This cover sheet of a letter is one of about a dozen in private hands which bears the rare undated "Sydney New South Wales" marking of Isaac Nichols, the first New South Wales Postmaster. Unfortunately the contents of the letter have not survived.
Isaac Nichol's "postmark" as it has come to be known to collectors, was unknown until the 1960s when the London Missionary Society sold some of its archives which contained examples of it. This example was acquired from a Sydney stamp dealer in 1984.
Until 1809 there was no organised postal service in New South Wales. The first mails usually consisted of official letters which were entrusted to the captains of ships. However as the free population grew an increasing amount of letters and parcels were sent to and from New South Wales. Advertisements were placed in the 'Sydney Gazette' notifying of the arrival and departure of ships.
In order to rectify these rather casual arrangements which were often abused, Isaac Nichols was appointed Assistant to the Naval Officer on 25 March 1809 by the rebel government which ousted Governor Bligh. On 25 April 1809 he was specifically directed to take charge of letters, establish an office at his house where the letters could be collected on the payment of fixed charges. These arrangements were ratified by Governor Macquarie after his arrival in 1810.
Born in England in 1770, Nichols was convicted of theft of a donkey in 1790 and sentences to seven years transportation. He arrived in Sydney in 1791 and soon proved his worth being appointed Chief Overseer of Convicts. He received several land grants and also carried out extensive costal trading. However as Postmaster he received no remuneration but was allowed to keep the charges he levied: one shilling for a letter, two shillings and six pence for parcels up to 20 pounds weight, and five shillings for larger parcels though these charges were later reduced to 8d, one shilling and six pence and three shillings respectively. Nichols regularly advertised the names of those for whom he was holding mail. He resigned his position as Chief Superintendent of Convicts in 1814 but kept his other positions, including that of Postmaster, until his death in 1819.
Nichols apparently marked some of his mail with the undated 'Sydney NSW' postmark which is known to have been used between 1813 and 1819. In one of the 14 known examples of letters bearing this marking, the writer Richard Wise, who worked at the Sydney post office wrote "we shall put the Post Office Stamp on the outside of the Letter for we Stamp them all". It is curious why more examples have not survived.
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