Page 377 - Jarvis & Wright: Jamaica Display to RPSL

Jamaica Registration: Money Letter, The Earliest Recorded, 1836.

Money letters were used for sending coin, banknotes or other valuables. Atmore’s census found only
seven pre-stamp Jamaican money letters. Two of those are shown here, together with three others.
Before 1843, postage in Jamaica was charged according to the number of sheets, each counted as a
notional quarter ounce. Money letters were treated as letters with enclosed extra sheets, each at an
extra quarter ounce rate. The earliest were also charged a fee of 10d.

Kingston to May Hill.
Money letter, numbered No 10 and rated in manuscript 1¾ oz and 4/4.
1¾ oz means 7 rates of a quarter ounce, one for the letter and one for each of the 6 enclosures listed in it:-
26 ‘checks’ summing to £154, in 4 groups, each of the 4 groups counting as an enclosure;
“…and my order in Messrs. Middleton Freer & Co. for £56.6.8…”; and
“I enclose a blank bill of lading to be given to the Captain…”
Kingston to May Hill was 63 miles, charged at the 60 to 100 miles rate of 6d for each quarter ounce.
So the total paid was 7 rates at 6d each = 3s 6d postage + 10d money letter fee = 4s 4d in all.

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The letter, about a coffee plantation, is dated “Kingston 19 March 1836” (the month before Foster’s earliest).
Kingston: 19 March 1836.
The reply, acknowledging receipt, was on the same sheet, dated “23 March 1836”, with no postal markings.