James Maitland, my 3x and 4x great grandfather, was a Royal Mail coach driver – this illustration, dated 1808, was engraved by William Henry Pye and shows the type of coach he would have driven:
Mail coaches were first introduced into the UK in 1784 in a bid to speed the woefully slow and inefficient delivery of post, and the service rapidly expanded to form a network that covered all parts of the country. The coaches were custom built to a standard plan and, drawn by four horses, could reach speeds of 10 miles per hour carrying four inside passengers as well as letters and parcels. The Royal Mail employed a heavily armed guard, who rode on the back, but the coach, horses and driver were all provided by contractors and there are no central records relating to the drivers.
Blandford Forum, where James lived, was well placed on the main route between Exeter and London and it is likely that this is the service he would have worked on. A 1791 trade directory for the town records that the mail coach, from London to Exeter, arrived every morning between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock, and returned every afternoon at 3 o’clock. The 188 mile journey from London to Exeter would have taken around 22 hours, with the horses changed every 10 – 15 miles.
Evidence for James’ occupation comes from two sources. The 1838 marriage certificate for his son Andrew Maitland describes him as a “postboy”, which suggests that he was involved in delivering the mail before the advent of coaches, when it was carried by a relay system of young men riding fast ponies.
The roads were rough and the work of the coachman was dangerous in the early 19th century, so the second piece of evidence is unfortunately a newspaper article from the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette dated 24 December 1823, which reports James’ death following an accident:
Source: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
James was aged 54 according to his burial record, and the description of his destitute family is somewhat exaggerated as he actually had nine children with his wife, Letitia Baker, and in 1823 they would almost all have been working as just one was below the age of 14 years old. In the 1841 census, Letitia, who lived until 1859 and did not remarry, is described as living on independent means so either the collection proved to be a generous one or she was not as hard up as the article suggests.
James Maitland’s origins remain unknown. The Maitland name suggests that he had Scottish ancestry, and he first appears in Blandford Forum when he marries Letitia on 5 Feb 1792 – both are described as “of this Parish” but, as he died before the first census in 1841, there is no record of his birthplace.
In the 18th Century, the Maitland name was rare in Dorset. Apart from the baptism of Thomas Peter Maitland, son of John and wife, in Durweston in 1772, which I mentioned in an earlier post, I have found just two further baptisms recorded in the county: Betsy Jane (1771, Blandford St Mary) and Jane (1776, Bryanstone), who were both the daughters of Thomas and Elizabeth Maitland. There is nothing to tie either of these families to my ancestor.
The Land Tax records for Blandford Forum in 1780 and 1781 list land occupied by “Mr Maitland” valued at 8 shillings, and it is tempting to think he may have been James’ father, but sadly no first name is given. Every Maitland listed in the 19th Century census, birth, marriage and death records for the town is descended from James and Letitia, and their marriage is the first mention of the Maitland name in the Parish records, which date back to 1731.
Sleuthing Notes 