in June, a time when many tobacco ships were probably headed to London.96 Correspondents in England with colonial connections felt a similar pressure. A loving and concerned brother living near Liverpool was “not willing to let many Ships pass with out a line or two” for his brother in the colonies.97
The postal pace felt slower for colonists. All their letters from England came by ship and Byrd appears to have received few letters from those in the colonies or, at least, he rarely recorded them. English correspondents, on the other hand, only waited for the few Atlantic letters that flowed into their larger pool of British letters. The Byrds did not receive letters from Britain frequently, building up a sense of anticipation for incoming letters. As William Byrd II informed a distant correspondent, “Our Lives are uniform without any great variety, til the Seasons brings in the Ships. Then we tear open the Letters they bring us from our Friends, as eagerly, as a greedy Heir tears open his Fathers Will.”98 Byrd also stated that if letters came in late in the day he would hide them from his wife so that she would sleep through the night.99
Once William Byrd II handed letters to ships’ captains things did not always go smoothly. While neither he nor Perceval voiced any complaints about this voyage, once the ship hit the high seas a whole host of problems could hold it up, from bad weather to war to pirates. Byrd usually directed his rants at the sea captains who delivered his letters. In one letter to Perceval, almost ten years later, he blamed a ship’s captain for not delivering his letter, stating, “These Tritons do now and [then p]lay us such slippery tricks, and are no more to be depended up[on than] the faithless element which they converse with.”100 While it turned out that the captain had sent the letter on, he had not gone to Perceval looking for an answer, which in Byrd’s mind still made him the culprit.101 Sometimes captains were simply slow at delivering their letters. One kept letters for six weeks after his ship docked.102 Perceval was aware of these many dangers and made sure to send duplicates of his letters to Rhode Island, a practice embraced by many corresponding with distant locations.103
This particular letter, however, seems to have made it to Perceval without incident. Once in London the ship’s captain might have delivered it himself to Perceval, placed it into the hands of the merchants at Perry and Lane who were Byrd’s factors, or he might have sent it by a messenger to Perceval’s residence, placed it into the Penny Post, or left it at a local coffeehouse where letters from Virginia accumulated. By whatever means, the letter did make it to Perceval’s hands and on the third of December, six months after Byrd wrote it, he responded, declaring, “Nothing could give one greater pleasure than to hear from an Old friend of theirty years standing.”104 However delighted he was with the letter, it is likely that Perceval allowed Byrd’s letter to sit a while before answering it. In the next set of letters they exchanged, he waited two months after receiving Byrd’s letter to respond.105 This rarely bothered Byrd since he usually expected only one letter a year from English correspondents. Those in the colonies delayed responding immediately as well. When Perceval’s friend George Berkeley was living in Rhode Island he allowed Perceval’s letter to sit three weeks before responding.106 Unlike Perceval’s letter from Newman, that from Taylor, or even that expected from Dering, these colonial letters did not require an instant response. Their purpose was to nurture a social connection and Byrd’s letter did not ask Perceval to do anything but write in return when it suited him and in this he obliged.
Byrd made sure that Perceval knew how to send a response. He told Perceval to address his answer to his factor, Mr. Perry, in Leadenhall Street.107 As Perceval was living in Charlton downriver from the city he probably sent his response via the Penny Post to Mr. Perry who then forwarded it by a ship to Virginia. If Perceval was in town he could have also left it in a coffeehouse where ships’ captains often stopped to pick up letters.108 Correspondents living in England often needed guidance in the ways of colonial correspondence. That is why both Byrd and Berkeley gave Perceval directions. An address on a letter bound for the colonies might have been simpler and less specific, but knowing what merchants or officials to turn to and when to send a letter mattered more. One London correspondent hurriedly wrote a letter to a friend in Kent, who had a daughter in the colonies, telling him that ships bound for South Carolina were leaving in less than three weeks and he should forward his letters quickly.109 Other writers gave such notices for destinations further afield. A correspondent in Dublin reminded another that January was “the time of year for writing letters to India” and that he should forward him any he wished to send.110 Just as using the postal system within the British Isles and from the Continent required a deep knowledge of its functioning, sending letters to the colonies required a complex understanding of the workings of Atlantic or Indian Ocean shipping. The forms of knowledge were different: users of the British post required an understanding of the institutional system, while those who sent letters further needed to understand a less centralized system, but both needed to use personal networks and knowledge to get their letters delivered.
These epistolary exchanges between different locations reveal the complex nature of communication by letter. Within London the system worked relatively smoothly. Letters might be delayed and a few might miscarry, but with the employees of the Penny Post ferrying them from the office to recipients communication was usually successful and usually completed within the fold of the postal system. The central importance of the postal system decreased and creative postal solutions increased the further from London a writer lived. When in Bath, Perceval continued to have his letters sent to London to be forwarded by his cousin who watched over his London concerns. His cousin might have forwarded them by the post or he could also have used a messenger, but he had the option to do either. Still Perceval knew he could not simply expect his letters to find him without providing them with an easier path. Similarly, he sent many of his Irish letters to his estate agent to distribute.111 Since he kept up a constant correspondence with his agent Perceval knew his employee would watch for letters in a way others might not. By sending letters for others through his agent he guarded against such letters lying forgotten at the Post Office. This strategic use of the post colored his continental correspondence as well. He knew it was safer to have Taylor send his letters to Dering in London, rather than directly to him when he was traveling. Postal routes were only useful where they were well established and when postally savvy individuals lived on the other end. The expansion of the post created a reliable channel for postal exchange, but it frayed around the edges. This was true for correspondence beyond the British Isles as well, except that the channels were more informal. Letter writers with Atlantic correspondents knew merchant networks and used them as those in Britain used the post. Once, when Perceval’s correspondent in Rhode Island wished to send letters to England, he enclosed them to Perceval, who then distributed them.112 Sadly one of the correspondents had died, but Perceval forwarded the other one to Durham.113 The growth of the postal service and the expansion of shipping helped deepen these dependable channels of communication, but beyond these routes personal networks mattered more.
Careful Hands
When John Perceval’s Rhode Island correspondent forwarded him the letters previously mentioned he entreated him to “send [them] by a carefull hand.”114 The careful hand turned out to be that of Perceval’s only brother, Philip. Careful hands or personal bearers made the epistolary world turn: they helped the official postal system function and they increased the social meaning of a letter. To a society used to face-to-face interaction the option of a bearer was attractive. Most letter writers preferred to wait on a correspondent in person rather than to do so by letter. John Perceval’s cousin apologized for a late epistolary response, but explained that he had delayed writing for he “was in hopes to have waited on you in person.”115 Sending a letter by a bearer spoke to this preference. Before the expansion of the Post Office, Britons had usually depended on bearers to deliver their letters.116 When the Paston family sent letters in the fifteenth century they sent them by family members, trusted servants, neighbors, or hired men.117 But the use of bearers was not just a legacy from a previous age that became irrelevant as the Post Office flourished.118 John Eliot, a London merchant, continued to use bearers
