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What Is The History of
Post Offices In Jamaica?

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montego_bay_post_office_clock_2The History of Post Offices In Jamaica | Montego Bay Post Office

by Venesha Johnson | Associate Writer

While sending letters is no longer a primary way of communication, there are still many other reasons why the postal system is still active today. The Jamaica Postal services have been around for decades and continue to thrive.

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About the Jamaican Postal Services

The almost 400 Post Offices and Postal Agencies on the island are managed by the Post and Telecommunications Department (Jamaica Post), which has its main office at 6-10 South Camp Road in Kingston. The Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology is in charge of Jamaica Post as a Department of the Government.

The Postal Corporation of Jamaica (Post Corp.), a second organization, was established and registered in 2000. The mission of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica is to make the Jamaican Postal Service a successful, cutting-edge, and effective organization.

To this end, they collaborate closely with the Post and Telecommunications Department. In Jamaica, there are more than 400 postal points. These comprise 164 Postal Agencies and 237 Post Offices.

The History of Post Offices in Jamaica

During Charles II's reign in 1663, inhabitants of Jamaica were concerned about the snail-like pace of postal delivery. Thomas Lynch, the lieutenant governor of Jamaica, was given the task of setting up a post office that would be run by the Postmaster General of London.

On October 31, 1671, the postal system was inaugurated in Jamaica, making the nation the first British colony to have a functioning post office. During that time, Gabriel Martin was also named Jamaica's first Postmaster General.

Martin created two post offices, one at St. Jago de la Vega (now known as Spanish Town), and the other at the port of Passage Fort (once located at the mouth of the Rio Cobre in St Catherine).

This unfortunately did not appease the people for long as they soon went back to utilising sea captains for delivery purposes.

Although on average, just four out of every twelve packets sent monthly in any given year were successful, an ambitious Mr Dummer launched a packet business in 1705 that secured the delivery of about 1,500 private letters to England.

Regular mail delivery did not resume after Dummer's death in 1713 until 1745, despite the fact that a law creating General Post Offices for all of Her Majesty's Domains was established in 1711. Consequently, the General Post Office in London gained authority over post offices spread out across the West Indies.

Edward Dismore was later named Postmaster General in 1754 as a result of the growing demand for dependable mail service that accompanied the rising economy fueled by sugar exports.

In Spanish Town, Bailles' Town, Old Harbour, Clarendon, Vere, Goshen, Lacovia, Black River, Savanna-la-Mar, Salt Spring, Lucea, Buff Bay, Port Antonio, St. Ann's Bay, and other locations throughout the island, he managed the establishment of about 34 post offices.

There were three main offices: Yallahs, Morant Bay, and Martha Brae. Many of these are still in use today. The Main post office was then moved from Spanish Town to Harbour Street in Kingston in 1776.

Stamps

Steamship service and stamps had both been developed by the 1840s. Prior to the invention of stamps, mail was paid for at the time of delivery; if the recipient refused to pay, no money was collected.

The first stamps, the one-penny black and the two-pence blue, depicting Queen Victoria and stating a predetermined rate regardless of distance travelled, were created by English Schoolmaster Rowland Hill and put on sale in 1840. Jamaica was granted control of its own postal system in 1858, and the stamps soon followed. Up until 1860, Jamaica utilized British postage stamps.

Then, the country started creating its own, which included a characteristic pineapple watermark. Stamps were made in England and bore the picture of the queen up until around 1900 when Jamaica’s first pictorial stamp of Llandovery Falls was issued.

Jamaica joined the postal union in 1877, and by 1903 mail delivery was being done on bicycles. After the 1907 earthquake that significantly damaged the nation's capital, the main Post Office relocated to a new location in the yard at the General Post Office on King Street in Downtown, Kingston.

However, these locations quickly proved insufficient due to an increase in mail volumes, so plans were made to build a new head office building that would also include an automated central sorting office. The sorting facility was fully operational by the time construction of this new building was completed in 1980.

Did you know that Jamaica also has designated postal codes? Click here to read more.

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Return to Jamaican World Records from History of Post Offices In Jamaica
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References & Sources For History of Post Offices In Jamaica

  1. About Us (no date) Jamaica Post. Available at: https://jamaicapost.gov.jm/about-us/#:~:text=The%20postal%20service%20was%20started,in%20the%20then%20capital%2C%20St (Accessed: December 4, 2022).
  2. diG Jamaica (2019) A brief history of the Post Office in Jamaica -, diG Jamaica. Available at: http://digjamaica.com/m/blog/world-post-day-a-brief-history-of-the-post-office-in-jamaica/2/ (Accessed: December 4, 2022).

History of Post Offices In Jamaica | Written: December 4, 2022

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