Broadside issued by Franklin and Hunter
Collection: National Postal Museum
Object type: Archival Material
Date: April 10, 1758
Associated Person: Benjamin Franklin, American, 1706 - 1790
James Parker
William Hunter
Woodward Abraham
Place: Massachusetts
Medium: paper; ink; wax
Dimensions: Height x Width: 14 13/16 × 9 in. (37.62 × 22.86 cm)
Topics: Postal Administration
Colonial Era (1607-1776)
Description: Benjamin Franklin and William Hunter signed this broadside as joint deputy postmasters general of the American colonies. The document, dated April 10, 1758, was used to excuse Woodward Abraham, postmaster of Marblehead, Massachusetts, from jury duty. As noted in the text, the work of His Majesty's postal employees was never to be impeded or delayed by subjecting them to responsibilities due the monarch by its citizens.
"To the End the Deputies, Agents and other Officers employed in the Service of His Majesty's Revenue of the Post-Office not be impeded or hindered in their respective Duties. . . . That no such Deputies, Agents and other Officers shall be compelled to serve on any Jury or Inquest . . . or to bear any public office or Employement either Eccesiastical, Civil or Military."
Franklin and Hunter felt that by excusing postal workers from anything that might interrupt or delay the mail service, the mail would move faster. The document was also a crucial step in making our secret jury system inviolate. Post riders during this time had access to the contents they carried. Under duress they could have been forced to reveal the contents of otherwise secret mail.
["BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, and WILLIAM HUNTER, Esqrs. joint Post-Masters-General of all his Ma- jesty's Provinces and Dominions on the Continent of North-America .\nTo all Governors, Mayors of Corporations, Justices of the Peace; and to all other his Majesty's Officers and Ministers, Ecclesiastical, Civil, or Military, within the said Provinces and Dominions, Greeting.\nWHEREAS His Majesty, by His Royal Letters Patents under the Great Seal of Great-Britain , bearing Date the 24th Day of May , 1745, and in the Eighteenth Year of His Majesty's Reign; to the End the Deputies, Agents, and other Officers, employed in the Service of His Majesty's Revenue of the Post-Office might not be impeded or hindered in their re- spective Duties, was thereby pleased to declare His Royal Will and Pleasure, That no such Deputies, Agents, and other Officers, shall be compell'd or compellable to serve on any Jury or In- quest, or to appear or serve at any Assize or Session, or to bear any public Office or Employment, either Ecclesiastical, Civil, or Military.\nThese are to Certify, That the Bearer hereof Mr. Woodward Abraham Gent ll is Post Master at Marblehead - which Employment requires at all Times his Personal Atten- dance, and that His Majesty's Revenue in the Post-Office (great Part of which is now subjected to the Payment of the public Debts), may suffer very much by his being obliged to serve in the Train'd-Bands, or any other public Office, Ecclesiastical, Civil, or Military: For Notification whereof, We have Signed and caused the Seal of our Office to be hereunto affixed, this Tenth Day of April in the Thirty First Year of His Majesty's Reign. 1758\nBy the Post-Master General's Command James Barker Agent and Comptroller. (pro Tempore.)\nB. Franklin W m Hunter"
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