Postage stamps and postal history of Barbados
Encyclopedia
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Barbados
.
The first Europeans to arrive on the island were probably the Portuguese
in about the year 1500. In 1605 Sir Olave Leigh landed on the island and claimed it for King James
. The first group of English settlers, about 30, arrived on the island in about 1624. More English settlers continued to arrive and by 1650 some 20,000 people had settled on the island.
established a Packet Agency on the island of Barbados, in Bridgetown
, during the reign of Charles II
in 1663. The Agency at first relied on casual ships to carry the mail. In 1702 Edmund Dummer
started a monthly services from Falmouth
, changing to Plymouth
in 1705. The return trip took three to four months. The service ended in 1711 when Dummer was made bankrupt. In the previous nine years Dummer had lost two packets at sea and had seven captured by the Spanish. In 1711 his remaining seven packets were seized by creditors and the service lapsed. The Packet Agency again had to use casual ships to carry the mail until 1745 when a service, based on Dummer's original plans, was reintroduced by the Post Office.
Postal markings first appeared on mail from Barbados in the 1760’s. At the time the name of the colony was spelt ‘Barbadoes’, this lasted till about 1850. The British Post Office was responsible for the internal postal system until 1 August 1851 when it was handed over to the Barbados Legislature. The British continued to operate the Packet Agency, for overseas mail, till 1858. So during this period, 1851 to 1858, there were 2 separate Post Offices on the island. Unlike several other British Colonies, Barbados did not use British Stamps at any time.
The Packet rate for letters to Great Britain was six pence per half-ounce. The rate for letters to other islands in the West Indies was four pence plus one penny if not posted at the Post Office plus another one penny if the letter was delivered and not collected at the Post Office of destination.
and Trinidad
. Each colony had the same ‘Britannia’ design with different wording. The design is based on a watercolour by Henry Corbould
and it is believed to have been engraved by Frederick Heath. Henry Corbould provided the sketch from which the Penny Black
was engraved. The first despatch of ½d green and 1d blue stamps was sent on 30 December 1851 on board the RMS Amazon; the vessel was lost at sea and failed to reach the island. Further supplies were sent in January and February 1852 including a 2d greyish slate. The local Post Office was opened on 15 April 1852 and these stamps went on sale the same day. The stamps did not show the denomination. The 2d greyish slate stamp is known bisected and used as a one-penny stamp, these were authorised for use during a shortage of 1d stamps between 4 August 1854 and 21 September 1854.
Sometime after January 1855 a supply of 4d red-brown ‘Britannia’ stamps were made available in the Barbados Post Office. Although at the time the island authorities were not responsible for external mail it would appear that they had decided to facilitate payment for letter going to the other West Indies islands.
The British Packet Agency office was amalgamated with the Barbados Post Office in 1858. Six pence red and one-shilling brown-black stamps were ordered and sent to the island in October 1858. These stamps did show the value.
Up till 1860 all the stamps were imperforate, from 1860 the stamps were supplied perforated. In 1873 two new values were supplied a three pence and a five shilling stamp. It is believed that the purpose of the three-penny stamp was to pay for postage to Great Britain by vessels other than the regular mail packets. The five-shilling stamp was not intended for any special rate and was used on heavy postal packets.
There was an unexpected shortage of the one-penny stamps in March 1878. To remedy the situation five-shilling stamps were overprinted 1d twice and perforated vertically. They were printed and perforated locally by the West Indian Press. Post Office staff then cut off the value tablets from the bottom of horizontal strips of 12 surcharged five-shilling stamps. A total of 9,600 provisional 1d stamps were produced.
In 1874 the Barbados stamp-printing contract was terminated with Perkins Bacon & Co
and given to De La Rue & Co
. De La Rue & Co made use of the plates handed to them to print further supplies of stamps.
In July 1892 a surplus of four-penny brown stamps were overprinted HALF-PENNY. The printing was done by the West Indian Press.
Barbados attained self-government on October 16, 1961 and independence within the Commonwealth
on November 30, 1966. An independence issue was issued in 1966 which included stamps of the Hilton Hotel and cricketer Gary Sobers.
to be issued by the Barbados were postcard
s in 1881; registration envelopes, newspaper wrappers and post paid envelopes were first issued in 1882. Aerogrammes were first issued in 1949
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
The first Europeans to arrive on the island were probably the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in about the year 1500. In 1605 Sir Olave Leigh landed on the island and claimed it for King James
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
. The first group of English settlers, about 30, arrived on the island in about 1624. More English settlers continued to arrive and by 1650 some 20,000 people had settled on the island.
Pre-stamp period
The British Post OfficeRoyal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
established a Packet Agency on the island of Barbados, in Bridgetown
Bridgetown
The city of Bridgetown , metropolitan pop 96,578 , is the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. Formerly, the Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael...
, during the reign of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in 1663. The Agency at first relied on casual ships to carry the mail. In 1702 Edmund Dummer
Edmund Dummer (naval engineer)
Edmund Dummer was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy, founded the Royal Navy dockyard at , Plymouth and extended that at Portsmouth. His survey of the Royal Navy Dockyards is a valuable and well-known historic document...
started a monthly services from Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, changing to Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in 1705. The return trip took three to four months. The service ended in 1711 when Dummer was made bankrupt. In the previous nine years Dummer had lost two packets at sea and had seven captured by the Spanish. In 1711 his remaining seven packets were seized by creditors and the service lapsed. The Packet Agency again had to use casual ships to carry the mail until 1745 when a service, based on Dummer's original plans, was reintroduced by the Post Office.
Postal markings first appeared on mail from Barbados in the 1760’s. At the time the name of the colony was spelt ‘Barbadoes’, this lasted till about 1850. The British Post Office was responsible for the internal postal system until 1 August 1851 when it was handed over to the Barbados Legislature. The British continued to operate the Packet Agency, for overseas mail, till 1858. So during this period, 1851 to 1858, there were 2 separate Post Offices on the island. Unlike several other British Colonies, Barbados did not use British Stamps at any time.
1851 Postage Rate
Postage rates were set at one penny per half ounce. Newspapers published in Barbados were post-free; other printed matter was charged a halfpenny. Barbados was the first British Colony to have a halfpenny rate; even preceding the Great Britain 1870 issue.The Packet rate for letters to Great Britain was six pence per half-ounce. The rate for letters to other islands in the West Indies was four pence plus one penny if not posted at the Post Office plus another one penny if the letter was delivered and not collected at the Post Office of destination.
Barbados Britannias
In order to save on die costs, the stamp order for Barbados was combined with that of MauritiusMauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. Each colony had the same ‘Britannia’ design with different wording. The design is based on a watercolour by Henry Corbould
Henry Corbould
Henry Corbould was an English artist.-Life:The third son of Richard Corbould, he was born in London. He studied painting with his father, and was at an early age admitted as a student of the Royal Academy, under Fuseli, where he gained the silver medal for a study from the life...
and it is believed to have been engraved by Frederick Heath. Henry Corbould provided the sketch from which the Penny Black
Penny Black
The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....
was engraved. The first despatch of ½d green and 1d blue stamps was sent on 30 December 1851 on board the RMS Amazon; the vessel was lost at sea and failed to reach the island. Further supplies were sent in January and February 1852 including a 2d greyish slate. The local Post Office was opened on 15 April 1852 and these stamps went on sale the same day. The stamps did not show the denomination. The 2d greyish slate stamp is known bisected and used as a one-penny stamp, these were authorised for use during a shortage of 1d stamps between 4 August 1854 and 21 September 1854.
Sometime after January 1855 a supply of 4d red-brown ‘Britannia’ stamps were made available in the Barbados Post Office. Although at the time the island authorities were not responsible for external mail it would appear that they had decided to facilitate payment for letter going to the other West Indies islands.
The British Packet Agency office was amalgamated with the Barbados Post Office in 1858. Six pence red and one-shilling brown-black stamps were ordered and sent to the island in October 1858. These stamps did show the value.
Up till 1860 all the stamps were imperforate, from 1860 the stamps were supplied perforated. In 1873 two new values were supplied a three pence and a five shilling stamp. It is believed that the purpose of the three-penny stamp was to pay for postage to Great Britain by vessels other than the regular mail packets. The five-shilling stamp was not intended for any special rate and was used on heavy postal packets.
There was an unexpected shortage of the one-penny stamps in March 1878. To remedy the situation five-shilling stamps were overprinted 1d twice and perforated vertically. They were printed and perforated locally by the West Indian Press. Post Office staff then cut off the value tablets from the bottom of horizontal strips of 12 surcharged five-shilling stamps. A total of 9,600 provisional 1d stamps were produced.
In 1874 the Barbados stamp-printing contract was terminated with Perkins Bacon & Co
Perkins Bacon
Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840.- Origins :...
and given to De La Rue & Co
De La Rue
De La Rue plc is a British security printing, papermaking and cash handling systems company headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire. It also has a factory on the Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead, and other facilities at Loughton, Essex and Bathford, Somerset...
. De La Rue & Co made use of the plates handed to them to print further supplies of stamps.
The Barbados Queen issues
Halfpenny green, one-penny red, two and halfpence blue and four-penny grey stamps were ordered in February 1882 and were issued on 28 August 1882. In September 1884 the order for stamps by the island Post Office included three-penny purple and four-penny brown. An order for stamps in June 1886 included the six-penny black, one-shilling brown and a five-shilling bistre.In July 1892 a surplus of four-penny brown stamps were overprinted HALF-PENNY. The printing was done by the West Indian Press.
Later issues
Current stamp catalogues list over 1,000 different stamps as having been issued by Barbados since 1892.Barbados attained self-government on October 16, 1961 and independence within the Commonwealth
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...
on November 30, 1966. An independence issue was issued in 1966 which included stamps of the Hilton Hotel and cricketer Gary Sobers.
Postal stationery
The first items of postal stationeryPostal stationery
A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...
to be issued by the Barbados were postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s in 1881; registration envelopes, newspaper wrappers and post paid envelopes were first issued in 1882. Aerogrammes were first issued in 1949
Sources
- Bayley, Herbert H, The Post Office in Barbados, Advocate Press, Bridgetown, 1933, 73pp
- Bayley, Edmund A, The Stamps of Barbados, 1989, 405pp
- Proud, Edward B, The Postal History of Barbados and Grenada, Proud-Bailey Co Ltd, April 2006, 335 pages, ISBN 1872465420