Postal pioneer who kept his hand in the till

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You may not have heard of Sir Francis Freeling, born in Bristol 250 years ago this week, but he was one of the most important and influential figures in Britain's postal system. And as Eugene Byrne explains, not only did he do very well out of it financially, but also used his position to spy on political enemies

"Mr. Francis Freeling, who had filled the appointment of Secretary to the General Post Office for more than thirty years, was created a baronet on the 11th March, 1828, in recognition of his services to the State. Sir Francis, the son of a journeyman sugar-baker, is said to have been born on Redcliff Hill in 1764, and was educated in Colston's School. He held a subordinate position in the Bristol Post Office in 1784, when the introduction of mail coaches, at the instance of Mr. John Palmer, of Bath, caused a mutiny amongst the clerks in the London establishment, who declared that the daily despatch of mails at a fixed hour was utterly impracticable."

That's John Latimer writing in his Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century, and from this you would get the idea that Francis Freeling, not only gave the postal system a much-needed kick in the pants, but that he was also a model of propriety and rectitude.

Some might beg to differ.

Freeling was born in Redcliffe parish 250 years ago on August 25, and was educated at Colston's School and for a while by one of the masters at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School.

He began his career as an apprentice at the Bristol Post Office, where he was rapidly promoted. He assisted John Palmer of Bath in successfully introducing a system of regular and reliable mail-coaches, resulting in his move to London and increasingly senior positions in the British postal system.

He reorganised mail services, set up a money order office so that money could be transferred without using cash or bullion, and saw the introduction of the first transport of mail by rail and steamships.

For all this he was rewarded with a baronetcy, and was praised by the Duke of Wellington himself, who said that under his management, Britain had the best postal system in the world. He was probably right.

He did very well for himself out of it. He was paid an annual salary of £500, which was more than ten times the wage of a skilled working man. As well as this he had an allowance of £70. All of this sounds reasonable, but somewhere along the line he also wangled himself the rights to the profits from sending newspapers to America and the West Indies. This brought him in an additional £3,000 a year.

When this perk was withdrawn in 1826, the government commuted it to an annual pension of the same amount. This led, unsurprisingly, to accusations which only intensified when he promoted his own son to plum jobs in the Post Office.

In the 18th century, the whole point of holding public office was the opportunities it offered for dipping into the till, and while times were changing by the early 19th century, Freeling's behaviour was not that unusual. He used much of his fortune to acquire one of the best libraries of the time.

What was rather less acceptable was his behaviour earlier on. As a staunch Tory and admirer of William Pitt, he belonged to a shadowy network of government officials who monitored the activities of political dissidents. Whether this included opening people's mail is unclear, but it would be surprising if it did not.

What he certainly did was use the postal system he ran to circulate pro-government propaganda, including in the 1790s a newspaper, The Sun, which he himself set up with George Rose, secretary to the Treasury.

He also organised secret monitoring of radical papers to find out their circulation figures and where they were going. He probably also used the system to circulate anti-Catholic propaganda.

He had several children by three marriages and died in London in 1836. He was buried at Kensal Green, but a memorial tablet to him was put up at St Mary Redcliffe.