The King's Post Part 8

"And will be put up at those Sums respectively.

"Whoever happens to be the best Bidder must, at the same time, pay one Month in advance (if required) of the Rent at which such Tolls may be respectively Let, and give security, with sufficient sureties to the satisfaction of the Trustees of the said Turnpike Roads, for payment of the rest of the money monthly.

"OSBORNE and WARD, "Clerks to the Trustees of the said Turnpike Roads.

"Bristol, 13th July, 1826."

A turnpike ticket of 1840 was worded thus:--

Bristol Roads.

LAWFORD's GATE.

July 8, 1840

s. d.

Waggon Cart 1 Coach, Chaise, &c. Gig Horses 2 9 Cattle Sheep, Pigs a.s.ses

Clears Gates on the other side

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD TOLL-BAR HOUSE, NEAR THE RIDGE, WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: [_From an old Talbot-type Photograph in the possession of Miss P.A. Fry, of Tower House, Cotham._

ST. MICHAEL'S HILL TURNPIKE, BRISTOL.]

The other Bristol "Gates" were known as Clifton, Redland, White Ladies, Horfield, St. Michael's Hill, Cutler's Mills, Gallows Acre, Barrow's Lane, Stapleton Bridge, Pack Horse Lane, Fire-Engine Lane, George's Lane, West Street, Cherry Garden, Fire-Engine, Blackbirds, one full toll in each case.

Thomas Brooks was the last toll-keeper at St. Michael's Hill, Bristol.

He held the office until it was abolished in 1867. In the following year he was appointed sub-postmaster of Cotham, and removed from the old Toll House to a house nearer the city. The Toll House stood at the corner of Hampton Road and Cotham Hill, where the fountain is now.

Benjamin Gray, the last keeper of the "Stop Gate" which stood near the Royal Oak Inn at Horfield, held the office for 30 years. The gate was to stop travellers entering the city by way of Ashley Down Road, and thus escape paying the tolls at the Zetland Road end of Gloucester Road.

There is a family connection between the Gray and the Brooks families, and the daughter of Benjamin now resides with Samuel Brooks, the old s.e.xton of Horfield Church. A model of the Horfield Stop Gate may be seen at Robin Hood's Retreat near Berkeley Road, Bristol.

The last barrier on the great London to Bristol Road was removed when the bridge crossing the Thames at Maidenhead was freed from toll at midnight, on November 30th, 1903. There was a remarkable demonstration on the occasion. Five hundred people waded through the flooded streets to see the toll-gate removed from the bridge which was erected so far back as in 1772.

Precisely at twelve by the toll-house clock Corporation employes proceeded to remove the gate, amid loud cheering. Many of the crowd closed in, and finally seizing the huge gate, carried it to the top of Maidenhead Bridge and threw it into the river.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STANTON DREW TURNPIKE GATE HOUSE.]

CHAPTER X.

DARING ROBBERIES OF THE BRISTOL MAIL BY HIGHWAYMEN, 1726-1781.--BILL NASH, MAIL COACH ROBBER, CONVICT AND RICH COLONIST, 1832.--BURGLARIES AT POST OFFICES IN LONDON AND BRISTOL, 1881-1901.

The mail services between Bristol and the Southern Counties came into great prominence in 1903. The Postmaster-General was appealed to on the subject, and the phantom of the old Bristol and Portsmouth mail coach was conjured up to form a comparison detrimental to present-day arrangements. The discussion recalls somewhat vividly the mail coach traditions of the pre-railway period, and certainly the community of to-day has, at all events, fallen on better times as regards security of the mails, if not better night mail services. In the General Post Office letter in Lombard Street, 26th April, 1720, this note appears:--"The Bristol Mail was again robbed yesterday, in the same place as on Friday, by one highwayman."

_Mist's Journal_ of Apl. 30, 1720, states:--"Last week the Oxford Stage Coach was robbed between Uxbridge and London, by the same highwaymen as is supposed who robbed the Bristol Mail, one of them having a scar on his forehead."

"A man lately taken up near Maidenhead Thicket, and charged with robbing the Cirencester Stage Coach, has been examined by a Justice of the Peace, who has committed him to Reading Gaol. He is said to be a butcher's son of Thame, in Oxfordshire."

The following particulars relate to a Bristol mail coach robbery in 1721. They were taken from a pamphlet written by Wilson, who was one of the highwaymen therein alluded to, and saved his neck by informing.

Wilson was a person of education, but some of his statements were questionable. The pamphlet was full of moral reflections upon the evils of bad company, gambling, &c.; it ran through several editions, so it was no doubt popular. It will be interesting as indicating the difficulties attending the Bristol mail services of the period, and that death was the penalty for robbing his Majesty's mails. It runs thus in the heading:--

"A full and impartial account of all the robberies committed by John Hawkins, George Sympson (lately executed for robbing the Bristol mails), and their companions. Written by Ralph Wilson, late one of their confederates. London: Printed for J. Poole at the Lockes Head in Paternoster Row. Price 6d."

The following is an abbreviation of the contents so far as they relate to the Bristol mails:--

John Hawkins was the son of poor but honest parents. His father was a farmer, and lived at Staines, Middles.e.x. Had a slender education. At 14 he waited on a gentleman, then was a tapster's boy at the Red Lion, at Brentford; got into service again, was butler to Sir Dennis Daltry; took to gambling; was suspected of being a confederate in robbing his master's house of plate; was dismissed. At the age of 24 took to highway robbery; stopped a coach on Hounslow Heath, and eased the pa.s.sengers of about 11; with others committed several robberies on Bagshot and Hounslow Heaths; was arrested for attempting to rescue Captain Lennard, one of his accomplices, but was discharged.

Wilson, the writer of the pamphlet, was a Yorkshireman; became clerk to a Chancery barrister; met Hawkins at a gambling-house; they became "great cronies." Wilson joins Hawkins's gang; they commit several highway robberies. Feb. 1, 1721, Wilson goes to Yorkshire; Hawkins impeached several of his companions, and one of them (Wright) was hanged. Hawkins, Wilson, and others robbed one morning the Cirencester, the Worcester, the Gloster, the Oxford, and the Bristol stage coaches; the next morning the Ipswich and Colchester coaches; a third morning, perhaps the Portsmouth. The Bury coach was "our constant customer."

Sympson, who was born at Putney, and had no education, had by this time joined the gang. The robberies were continued. In April (1722) they went back to their old design of robbing the mail coaches. They first proposed to rob the Harwich mail, but gave up that design because that mail was "as uncertain as the wind." They then decided to rob the Bristol mail. Wilson said he objected to this plan, but he joined in it.

They set out Sunday, April 15th. "The next morning being Monday, we took the mail, and again on Wednesday morning. The meaning of taking it twice was to get the halves of some bank bills, the first halves whereof we took out of the mail on Monday morning." On Monday, April 23rd, Wilson learnt at the Moorgate Coffee House that there was a great request for the robbers of the Bristol mail. He therefore contemplated taking a pa.s.sage to Newcastle, but before he could do so he was arrested, and carried to the General Post Office, where he was examined by the Postmaster-General. He was again examined by the Postmaster-General (Carteret) the next morning, but he denied all knowledge of the robbery. While under examination, a messenger came from Hawkins, who was in prison at the Gate House, "to let the Post-house know that he had impeached me." One of the officers of the Post Office then showed Wilson an unsigned letter, which he recognised as being in Sympson's handwriting, confessing his share in the robbery, and offering to secure his two companions. Wilson then decided to confess. Hawkins and Sympson were tried, found guilty, and executed 21st May, 1722.

In connection with this Bristol mail robbery, the following are interesting particulars from the calendar of Treasury papers:--"Memorial of William Saunderson, clerk, to Sir Robert Walpole. Says he was author of an expedient to prevent the Bristol and other mails from being robbed. The scheme seems to have been to write with red ink on the foreside of all bank notes the name of the post town where they were posted, the day of the month, and also the addition of these words, viz.:--'From Bristol to London,' &c. These services (presumably Saunderson's) have been attended with great expense and loss of time, and no mail robberies have since been committed. Asks for compensation.

Referred 11th April, 1728, to postmasters to report. May 23, 1728.--Affidavit of W. Saunderson, receiver, of Holford, West Somerset (probably the same person), that he sent a letter subscribed A.Z. to the Postmaster-General offering an expedient to prevent the robbing of the Bristol and other mails, and of the subsequent negotiations with the Post Office; has never received any reward. Mr. Carteret claimed the contrivance of the scheme wholly to himself. May 29th.--Postmaster-General's report of 17th April read: 'My Lords satisfied with the report.' Saunderson had no pretence to any reward.

Scheme entirely formed at Post Office without a.s.sistance of Saunderson or anybody else. Saunderson called in, informed that my Lords adhere to Postmaster-General's report, and nothing more will be ordered therein."

Stealing a letter or robbing the mail was a capital offence long after Hawkins and Sympson expiated their offences on the scaffold. Thus a notice from the General Post Office on the 24th July, 1767, issued in the _London Evening Post_, dated "From Tuesday, July 28th, to Thursday, July 30th, 1767," recited that--"Notice is hereby given that by an Act pa.s.sed the last Session of Parliament, 'For amending certain Laws relating to the revenue of the Post Office, and for granting rates of postage for the conveyance of letters and packets between Great Britain and the Isle of Man, and within that Island,' it is enacted--That from and after the first day of November, 1767, if any person employed or afterwards to be employed in the Post Office shall 'secrete, embezzle, or destroy any letters, &c.,' 'every such offender, being thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.' Also if any person or persons whatsoever shall rob any mail or mails, in which letters are sent or conveyed by post, although it shall not prove to be highway robbery or robbery committed in a dwelling-house, yet such offender or offenders shall be 'deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.'" In 1781 there was another robbery of the Bristol mail. The occurrence was set forth in detail in the following notice, which was issued on January 29th in that year:--

"General Post Office, Jan. 29, 1781.

"The Postboy bringing the Bristol Mail this morning from Maidenhead was stop't between two and three o'clock by a single Highwayman with a c.r.a.pe over his face, between the 11th and 12th milestones, near the Cranford Bridge, who presented a pistol to him, and after making him alight, drove away the Horse and Cart, which were found about 7 o'clock this morning in a meadow field near Farmer Lott's at Twyford, when it appears that the greatest part of the letters were taken out of the Bath and Bristol Bags, and that the following bags were entirely taken away:--Pewsey, Ramsbury, Bradford, Henley, Cirencester, Gloucester, Ross, Presteign, Fairford, Aberystwith, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Calne, Trowbridge, Wallingford, Reading, Stroud, Ledbury, Hereford, Northleach, Lechlade, Lampeter, Tenby, Abergavenny, Newbury, Melksham, Maidenhead, Wantage, Wotton-under-Edge, Tewkesbury, Leominster, Cheltenham, Hay, Cardigan, Haverfordwest.

"The person who committed this robbery is supposed to have had an accomplice, as two persons pa.s.sed the Postboy on Cranford Bridge on Horseback, prior to the Robbery, one of whom he thinks was the robber; but it being so extremely dark, he is not able to give any description of their persons.

"Whoever shall apprehend and convict, or cause to be apprehended and convicted, the person who committed this Robbery, will be ent.i.tled to a reward of Two Hundred Pounds, over and above the Reward given by Act of Parliament for apprehending Highwaymen; or if any person, whether an Accomplice in the Robbery or knoweth thereof, shall make Discovery whereby the Person who committed the same may be apprehended and brought to Justice, such Discoverer will upon conviction of the party be ent.i.tled to the Same Reward of Two Hundred Pounds, and will also receive his Majesty's most gracious Pardon.

"By Command of the Postmaster-General,

"ANTH. TODD, Sec."

The robbery, which was graphically described by Mr. G. Hendy, of St.

Martin's-le-Grand, in the 1901 Christmas Number of "The Road," does not appear to have been a very daring one as regards the act itself, but it was so as to its consequences. There was no mail coach--no driver in scarlet--no mail guard--no pa.s.sengers, but only a ramshackle iron mail cart--a "postboy" as driver and carrying no arms. What a contrast is this old mail cart with a single horse, carrying the mails for all the places enumerated in the Notice, to the splendidly appointed four-horse mail coaches of a period thirty years later on, or to the present time, when on the Great Western Railway one whole train is used to carry only a moiety of the King's mail to Bristol and the West! No wonder that the postboy fell an easy victim to the highwaymen, who bound him and threw him into an out-of-the-way field. The desperadoes proved to be two brothers, young men of the name of Weston.

The Westons, after the robbery, went up and down the country on the North road very rapidly, in order to get rid of the 10,000 to 15,000 worth of bank notes and bills which they plundered from the mails. The Bow Street runners were on their track from the first, and the chase continued from London to Carlisle and back. The vagabonds were not, however, captured, and the notice was exhibited all over the country, with the addition of the description of the men wanted by the thief-catchers.

In 1782, the brothers were tried for another offence and acquitted, but they were arrested at once for the robbery of the Bristol mail and committed to Newgate. On trial they were found guilty, and paid the penalty of death by hanging at Tyburn, on the 3rd September, 1782. In later years the death penalty for robbing mails was abolished, and at least one old sinner who robbed the Bristol mail eventually did remarkably well through having committed that dire offence against the laws, and by having been transported to the Antipodes at his country's expense.

Particulars of his career have been furnished by Mr. R.C. Newick, of Cloudshill, St. George, Bristol, by means of the following extract from a work published in 1853, "Adventures in Australia, '52-'53," by the Rev. Berkeley Jones, M.A., late curate of Belgrave Chapel (Bentley, London, 1853):--"If you turn into any of the auction rooms in Sydney the day after the gold escort comes in you may see and, if you can, buy, pretty yellow-looking lumps from about the size of a pin's head to a horse bean, or, if you prefer it, a flat piece about the size of a small dessert plate. One of the greatest buyers is an old pardoned convict of the name of 'William,' or, as he is there more commonly called, 'Bill'

Nash, who robbed the Bristol mail, of which he was the guard. His wife followed him--as some say, with the booty--and set up a fine shop in Pitt Street in the haberdashery line. Under the old system he was a.s.signed to her as a servant. Her own husband her domestic! What a burlesque on transportation as a punishment! He is very unpopular with the old hands, as he returned to England and offered an intentional affront to Queen Victoria when driving in the Park, by drawing his horses across the road as her equipage was driving by. He cut a great dash in the Regent's Park, and was known as the 'flash returned convict.' We stood by him at Messrs. Cohen's auction room when the gold fraud (planting on the gold buyers nuggets made in Birmingham) was discussed. He addressed us, and we cannot add that he prepossessed us much in his favour. He looks what he is and has been. In a little cupboard-looking shop in King Street he may be seen in shirt sleeves spreading a tray full of sovereigns in the shop front and heaping up bank-notes as a border to them, inviting anyone to sell their gold to him. We believe he is now among the wealthiest men of New South Wales."

By the year 1830 the terror inspired by highwaymen had no doubt diminished, but the coach proprietors thought it prudent to guard themselves against loss, and so they put increased charges on the articles of value they had to carry. On the 1st September, 1830, a coaching notice of about 1,000 words, based on an Act of Parliament, was put forth by Moses Pickwick and Company from the White Hart, Bath. A copy of this notice on a large screen was exhibited recently at the d.i.c.kens celebration at Bath. The notice, in legal or other jargon, announced the increased rate of charge for commission by mail or stage coach of articles of value. Put into plain form, the increased rates of charge were as follows, _viz._:--Additional charge for parcel or package over 10 in value.--For every pound, or for the value of every pound, contained in such parcel or package over and above the ordinary rate of carriage, not exceeding 100 miles, 1d.; 100 to 150 miles, 1-1/2d.; 150 to 200 miles, 2d.; 200 to 250 miles, 2-1/2d.; exceeding 250 miles, 3d.

[Ill.u.s.tration: [_By permission of "Bath Chronicle."_