Receiver General's Entry Books

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0813 POST 103 Series
Held at	: British Postal Museum and Archive: The Royal Mail Archive   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/ ›
Full title	: Receiver General's Entry Books
Date(s)	: 1694-1854
Level of description	: Series
Extent	: 16 volumes
Name of creator(s)	: No further information available

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The duty of the Receiver General's office was the balancing of cash derived from the income and expenditure of the Post Office. The Receiver General was appointed independently and took responsibility for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General. He took receipt of all money paid into the Department, and paid costs directly from these funds.

Sources of income included payments received from the Postmasters, Inland Office, Foreign Office, Letter Receivers, Letter Carriers and charges levied on incoming foreign letters.

Outgoing payments were mainly for wages, allowances, pensions and normal postal service costs. The balance of cash was transferred to the Exchequer.

The class is comprised, for the most part, of Entry Books of Correspondence which contain authorities for acceptance and payment of monies by probate of wills, letters of administration, powers of attorney, bankruptcy, appointment of assignees, incidental payments, packet boat expenses and warrants for payments of annuities etc.

The position of Receiver General tended to overlap with another prominent financial position, that of Accountant General. The Accountant General was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue in the Post Office. Due to this overlap the posts were finally merged in 1854, and 1854 is the date of the last entry book in this series.

No other record of the Receiver General's functions exists apart from the material in this class.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

The POST class is comprised, for the most part, of Entry Books of correspondence which contain authorities for acceptance and payment of monies by probate of wills, letters of administration, powers of attorney, bankruptcy, appointment of assignees, incidental payments, packet boat expenses and warrants for payments of annuities.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Chronological order

Conditions governing access:

Public Record

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry checked by Barbara Ball

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Entry checked June 2011