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The Postmasters General of Ireland, held by two people simultaneously, was a new appointment set up as part of the establishment of the Irish Post Office independent from that of Great Britain, by the Act 23, 24 George III in 1784. The post lasted nearly fifty years.Reynolds (1983), p. 28 The act was not repealed upon the Act of Union in 1800Joyce, (1893), p. 378 but in 1831.
The Postmasters General of Ireland, held by two people simultaneously, was a new appointment set up as part of the establishment of the Irish Post Office independent from that of Great Britain, by the Act 23, 24 George III in 1784. The post lasted nearly fifty years.Reynolds (1983), p. 28 The act was not repealed upon the Act of Union in 1800Joyce, (1893), p. 378 but in 1831.
Act 23, 24 George III
History
While both the post offices of England and Ireland had two postmasters general, in Ireland the assent of only one was required for decisions as opposed to the assent of both being necessary in England. Besides confirming the monopoly for carrying letters in Ireland and giving the right to establish a four-mile limitpenny post The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny. Five such schemes existed in the United Kingdom while the United States initiated at least three such simple fixed rate postal arrangements.
U ...
in Dublin, one of the postmasters general's duties was to measure the post road
A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...
s in Ireland. During the time the postmasters general of Ireland existed profits in the Irish office increased from £15,000 in 1786 to £108,000 in 1831.
Most of the postmasters were habitual absentees except for Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty
Richard Le Poer Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty, 1st Marquess of Heusden (19 May 1767 – 24 November 1837), styled The Honourable from 1797 to 1803 and then Viscount Dunlo to 1805, was an Anglo-Irish peer, a nobleman in the Dutch nobility, and ...
, who, concerned by the out-dated postal system in Ireland, sent Edward Lees
Edward Lees ( 1819 - November 6, 1893) was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Biography
A Scottish immigrant, Lees first settled in Ottawa, Wisconsin in 1848. His son, Robert Lees, became a member of the Assembly and the Wisconsin State ...
, Secretary of the Irish Post Office, to London to study their modern methods of operations.
When the foundation-stone for the new General Post Office in Dublin was laid by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth
Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, GCB, PC (29 May 1752 – 13 May 1825), known as The Lord Whitworth between 1800 and 1813 and as The Viscount Whitworth between 1813 and 1815, was a British diplomat and politician.
Early years
Whitwort ...
, on 12 August 1814, the ceremony was attended by the incumbent Postmasters General, Charles O'Neill, 1st Earl O'Neill and Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse
Lawrence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse (21 May 1758 – 24 February 1841), known as Sir Lawrence Parsons, Bt, from 1791 to 1807, was an Irish peer.
Parsons was the son of Sir William Parsons, 4th Baronet and Mary Clere. He succeeded his father i ...
.
Termination
Curiously, the act establishing the independent Irish Post Office was not repealed upon the Act of Union in 1800, so the post continued until 6 April 1831, when the offices of Postmasters General of Ireland was abolished and consolidated into the existing single post of thePostmaster General of the United Kingdom
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom was a Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electr ...
with appointments of all officers for the Dublin office being made in London, per Act 1 William, cap 18.
See also
* J. J. Walsh: Postmaster General of the Irish Free State *Minister for Posts and Telegraphs
The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs ( ga, Aire Poist agus Telegrafa) was the holder of a position in the Government of Ireland (and, earlier, in the Executive Council of the Irish Free State). From 1924 until 1984 – when it was abolished †...
References
Notes Sources * * {{cite book , first=Mairead , last=Reynolds , author-link=Mairéad Dunlevy , year=1983 , title=A History of The Irish Post Office , publisher=MacDonnell Whyte Ltd, Dublin, Ireland , isbn=0-9502619-7-1 Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1784 Postal system of the United Kingdom 1784 establishments in Ireland 1830s disestablishments in IrelandIreland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...