The Early History of the Colonial Post-Office

In the mid‑17th century New England’s settlers faced a chaotic mail system, where a letter might travel on a neighbor’s horse, a merchant’s ship, or an Indian messenger wandering between villages. Personal letters from Samuel Symonds to John Winthrop illustrate how unreliable and slow delivery had become, with writers constantly apologizing for missed or delayed news. The colonies lacked any official post office, so people depended on a patchwork of friends, traders, and even captured captains to carry their words across rough terrain and endless coastlines.

The first real step toward order arrived in 1639, when the Massachusetts General Court named Richard Fairbanks’s house as a hub for overseas letters, charging a penny for each mishandled item. The Dutch colony of New Netherlands soon required ship captains to post bonds and opened a guarded mail box in New Amsterdam. By the early 1670s, governors in New York and Connecticut experimented with a monthly post between the ports, promising a steadier flow of intelligence and public notices. These early attempts set the stage for the organized networks that would later bind the colonies together.