Boston, MA, 1773 Colonial Post Office Account, Showing Rates for Letters From Boston to Newport, R.I. Post Office

Sheet dated August 16, 1773, documenting postal transactions between the Boston Post Office and the Post Office at Newport, Rhode Island. The form records unpaid, paid, and free letters along with the corresponding postage in pennyweights and grains. Signed at lower right by Tuthill Hubbart, who served as Postmaster of Boston from 1756 until March 1776. A similar example is illustrated in Blake & Davis, Boston Postal Markings to 1790, p. 9. An attractive and rare example of early American postal history predating the Revolutionary War.