The mail services between Bristol and the Southern Counties came into great prominence in 1903. The Postmaster-General was appealed to on the subject, and the phantom of the old Bristol and Portsmouth mail coach was conjured up to form a comparison detrimental to present-day arrangements. The discussion recalls somewhat vividly the mail coach traditions of the pre-railway period, and certainly the community of to-day has, at all events, fallen on better times as regards security of the mails, if not better night mail services. In the General Post Office letter in Lombard Street, 26th April, 1720, this note appears:—"The Bristol Mail was again robbed yesterday, in the same place as on Friday, by one highwayman."

Mist's Journal of Apl. 30, 1720, states:—"Last week the Oxford Stage Coach was robbed between Uxbridge and London, by the same highwaymen as is supposed who robbed the Bristol Mail, one of them having a scar on his forehead."

"A man lately taken up near Maidenhead Thicket, and charged with robbing the Cirencester Stage Coach, has been examined by a Justice of the Peace, who has committed him to Reading Gaol. He is said to be a butcher's son of Thame, in Oxfordshire."

The following particulars relate to a Bristol mail coach robbery in 1721. They were taken from a pamphlet written by Wilson, who was one of the highwaymen therein alluded to, and saved his neck by informing. Wilson was a person of education, but some of his statements were questionable. The pamphlet was full of moral reflections upon the evils of bad company, gambling, &c.; it ran through several editions, so it was no doubt popular. It will be interesting as indicating the difficulties attending the Bristol mail services of the period, and that death was the penalty for robbing his Majesty's mails. It runs thus in the heading:—

"A full and impartial account of all the robberies committed by John Hawkins, George Sympson (lately executed for robbing the Bristol mails), and their companions. Written by Ralph Wilson, late one of their confederates. London: Printed for J. Poole at the Lockes Head in Paternoster Row. Price 6d."

The following is an abbreviation of the contents so far as they relate to the Bristol mails:—

John Hawkins was the son of poor but honest parents. His father was a farmer, and lived at Staines, Middlesex. Had a slender education. At 14 he waited on a gentleman, then was a tapster's boy at the Red Lion, at Brentford; got into service again, was butler to Sir Dennis Daltry; took to gambling; was suspected of being a confederate in robbing his master's house of plate; was dismissed. At the age of 24 took to highway robbery; stopped a coach on Hounslow Heath, and eased the passengers of about £11; with others committed several robberies on Bagshot and Hounslow Heaths; was arrested for attempting to rescue Captain Lennard, one of his accomplices, but was discharged.

Wilson, the writer of the pamphlet, was a Yorkshireman; became clerk to a Chancery barrister; met Hawkins at a gambling-house; they became "great cronies." Wilson joins Hawkins's gang; they commit several highway robberies. Feb. 1, 1721, Wilson goes to Yorkshire; Hawkins impeached several of his companions, and one of them (Wright) was hanged. Hawkins, Wilson, and others robbed one morning the Cirencester, the Worcester, the Gloster, the Oxford, and the Bristol stage coaches; the next morning the Ipswich and Colchester coaches; a third morning, perhaps the Portsmouth. The Bury coach was "our constant customer."

Sympson, who was born at Putney, and had no education, had by this time joined the gang. The robberies were continued. In April (1722) they went back to their old design of robbing the mail coaches. They first proposed to rob the Harwich mail, but gave up that design because that mail was "as uncertain as the wind." They then decided to rob the Bristol mail. Wilson said he objected to this plan, but he joined in it. They set out Sunday, April 15th. "The next morning being Monday, we took the mail, and again on Wednesday morning. The meaning of taking it twice was to get the halves of some bank bills, the first halves whereof we took out of the mail on Monday morning." On Monday, April 23rd, Wilson learnt at the Moorgate Coffee House that there was a great request for the robbers of the Bristol mail. He therefore contemplated taking a passage to Newcastle, but before he could do so he was arrested, and carried to the General Post Office, where he was examined by the Postmaster-General. He was again examined by the Postmaster-General (Carteret) the next morning, but he denied all knowledge of the robbery. While under examination, a messenger came from Hawkins, who was in prison at the Gate House, "to let the Post-house know that he had impeached me." One of the officers of the Post Office then showed Wilson an unsigned letter, which he recognised as being in Sympson's handwriting, confessing his share in the robbery, and offering to secure his two companions. Wilson then decided to confess. Hawkins and Sympson were tried, found guilty, and executed 21st May, 1722.

In connection with this Bristol mail robbery, the following are interesting particulars from the calendar of Treasury papers:—"Memorial of William Saunderson, clerk, to Sir Robert Walpole. Says he was author of an expedient to prevent the Bristol and other mails from being robbed. The scheme seems to have been to write with red ink on the foreside of all bank notes the name of the post town where they were posted, the day of the month, and also the addition of these words, viz.:—'From Bristol to London,' &c. These services (presumably Saunderson's) have been attended with great expense and loss of time, and no mail robberies have since been committed. Asks for compensation. Referred 11th April, 1728, to postmasters to report. May 23, 1728.—Affidavit of W. Saunderson, receiver, of Holford, West Somerset (probably the same person), that he sent a letter subscribed A.Z. to the Postmaster-General offering an expedient to prevent the robbing of the Bristol and other mails, and of the subsequent negotiations with the Post Office; has never received any reward. Mr. Carteret claimed the contrivance of the scheme wholly to himself. May 29th.—Postmaster-General's report of 17th April read: 'My Lords satisfied with the report.' Saunderson had no pretence to any reward. Scheme entirely formed at Post Office without assistance of Saunderson or anybody else. Saunderson called in, informed that my Lords adhere to Postmaster-General's report, and nothing more will be ordered therein."

Stealing a letter or robbing the mail was a capital offence long after Hawkins and Sympson expiated their offences on the scaffold. Thus a notice from the General Post Office on the 24th July, 1767, issued in the London Evening Post, dated "From Tuesday, July 28th, to Thursday, July 30th, 1767," recited that—"Notice is hereby given that by an Act passed the last Session of Parliament, 'For amending certain Laws relating to the revenue of the Post Office, and for granting rates of postage for the conveyance of letters and packets between Great Britain and the Isle of Man, and within that Island,' it is enacted—That from and after the first day of November, 1767, if any person employed or afterwards to be employed in the Post Office shall 'secrete, embezzle, or destroy any letters, &c.,' 'every such offender, being thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.' Also if any person or persons whatsoever shall rob any mail or mails, in which letters are sent or conveyed by post, although it shall not prove to be highway robbery or robbery committed in a dwelling-house, yet such offender or offenders shall be 'deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as a felon, without benefit of clergy.'" In 1781 there was another robbery of the Bristol mail. The occurrence was set forth in detail in the following notice, which was issued on January 29th in that year:—

The robbery, which was graphically described by Mr. G. Hendy, of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in the 1901 Christmas Number of "The Road," does not appear to have been a very daring one as regards the act itself, but it was so as to its consequences. There was no mail coach—no driver in scarlet—no mail guard—no passengers, but only a ramshackle iron mail cart—a "postboy" as driver and carrying no arms. What a contrast is this old mail cart with a single horse, carrying the mails for all the places enumerated in the Notice, to the splendidly appointed four-horse mail coaches of a period thirty years later on, or to the present time, when on the Great Western Railway one whole train is used to carry only a moiety of the King's mail to Bristol and the West! No wonder that the postboy fell an easy victim to the highwaymen, who bound him and threw him into an out-of-the-way field. The desperadoes proved to be two brothers, young men of the name of Weston.

The Westons, after the robbery, went up and down the country on the North road very rapidly, in order to get rid of the £10,000 to £15,000 worth of bank notes and bills which they plundered from the mails. The Bow Street runners were on their track from the first, and the chase continued from London to Carlisle and back. The vagabonds were not, however, captured, and the notice was exhibited all over the country, with the addition of the description of the men wanted by the thief-catchers.

In 1782, the brothers were tried for another offence and acquitted, but they were arrested at once for the robbery of the Bristol mail and committed to Newgate. On trial they were found guilty, and paid the penalty of death by hanging at Tyburn, on the 3rd September, 1782. In later years the death penalty for robbing mails was abolished, and at least one old sinner who robbed the Bristol mail eventually did remarkably well through having committed that dire offence against the laws, and by having been transported to the Antipodes at his country's expense.

Particulars of his career have been furnished by Mr. R.C. Newick, of Cloudshill, St. George, Bristol, by means of the following extract from a work published in 1853, "Adventures in Australia, '52-'53," by the Rev. Berkeley Jones, M.A., late curate of Belgrave Chapel (Bentley, London, 1853):—"If you turn into any of the auction rooms in Sydney the day after the gold escort comes in you may see and, if you can, buy, pretty yellow-looking lumps from about the size of a pin's head to a horse bean, or, if you prefer it, a flat piece about the size of a small dessert plate. One of the greatest buyers is an old pardoned convict of the name of 'William,' or, as he is there more commonly called, 'Bill' Nash, who robbed the Bristol mail, of which he was the guard. His wife followed him—as some say, with the booty—and set up a fine shop in Pitt Street in the haberdashery line. Under the old system he was assigned to her as a servant. Her own husband her domestic! What a burlesque on transportation as a punishment! He is very unpopular with the old hands, as he returned to England and offered an intentional affront to Queen Victoria when driving in the Park, by drawing his horses across the road as her equipage was driving by. He cut a great dash in the Regent's Park, and was known as the 'flash returned convict.' We stood by him at Messrs. Cohen's auction room when the gold fraud (planting on the gold buyers nuggets made in Birmingham) was discussed. He addressed us, and we cannot add that he prepossessed us much in his favour. He looks what he is and has been. In a little cupboard-looking shop in King Street he may be seen in shirt sleeves spreading a tray full of sovereigns in the shop front and heaping up bank-notes as a border to them, inviting anyone to sell their gold to him. We believe he is now among the wealthiest men of New South Wales."

By the year 1830 the terror inspired by highwaymen had no doubt diminished, but the coach proprietors thought it prudent to guard themselves against loss, and so they put increased charges on the articles of value they had to carry. On the 1st September, 1830, a coaching notice of about 1,000 words, based on an Act of Parliament, was put forth by Moses Pickwick and Company from the White Hart, Bath. A copy of this notice on a large screen was exhibited recently at the Dickens celebration at Bath. The notice, in legal or other jargon, announced the increased rate of charge for commission by mail or stage coach of articles of value. Put into plain form, the increased rates of charge were as follows, viz.:—Additional charge for parcel or package over £10 in value.—For every pound, or for the value of every pound, contained in such parcel or package over and above the ordinary rate of carriage, not exceeding 100 miles, 1d.; 100 to 150 miles, 1½d.; 150 to 200 miles, 2d.; 200 to 250 miles, 2½d.; exceeding 250 miles, 3d.

Few people now bear in mind the great robbery of registered letters from the Hatton Garden Branch Post Office, London, in November, 1881, which was effected with skill and daring, and yet with simplicity as to method. At 5.0 p.m. on the eventful day the members of the staff were busily engaged, when, lo! the gas suddenly went out, and the office, which was full of people at the time, was left in darkness. The lady supervisor obtained matches, went to the basement and there found that the gas had been turned off at the meter. When the gas had been turned on again and lighted, it was discovered that the registered letter bag, which had already been made up and was awaiting the call of the collecting postman, was missing. The bag contained 40 registered letters, and their value was estimated at from £80,000 to £100,000. In the many years which have elapsed since the great robbery no clue to the perpetrators of the daring deed has been discovered. No further attempts at such robberies took place for some time, but in the year 1888 several daring burglaries took place at post offices in London. The Smithfield Branch Post Office was the first broken into, the thieves staying in the office from Saturday night to Sunday night. During that interval they removed the safe from under the counter, placed it in the Chief Officer's enclosure, broke it open and rifled the contents. Cash and stamps to the value of about £180 were stolen. In the autumn of the same year the Aldgate B.O. was burgled—a Saturday night being chosen for the exploit. The manner in which the burglary was effected leaves little doubt that the depredation was committed by the same gang of thieves. The safe was broken open, but in this case it was left under the counter, where it stood, and was there rifled of its contents. The interior of the office, including a part of the counter under which the safe stood, was fully visible from the outside, the woodwork in front of the office having been kept low for the purpose, and it was marvellous that the thieves were not detected, as a poor woman had just been murdered by "Jack the Ripper" within 200 yards, and the road in front of the post office was thronged with excited people. The thieves in this case got off with cash and stamps to the value of £328.

Later in the same year, the South Kensington Branch Post Office was entered by burglars under precisely similar circumstances. The thieves only obtained the small sum of £6, as, being disturbed, they decamped in haste, leaving behind them their tools and certain articles of clothing. They had removed the safe, weighing 1½ cwt., from the public office without being observed, although it was taken from a spot immediately in front of a large window, through which police and passers-by could command full view of the office. The Westbourne Grove and Peckham Branch Post Offices were also burglariously entered in the same year. Although the burglars were not discovered in connection with these post office robberies, and none more daring of their kind have occurred since, they probably were imprisoned for some other misdemeanour. Was it—it may well be asked—this same gang of burglars released from durance vile who committed the post office robbery which in 1901 took place at Westbury-on-Trym, a suburb of Bristol, three miles distant from the city? For daring it might well have been they, as the following account will demonstrate.

The post office, be it said, was in the middle of the village and within 200 yards of the Gloucestershire Constabulary DepÔt, and actually within sight of it. It was during the early hours of the morning of the 18th October that the burglary took place. Not far from the post office building operations were being carried on, and from the houses in course of erection the thieves obtained a ladder and a wheelbarrow. Making their way to the side of the premises, one member of the gang, by means of the borrowed ladder effected an entrance through the fanlight over the postmen's room door, and marks of damp stockinged feet revealed the fact that they crept through a sliding window into the post office counter room, where the safe was located. The street door was then opened to their confederates, and the safe, weighing nearly 2 cwt., was carried to the barrow outside. The thieves retired to a partially completed dwelling for the purpose of examining the contents of the safe. They broke open the carpenter's locker, and many tools were subsequently found on the floor. These evidently had not assisted the gang to any great extent, as they found it necessary to use a heavy pickaxe. The noise they made seems to have aroused the inmates of the neighbouring houses, and it is said that one resident struck a light and actually saw them at work, but he concluded that they were merely doing something in connection with the extensive drainage alterations which had been in progress for many months. This light apparently disturbed the thieves, for they departed with their burden and the pickaxe and retraced their steps. Close to the Parish Institute they managed, in spite of the darkness, to discover a gap in the hedge, and having forced the wheelbarrow through this, they left unmistakable traces of the route taken across the adjoining field.

Having wheeled the safe some 300 or 400 yards, and some 50 yards beyond the cottages in Canford Lane, they again brought the pickaxe into requisition, and some hours later a workman discovered the safe, with one end broken into dozens of pieces, lying near the hedge. He at once gave information to the police. It was afterwards found that, although the thieves had removed the paper money from the safe, they had thrown the postal orders, money order forms, stamps, licenses, etc., into a neighbouring field, where they were found strewn about in great disorder. The safe contained postal orders stamps, postcards, and cash of the total value of £315. Cash to the value of £25 was the extent of the thieves' booty, and they left behind them three £5 notes, half a sovereign, and two sixpences, which were found on the grass. As all the articles were dry, it was apparent that the robbery took place after 2 a.m., up to which time there had been rain. The officials at the office had begun their morning's work quite unconscious of what had happened, when Police Sergeant Greenslade appeared with the handle of the safe. The fact of the officials not having been disturbed may be accounted for by the circumstance that blasting operations had been carried on at night in the immediate neighbourhood for some twelve months before. The sub-postmistress and her family, it appeared, did not retire to rest until very near midnight, and it is supposed that they were in their first heavy sleep, but it is a mystery why the dog, a sharp fox terrier, remained quiet.

The safe was kept in a prominent position in the shop—two people slept just over it—and the exterior of the shop was well lighted at night by a large public lamp. Sleeping in the house were several females and males, one of the latter being an ex-Sergeant-Major of Dragoons, 6 feet 2 inches in height and of great bodily strength. Next door lived a baker whose workman is about early in the morning, so it may be inferred that the burglars had no small amount of nerve. Within a week another robbery took place at a mansion within a mile of the post office. This occurred in the evening. Whether or not this second burglary was the work of the same gang which carried off the post office safe, there is similar evidence of most carefully laid plans and of intimate acquaintance with the house and the habits of its occupants.

Ere the excitement of these two burglaries had passed off as a nine days' wonder, another robbery equally bold in character took place, and this time in the very centre of the city of Bristol, and in its most frequented thoroughfare. A jeweller's shop window was rifled at 6.0 a.m., at a time when the police were being relieved. The thieves got off with about £2,000 worth of rings, etc. These three burglaries in conjunction seem to indicate the work of one gang of professional burglars hailing probably from the Metropolis.

A little time later, a post office safe in the West End of London was rifled, the burglars discarding old methods of violence in breaking it open, and using a jet of oxyhydrogen flame to burn away a portion of the safe door!