Inked date stamps were at first called 'Bishops marks' after their inventor, Henry Bishop, Postmaster General, 1660-1663. The post office was receiving complaints about late arrival of the post. Bishop claimed: 'a stamp is invented, that is putt upon every letter shewing the day of the moneth that every letter comes to this office, so that no letter Carryer may dare to detayne a letter from post to post; which, before, was usual.' As we now know, this did not actually solve the problem, just provided more evidence that the problem existed.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
First postmarks in the world
Commemorated ati
General Letter Office
Near this spot the General Letter Office stood in Post House Yard, 1653 - 166...
Other Subjects
John Edward Sly
Chairman of the Smithfield Central Market Sub Committee in 1888.
Henry Ford
American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that middle-clas...
Person, Commerce, Industry, Race Issues, Seriously Famous, Transport
London Tea History Association
Founded to record and commemorate over 335 years of the World’s tea trade in London. Feb 2018 City Matters reported that "a statue recognising the City’s pivotal position in the tea trade planned ...
Sir Joseph Lyons
Sir Joseph Nathaniel Lyons was a pioneer of mass catering. Chairman of J. Lyons and Co. Born Kennington,his father being a Jewish itinerant watch seller. Joseph was apprenticed to an optician. Mov...
John Thornton
Philanthropist who promoted Christian missionary work.  Died following an accident at Bath.  He is listed on the plaque as a menber of the Clapham Sect but it did not really get going until his dea...

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