Benjamin Franklin | An appointment for a Deputy Postmaster

Benjamin Franklin

Letterpress broadside document signed (“BFranklin”) as Postmaster General of British America, printed on a half-sheet of laid paper (227 x 370 mm; watermarked posthorn | D & C Blauw), [Philadelphia,] 10 January 1764, accomplished in a clerical hand, also signed by the joint Postmaster General (“John Foxcroft”), heraldic red wax seal of the Post Office; browned, rebacked with paper, closing some fold separations and a couple of small holes, with one letter and portions of two others supplied in ink facsimile.

Headed “Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, Esquires, Post-Masters-General of all His Majesty’s Provinces and Dominions on the Continent of North-America,” the present appointment reads, “To All to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting, Know ye, That We the said Benjamin Franklin and John Foxcroft, having received good Testimony of the Fidelity, and Loyalty to His Majesty, of Abraham Hunt, of Trenton, in New-Jersey, Gent. and reposing great Trust and Confidence in the Knowledge, Care, and Ability of the said Abraham Hunt, to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Post-Master, have Deputed, Constituted, Authorized, and Appointed, and by these Presents do Depute, Constitute, Authorize, and Appoint the said Abraham Hunt, to be our lawful and sufficient Deputy, to Execute the Office of Deputy Post-Master at Trenton in New-Jersey, aforesaid, to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy the said Office, with all and every the Rights, Privileges, Benefits and Advantages, to the same belonging, from the Day of the Date hereof for the Term of three Years, unless sooner removed by us, under such Conditions, Covenants, Provisoes, Payments, Orders and Instructions, to be faithfully observed, performed, and done, by the said Deputy, and Servants, as he or they shall, from Time to Time, receive from Us, or by our Order. In Witness whereof, We the said Benjamin Franklin, and John Foxcroft, have hereunto set our Hands, and caused the Seal of our Office to be affixed: Dated the Tenth Day of January, 1764, in the Fourth Year of His Majesty’s Reign.”

Of all of his civil posts, Benjamin Franklin was a postmaster for the longest period: he became the postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 under the British Parliamentary postal system; in 1753 he was appointed one of two Postmasters-General for the North American colonies (first with William Hunter and, after Hunter’s death, with John Foxcroft) and held this post until January 1774, when his growing sympathy for American independence led to his dismissal; and, finally, during a brief sojourn in Philadelphia between long stays in London and Paris, he served as the first Postmaster General of the Unted States from July 1775 to November 1776. Despite this lengthy tenure, postal service appointments signed by Franklin are of the greatest rarity.

The Papers of Benjamin Franklin located five colonial post-office commissions signed by Franklin—all in institutional collections—in addition to the present: Thomas Vernon, Newport, Rhode Island, 24 December 1754 (New York Public Library); Woodward Abraham, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 10 April 1758 (American Philosophical Society); Thomas MacKreth, Charles Town, South Carolina, 11 July 1760 (New York Public Library); William Ellery, Hartford, Connecticut, 22 October 1767 (Beinecke Library, Yale); and Philip Skene, Skenesborough, New York, 5 June 1771 (Fort Ticonderoga Museum). Only one example appears in the auction records: Woodward Abraham’s appointment was sold at Charles Hamilton Galleries, 25 March 1971, lot 154. In addition, we have identified two United States post-office commissions signed by Franklin that extended the service of recipients of his colonial appointments: Abraham Hunt, 13 October 1775, is described in the Papers, 11:3–6 (then the property of Theodore Sheldon, Chicago; current location unknown); and William Ellery, 25 September 1775 (sold, Heritage Auctions, 8 August 2025, lot 47072).

“Franklin had been appointed joint deputy postmaster general of North America in 1753 and had journeyed as far as New Hampshire and Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot the best postal routes and set up new post offices. Over the next few years he enlarged the reach of the post office north, south, and west, and made mail delivery along the major routes quicker and more frequent. He designed forms for postmasters, instituted home delivery of letters in the cities, advertised uncollected mail, created a dead-letter office, and began delivering newspapers and magazines (and charging for doing so). He was the most entrepreneurial, efficient postmaster America ever had—and the only one under whom the post office ever made a profit” (Lemay).

Abraham Hunt was the principal merchant of Trenton and an ardent supporter of the American cause. He was a member of the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence and a lieutenant colonel in the Hunterdon County militia. On Christmas evening, 1776, Hunt entertained at his home, among other guests, Hessian Colonel Johann Rall, who became so engrossed in card playing and general revelry that he paid no attention to a Loyalist informant who tried to warn him of Washington’s planned crossing of the Delaware River. Hunt’s sociability threw him under patriot suspicion, from which he was exonerated, and the Papers note that “Rall enjoyed, somewhat to excess, his Christmas revels the night before Washington’s surprise attack in 1776, and Hunt’s ‘hospitality’ doubtless contributed to the success of the Americans.” Rall was killed during the Battle of Trenton. 

REFERENCES

Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Labaree, 11:3–6; J. A. Leo Lemay, in Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, pp. 34–36

PROVENANCE

Theodore Sheldon, Chicago (credited in Papers)