STAMPLESS COVERS OF GREAT BRITAIN

1828 SCARCE NEWCASTLE 5TH CLAUSE PENNY POST COVER TO LONDON
WILLCOCKS & JAY TYPE S-470 - ONLY IN USE 1828-1830 WITH BURSLEM RECEIVING HOUSE "NO 1"

Clergyman J.B. Marsden of Burslem writes a private & confidential letter
from his church to his friend, the Reverend Doctor Richard Townley
Delivered New Year's Day 1829

COVERED BY OUR 5 YEAR PHILATELIC GUARANTEE OF AUTHENTICITY
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Addressed to the Rev'd Dr Townley/Myddelton Square/Pentonville/London
 with Initials J. R. T. Esq. (John Richard Townley) and a docketing note J.B. M[arsden] Dec 1828 Burslem


Reverse of Cover

SCARCE 1828 NEWCASTLE 5TH CLAUSE POST FROM BURSLEM RECEIVING HOUSE NO. 1. — Nice if somewhat soiled cover with reasonably fair copy of the Boxed "Newcastle/5"Cls Post", slightly faded to bottom right. A note on the color. This cancel is usually red and it is possible this is just a faded or oxidized red. But when compared to the red on the reverse it is less obvious. There are also numerous examples of black ink cancels that due to pigment irregularities often degrade into claret and purple black conditions. We leave it up to you to make the call. The Newcastle 5th Clause Post Receiving House for this letter was Burslem and is indicated by the somewhat faded boxed "No. 1" Willcocks & Jay type 53 just above the Newcastle cancel.

It should be noted that the 5th Clause Post derives its name from the 1801 Act 41 George 3 Cap 7, which generally raised postage rates, but in the 5th clause it permitted the Postmaster General to collect and deliver mail to places that were not post towns at such charges as were agreed upon by the inhabitants. Newcastle was one of the more successful 5th clause penny posts and had 14 receiving houses. It is worth noting that the local charges within the 5th clause post was required to be prepaid and was not to be shown on the manuscript rate on the face of the cover. In this case the 11d charge shown on the cover was the regular general post rate to London and did not include the amount paid to the Newcastle Post.

The red double circle date stamp on the reverse is similar to the Westminster cancel Jay Type L-466 but that is not recorded with a double circle. It does have a very nice New Year's Day 10 Fore Noon Cancel in bright red.

The curious contents (protected by a private & confidential notation) contain an extensive cross written letter by J. B. Marsden who is at his Church in Burslem (the dateline) where he has a great deal to say about a great number of subjects on three pages with 2 cross written, clear and legible. From the Townley Correspondence (see our other items). The letter opens My dear Dick alias Cock a Doodle Doo. "My new Church advances  and is a magnificent pile."

A note on Burslem: The Domesday Book shows Burslem as a place of some importance - the town appears, as "Burwardeslyn”, strategically sited above a vital ford at Longport, part of the major pack horse track out of the Peak District and Staffordshire Moorlands to the Liverpool/London road. As far back as the late 1100s a thriving pottery industry existed, based on the fine & abundant local clays. After the Black Death, Burslem emerged in the records as a medieval town - the 1536 stone church is still standing and in use. Until the mid-1760s Burslem was relatively cut off from the rest of England; it had no navigable river nearby, and there were no good & reliable roads. By 1777 the Trent and Mersey Canal was nearing completion, and the roads had markedly improved. The town boomed on the back of fine pottery production & canals, and became known as 'The Mother Town' of the six towns that make up the city. The famous novels of Arnold Bennett evoke the feel of Victorian Burslem, with its many potteries, mines, and working canal barges. The Burslem of the 1930s to the 1980s is evoked by the paintings and plays of Arthur Berry.

Burslem contains Britain's last real working industrial district (i.e.: where people live within walking distance of the factories of a single heavy industry - in this case, the potteries); and thus much of the nineteenth-century industrial heritage, buildings & character have survived intact.

"Burslem is about three miles from Newcastle and two from Hanley, entitled to the precedence of other towns in this district, as claiming to be the mother, as it is the metropolis, of the Staffordshire Potteries." [From a contemporary 1828 journal]
 

Burslem Receiving House Boxed No. 1
 Willcocks & Jay Type 53

Newcastle 5th Clause Paid Boxed Cancel Faded Red or Black
Jay Type ST 470  Measures 38 x 10mm

Unrecorded Westminster Date Stamp
Similar to Jay Type L 466 but with double ring
dated 10 Fore Noon January 1, 1829

General Post date Stamp
Single ring day before and after month with
 year below, Morning Duty Code G
Jay Type L 14 Red

Manuscript "11" for 11d due to London

"private & confidential J.B.M"
with attractive intact black wax signet seal

Please note that stampless cover catalogue numbers and research come from some of the following reference works:  Robinson, The Port and Carriage of Letters, Inland & Foreign Rates of the British Isles; R. M. Willcocks, England's Postal History to 1840 with Notes on Scotland, Wales and Ireland (1975); R. M. Willcocks & Barrie Jay, The Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland 1981; Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volumes 1 & 2, 2nd Ed. (1996); Barrie Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History Volume 3 London, 2nd Ed.(2005); Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Vol 4 (1988), Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volume 5 (1990); American Stampless Cover Catalogue 2nd Ed. (1997); J.C. Arnell, Atlantic Mails - A History of the Mail Service between Great Britain and Canada to 1889 (1980); F. Jarrett, Stamps of British North America; W. S. Boggs, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada; Hargest, History of Letter Communications between US and Europe 1845-1874, Starnes, US Letter Rates to Foreign Destination 1847-GPU; Tabeart, United Kingdom Letter Rates 1657-1900; Moubray, British Letter Mail to Overseas Destinations 1840-1875, J.J. MacDonald, The Nova Scotia Post, Its Offices, Masters and Marks (1985)

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