The Knights Hospitaller established an early form of postal service in Malta in the early 1530s, and the earliest known letter from the islands was sent from Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam to , the Bishop of Auxerre and the French ambassador in Rome, on 14 June 1532. In 1708, a formal postal service known as the Commissary of Posts was established by Grand Master Ramon Perellós, and it was based at the Casa del Commun Tesoro in Valletta. The first postal markings on Maltese mail appeared later on in the 18th century, and the postal service continued to function until the expulsion of the Hospitallers by Napoleon in 1798. Malta's postal service was subsequently reformed during French and later British rule, and part of the Casa del Commun Tesoro remained a post office until 1849.