John Palmer

John Palmer of Bath (1742 – 16 August 1818) was an English theatre owner and instigator of the British system of mail coaches that was the beginning of the great British post office reforms with the introduction of an efficient mail coach delivery service in Great Britain during the late 18th century. He was Mayor of Bath on two occasions and Comptroller General of the Post Office, and later served as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bath between 1801 and 1807.

Theatre Palmer was the eldest son of a prosperous Bath brewer and theatre owner who inherited his father's Old Orchard Street Theatre, and obtained a royal letters patent for it in 1768 which gave him an effective monopoly on playhouses in the city and the right to use the title "Theatre Royal", the first theatre outside London to acquire it. Palmer's second theatre in Bristol was granted the same status in 1778, becoming the Theatre Royal, Bristol. Palmer worked as his father's London agent, frequently travelling between London and Bath, and after his father decided to retire in 1776 the patent was transferred to him. He continued to manage the theatre until 1785. The two theatres shared one acting company, so Palmer had to move his actors, stagehands and props quickly between Bristol and Bath, he set up a coach service which provided safe, quick and efficient transport for his actors and materials. Later, when Palmer became involved in the Post Office, he believed that the coach service he had previously run between theatres could be utilised for a countrywide mail delivery service.

Mail coaches

A print showing a mail coach decorated in the black and scarlet Post Office livery near Newmarket, Suffolk in 1827. The guard can be seen standing at the rear. The postal delivery service in Britain had existed in the same form for about 150 years—from its introduction in 1635, mounted carriers had ridden between "posts" where the postmaster would remove the letters for the local area before handing the remaining letters and any additions to the next rider. The riders were frequent targets for robbers, and the system was inefficient.

Because Palmer made much use of stagecoach services between cities in the course of his business, and noted that it seemed far more efficient than the system of mail delivery then in operation, so that he could travel from Bath to London in a single day while the mail took three days. It occurred to him that this coach service could be developed into a national mail delivery service, so in 1782 he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The coach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later.

Post Office employment Part of Palmer's argument for the changes had been that such an improvement in the service would justify an increase in postal charges, and he had been promised two-and-a-half per cent of any increase in the revenue as well as control of the new service. He was appointed Comptroller General of the Post Office on 11 October 1786, but there was some delay in paying him his share of the very substantial increase in revenue (which had risen from £51,000 in 1784 to £73,000 in 1787). He was eventually granted a payment of arrears after a commission of inquiry investigated in 1789, but not the full sum that he claimed.

He died at Brighton in 1818, and was buried in the Abbey Church at Bath.