Receiving Houses — part 2
The Receivers handstamps have been catalogued from as early as 1670 and this one on a letter dated 1772, has an 'F' in a circle. This was the mark of William Flexney, who had the receiving office at Furnival's Inn from 1769-1785.
click here for details	To Frans. Whichcote Junr. Esqr Grantham Lincolnshire.       For details of the contents of this letter go to this page on our website: Bishop marks, Rents & Lands 1770-72
However, Willcocks & Jay's catalogue states "from 1790 the various general Post Receiving Houses in London changed to a standard group of handstamps, consisting of the name of the Receiving House in upper or lower case (or mixed case), in a single or double framed rectangle. There is a table of known General Post Receiving Houses, but there is a note — This listing is far from complete and there is still a great deal of information on these quite common handstamps that needs to be collected. We would add to that, by saying that we have not found them at all common, and have only had Adam Street W, Jermyn Street, Park Street and Charing Crofs in our collections over a period of about 30 years, and none of them particularly clear or good strikes.
click here for details	This letter dated 8 May 1800 from Richard Lowndes of Red Lion Square was put in at the Charing Cross Receiving House, which was open from 1797-1803. Note the letter 'f' instead of the first 's' in the word CROSS
click here for details	Park Street type in use 1805 — letter dated 1805 JERMYN Street, luckily the letter dated 1805 is addressed inside as from Jermyn Street, which helped to identify this, but neither of them is a very good example!
Copyright 2002 E. J. Shanahan By EARS Leisurewrite	To see the 'Adam Street W' stamp on a letter go to All Rev'd up. on our website. Next, Coffee houses Return To our Intro Page Home