The London R in Ring Marking

Examiners marking indicating redirection
without additional postage in Britain.

The Project:
This 24 cent item attracted my attention simply because it had a marking I had never seen.  I have had this cover for some time now and have worked on learning more about the marking and its purpose on and off for several years.  I am finally putting all of the notes together in one place.

Last Update: 2/8/18

1867 cover to London from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

General Description
A letter sent from Kansas to Miss Mary Rush (care of Benjamin Rush) to Portman Square in London.  Apparently, residence changed and the Rushes were relocated to nearby Cavendish Square, which apparently was in the same postal delivery district.  The R in Ring marking indicated that the item was forwarded without additional remailing postage required.

Historical Connections?
It is possible that the Benjamin Rush to whom this letter is addressed "care of" may well have been a descendant of the Declaration of Independence signer Dr. Benjamin Rush.  The Rush family papers are a prominent collection in the University of Pennsylvania library system.

Route
Fort Leavenworth, Kan  (Apr 29)
    (if someone wants to point me to routing in the US, feel free to do so.  Likely rail via St Louis)
New York (May 4)
    HAPAG Cimbria  (note, this is the return leg of Cimbria's maiden voyage)
Southampton (May 14)
London (May 15)

Portman Square in London (West postal district)
British R in Ring redirection mark
Cavendish Square in London (also in the West postal district)

Portman Square is located at the far left center and Cavendish Square is to its East.  This is segment of an 1817 map of London by William Darton.

Rate
England       24 cent rate per 1/2 ounce
                    per the 1848 US-British Convention
N.York 3 Am Pkt Paid
     3 cent credit to England for their surface mail services.
     21 cents retained by the United States to cover
          5 cents surface mail in the US
          16 cents for the US contract mail packet to cross the Atlantic (the Cimbria)

Other Examples of the R in Ring

Image provided by Bill Longley

A couple of additional scans have been provided by others.  In both of these cases, the examples are much later than the item in my own collection.  The item above appears to show both types of redirection as the cover was redirected twice.  One was within the delivery area and received the R in Ring marking.  The other was not in the same delivery area and the red 1 penny stamp paid the postage for that redirection.  The Canadian 6-cent stamp pre-paid the postage from Canada to England.

Image suggested by Mohamed Nasr

This item from the London Postal History Group Notebook, Issues 137-138 Oct 1999 from the Vic Walker collection.  The heading that was published appears to contradict the purpose of the marking - or at least it confuses the matter.  I believe the heading is trying to say that the "latter category" would be address inside the same delivery area, but the wording does not make it clear.

The R in Ring Marking

from Mackay's "Postmarks of England and Wales" (1988)

Julian Jones was kind enough to provide help via Richard Frajola's PhilaMercury discussion board, giving me a reasonable summary and this quote from Mackay (pages 281-282).

"Letters from the 1840s onwards, redirected in the same delivery area as the original address and therefore not subject to any further charge, were marked with small circular stamps surmounted by a crown and having the letter 'R' in the centre.  These stamps varied considerably in diameter, the style of the letter and the shape of the crown.  Ten identical stamps (5290 shown above) were issued to the London district offices on 5th April 1859."

In summary, these were an inspector/examiner marking used for redirecting post within a local area.  The application of this marking indicated that the item was NOT subject to additional postage for the redirection to a new address.  These R in Ring markings are known in both red and black inks.

Prior to 1892 (for letters) and 1895 (for printed matter, cards, etc) redirected mail was essentially required to be "remailed."  In other words, redirection outside of the local delivery area required to pay a charge equal to the "original postage."  In the case of this letter from the United States, it would have been required to pay a single rate domestic postage of 1d, not the whole 24 cent or 1 shilling price of crossing the Atlantic. 

Forwarding Outside of Local Delivery Area

Double weight letter from Washington DC to England

This example illustrates the 'remailing' principle well.  The weight of the letter landed between 1/2 and 1 ounce, requiring 48 cents (a 'double rate,' or more appropriately, the 'ounce rate') to go from the United States to England.  Once it was determined that the item needed to be forwarded to a new address outside of the original delivery area, it was reposted/redirected at the ounce rate (2d) for internal British mail.

Reverse side of the above item

The new postage was applied to the reverse of the envelope with the new address.

A Local Delivery Redirection without the R in Ring

Redirection Fee waived, but no marking

Holloway is a district of London currently part of the borough of Islington (about 3 miles North of Charing Cross).  This would be in the North postal district according the Kellys map below.  Both the original and new addresses are in Holloway and there is no evidence of additional British postage being paid or required for the redirection in this case.

Post Office Acts with Respect to Redirection of Mail
The Post Office Act of 1840 (link is to the Great Britain Philatelic Society site) set the rule that a new rate would be required for an item requiring redirection.  The act was made effective on Sep 1, 1840:

Article XIV. And whereas Letters and Packets sent by the Post are chargeable by Law on being re-directed and again forwarded by the Post with a new and distinct Rate of Postage: be it enacted, That on every Post Letter re-directed (whether posted with any Stamp thereon or not) there shall be charged for the Postage of such Letter, from the Place at which the same shall be re-directed to the Place of ultimate Delivery (in addition to all other Rates of Postage payable thereon), such a Rate of Postage only as the same would be liable to if prepaid.

The above does not specifically address items that are redirected within the same local delivery area.  However, the British Postal Guide of 1856 does specifically address this issue:

The above makes the process fairly clear that an item redirected within the jurisdiction of any "Head-Office" or one of its "Sub-Offices" would be redirected without additional charge.  Below is a London Post Office Directory map from 1857 that may be accessed and viewed in more detail at the Mapco site.  It is my assumption at this time that each "Head Office" referenced in the Postal Guide translates to each of the sections shown here designated by directional markers (NW, N, EC, WC, etc).

References
References are made throughout this post and links provided in the text.