▪ I. postmaster1
(ˈpəʊstmɑːstə(r))
[f. post n.2 + master n.1: = 15th c. L. magister postarum, obs. F. maître de postes, It. maestro delle poste, Ger. postmeister (in 1491 Francis de Taxis, who superintended the Imperial mails, called himself postmaister).]
1. † a. orig. A master of the posts; the officer who had the charge or direction of the post-messengers, whose office gradually developed into that of postmaster general, q.v. † b. In the 17th and 18th c., The post-office servant at each of the stations or stages of a post-road, whose primary duty it was to carry the mails to the next stage, and subsequently, to receive and deliver or send out the letters for his own town or district; orig. called post (n.2 1); in 1668 deputy postmaster. c. Now, The person who has official charge of a post office, and the superintendence of all postal business there transacted.
| a. 1513 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 210 Whilst I have no postis at my command,..I do my dwte in wrytynge & spende monney to send my lettyrs to th' Emperours post⁓mastir. [1516 Francis de Taxis (the Emperor's Postmaster) Let. to Brian Tuke 23 Mar. (Lett. & Pap. Hen. VIII, II. 1698), [addressed] Magistro Domino meo Brianno Tuke, Magistro Postarum, Londini. 1545 Patent Hen. VIII in Rep. Secret Comm. P.O. (1844) 33 Officinam Magistri Nunciorum, Cursorum, sive postarum. 1567 Patent Eliz. ibid. 34 Officinam Magistri Nunciorum et Cursorum, communiter vocatam Postarum. 1572 Ibid., Thomas Randolphe esquier, Maister of the Postes.] 1574–5 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 376 Item, payed for charges bestowed uppon M{supr}. Gasquyner the Quenes post master. [1591 Proclam. in Rep. Secret Comm. on Post Office (1844) 36 Our Master of the Postes, or the Masters of the Postes Generall of those countreys.] 1625 in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) I. 24 Questor was overthrown this day sevennight in a suit about the postmaster's office, wherein the Lord Stanhope prevailed against him. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4455/2 Count Paar, Post-Master of the Hereditary Countries, goes with her..Majesty as far as Holland. |
| b , c. 1603 in Rep. Secret Comm. P.O. (1844) 38 It is fit and convenient, in this time so full of busines, that the postemasters of every stage be aided and assisted with fresh and able horses. 1637 Rutland MSS. IV. 529 Payd to a messenger that came from the postmaster of Newarke, 2s. 1653 Reg. Council of State in Rep. S.C.P.O. 70 That the Postmasters and others employed by Mr. Prideaux, being godly and well affected, to be continued in their employments. 1659 Jrnl. Ho. Com. 10 June, The humble petition of the several postmasters of England in behalf of themselves, and..families, was this day read. 1668 Lond. Gaz. No. 322/4 Notice is hereby given, That the Post-Master-General hath contracted.., with all the respective Deputy Post-Masters, to carry from time to time all Letters directed to every particular person within Ten miles from their Stage-Towns, paying Two pence a time besides the London Post, and to bring back their Answers to the said Stage, Gratis. 1681 Boyle Let. to Bp. H. Jones Wks. 1772 I. p. clxxx, I resolved to dispatch them by land to Chester, to the post-master of which place I got them particularly recommended by M{supr}. Dowlin, post-master of Dublin. 1707 Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. (ed. 22) 442 Upon this grand Office depends 182 Deputy-Post-Masters in England and Scotland, most of which keep regular Offices in their Stages, and Sub-Post-Masters in their Branches. 1771 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 98/2 The court gave judgment,..declaring, that by the several acts relating to the post-office, all letters must be delivered by the post-master of every post-town, to the persons to whom such letters are directed. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. viii. II. 350 The letter addressed to William Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, was, in spite of all precautions, detained by a postmaster. 1893 H. Joyce Hist. Post Office vi. 48 These stages [of the post roads, in 17th c.] were presided over by..postmasters, whose duty it was to carry the mails each over his own stage. |
| fig. 1607 Dekker Knts. Conjur. (1842) 33 The Post⁓maister of Hell plainly told them that if any so seditious a fellow as Golde were cast into prison, their fathers would never give their consent to haue him ransomed. 1647 Trapp Comm. Matt. xxv. 11 Epimetheus' post-masters, semper victuri, in Seneca's sense. |
2. The master of a posting station, who provides horses for posting; one who keeps a posting establishment; = jobmaster 1.
Originally, the same person as in the earlier stage of sense 1 b; the several postmasters who carried the mails being the only persons licensed to let horses to travellers.
| 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 85 The Postmaister came unto him, and called twice aloude..and forthwith there came out of the Stable a foule greate Groome..who had charge giuen him to make readie three horses. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 199 It was not Anne, but a Post-masters boy. 1603, 1659 [see 1]. 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 56 The defendant is a licenced post-master in the city of London, and had let a chaise and pair of horses for the day. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 461/1 That revenue can be raised on posting, without the government acting as a postmaster, we have England for an example. 1860 Spottiswoode in Vac. Tour. 86 The postmaster would give us no horses, as the road by which we were to proceed was not a post-road. 1865 Gladstone Financ. Statem. 84, I believe the largest post-masters in the kingdom are in London, and that their principal traffic is to the railway stations. |
3. Canad. The master of a fur-trading post.
| 1832 in R. H. Fleming Minutes Council Northern Dept. Rupert Land (Hudson Bay Co.) (1940) 236 Post Masters Are a Class which ranks in the Service between Interpreters & Clerks. They are generally persons who while filling the office of common Labourers..were..raised from the ‘ranks’ and placed in charge of small Posts at Salys. from 35 to {pstlg}45 p. Annm. 1953 A. R. M. Lower Unconventional Voy. 33 The postmaster at Attawapiskat..was minus the toes on his right foot. |
▪ II. postmaster2
(ˈpəʊstmɑːstə(r))
The name given at Merton College, Oxford, from the 16th c., to the class of poor scholars instituted in 1380 by John Wyllyot; now the equivalent in that college of the term ‘scholar’ in general collegiate use.
For the first hundred years these appear in the College Register only as pueri (M. Johannis) Wylyot, ‘Wylyot's boys’. But their essential characteristic was the reception of a limited weekly ‘portion’, ebdomadalis portionis; hence we find them (from 1483) styled porcionistæ or (1546) portionistæ, a term Englished in the 17th c., as by Wood, as portionists. The age of the term postmaster is not certain: it occurs in the College Records in 1593 in the established name of Postmasters' Hall, the dwelling opposite to the college in which the pueri or portionistæ had resided till c 1575, when they were moved into the college. It also appears as the appellation of the portionistæ in English letters of 1610 preserved in the Records. But these casual occurrences show only that it was then a long-established name. As to its origin nothing is known; it has been variously conjectured to be a corruption of portionista, or a rendering of *post-magister or *post-minister, in allusion to the fact that the portionistæ were at one time servitors to the Masters or Fellows, perhaps standing behind their chairs at dinner, etc. But post-minister does not occur in the college register, and the occurrence of post-magister is doubtful.
| [1380 Ordinatio M. Joh. Wyllyott (Merton Archives), Sic. admissus quomodo commune pretium modii frumenti 12d. non excedit, percipiat tum 7d. pro ebdomadali portione..ebdomadalem portionem prius limitatum. 1381 Merton Coll. Rolls Acc. Compotus. Magister puerorum Wylyot. 1454 Ibid., Pro communibus puerorum. 1483 (Dec. 31) Merton Coll. Reg., Insuper porcionistarum numerum decretum est augeri sec. magistrorum numerum. 1546 (May 11) Ibid., Scholaris aulæ portionistarum. 1577 (Aug. 1) Ibid., Nullus portionista admittetur qui non habeat suum magistrum tutorem et in ipsius cubiculo pernoctet.] |
| 1593 J. Leach (Chanc. Exeter Cathedr.) Let. 31 Mar. in Coll. Reg., By the ordinacion of my predecessor John Wiliett, founder of postm{supr}{sups} hall. 1610 Dr. T. Jesope ibid. 1 Aug., I have bin much sorie that I have bin so long hindered from y⊇ performance of my long entended purpose for y⊇ relief of the poore postmasters of Merton Colledg. [So 4 times in letter and 3 times in reply.] 1639 Abp. Laud ibid. 6 May, That no Postmaster shall hold his place after that he hath gotten his grace to be a Graduate in the University. 1647 Wood Life 26 May (O.H.S.) I. 135 Samuel Jones was made from being a servitour of All Soules College, either a postmaster or a pro-postmaster. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §8 Much honoured, in that Bishop Jewel was a postmaster before removed hence to be a fellow of Corpus Christi Colledg. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. II. 241 Merton-College... This College has a Warden, 24 Fellows, 14 Portionists or Postmasters, and 2 Clerks. 1853 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. vii, At Merton there are fourteen postmasters. |