-year. The reader will be familiar with the Postmasters-General under Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and the Commonwealth. Coming to the reign of Charles II. we find Philip Froude, Esq. acting for the Duke of York from 1678 to 1688.
William and Mary.
Sir Robert Cotton; Thomas Frankland, Esq.1690-1708
Queen Anne.
Sir Thomas Frankland; Sir John Evelyn1708-1715
George I.
Lord Cornwallis; James Craggs, Esq.1715-1720
Edward Carteret, Esq.; Galfridus Walpole1720-1733
George II.
Edward Carteret, Esq.; Lord Thomas Lovel1733-1739
Sir John Eyles; Lord Lovel1739-1744
Lord Lovel alone (now Earl of Leicester)1744-1759
Earl of Besborough1759
George III.
Earl of Egmont; Hon. R. Hampden1762
Lord Hyde; Hon. R. Hampden1763
Earl of Besborough; Lord Grantham1765
Earl of Sandwich; Lord de Spencer1768
Viscount Barrington; Hon. Henry Carteret1782
Earl of Tankerville; Hon. H. Carteret1784
Lord Carteret; Lord Walsingham1787
Lord Walsingham; Earl of Chesterfield1790
Earl of Chesterfield; Earl of Leicester1794
Earl of Leicester; Lord Auckland1798
Lord Auckland; Lord Charles Spencer1801
Lord Spencer; Duke of Montrose1804
Earl of Buckinghamshire; Earl of Carysfort1806
Earl of Chichester alone1814
Earl of Chichester; Marquis of Salisbury1816
When the Earl of Salisbury died in 1823, a successor was not appointed, the joint office being abolished, principally through the exertions of the late Marquis of Normanby.