Writing Letters in the 18th century

Our current display ‘Imagination and Reality’ looks at travel in Johnson’s century, and during a visit we invite our visitors to write a letter about their own travels. In this blog post, our Museums and Heritage Officer Jo Wilson explores letter writing and posting in the 18th century, drawing on examples from the Museum’s collection.

Letter writing was a very fashionable past-time in 18^th century England and this is reflected in the literature of the time from the many letters appearing in publications such as the Gentleman’s Magazine, through to novels written in the style of letters such as Fanny Burney’s Evelina.

This fashion could not have been so widespread without a postal system to support it. Following a series of reforms throughout the later half of the 18^th century England’s postal system was transformed from a corrupt, expensive and bureaucratic system into a modern, high-speed service.

Postage was charged by the sheet, either in advance or on delivery, and writers often ensured that the number of sheets were written clearly on the outside of letters to avoid being overcharged. By the end of the century postage cost between three to eight pence per sheet depending on the distance carried. Clever letter writers knew how to keep their costs down, and some of the letters in our collection tell us how. Poet Anna Seward adds notes at the bottom of her letters to John Nichols, the editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine: one reads “as you live so near I take the liberty of enclosing a letter to North’s warehouse”, another reads “have the goodness to put the enclosed in the next penny post”. The penny post was available to those within London only, and made cheap, regular deliveries across the city throughout the day.

Johnson’s definition for ‘Post’. His 1755 Dictionary also includes ‘Postage’ and ‘Post-Boy’. Horse riders were the main method of delivering letters at speed before the improvement of roads and coaches made travel quicker towards the end of the century.

Many instruction books about the writing of letters were available in the 18th century for all classes and levels of literacy. Families created their own manuals too, by pasting their letters into a book to aid the education of younger children.

 This manual was published in 1758 and was written by an ‘S. Johnson’, but was not by Johnson. Samuel Johnson’s biographer James Boswell records the supposed author’s opinions on this: “Some years ago a foolish piece was published, said to be written by an ’S. Johnson”. Some of my friends wanted me to be very angry about this”.

Johnson would have been taught to write letters at Lichfield Grammar School by following the principles laid down by classical scholar Desiderius Erasmus in his 1522 work ‘On the writing on letters’. The use of phrases such as ‘your humble servant’ that we see in 18th century letters come from this tradition.

 

The use of seals meant that a letter could be sent without an envelope, and also provided security for letter writers and their readers. Some seals were custom designed for the owners, but standard seals could also be purchased. This seal was one of the marks of the actor David Garrick and includes his initials.