Richard Fairbanks

Richard Fairbanks’ Tavern and Post Office By Nancy Pope, Historian and Curator

More than a century before the Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin our Postmaster General, a Boston tavern owned by Richard Fairbanks was designated the colonies’ first post office. On November 6, 1639, the Massachusetts General Court named Fairbanks’ tavern as a post office for letters coming into or going out of the colony to overseas posts. According to the court, this was:

“for preventing the miscarriage of letters; and it is ordered, that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither, are to be brought unto; and he is to take care that they be delivered or sent according to their directions; and he is allowed for every such letter 1 penny, & must answer all miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind; provided, that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither, except he please.”

A couple of questions might pop into the minds of today’s users of the post. For instance, why would a post office be set up only for overseas mail? Or for that matter, why a tavern? Well, for one thing, colonists were not as interested in corresponding with people in other colonies as much as they were in communicating with those in countries they left behind. Their letters were often governmental or business in nature, not personal. Sometimes a few personal family notes were included in otherwise business-focused correspondence between family-owned businesses that straddled the Atlantic. For those who did want to get a letter to someone in another colony, it was easy enough to find someone who, for a price, would carry the missive by land or coastal ships.

The Boston post office was set up in a tavern because that was familiar to the colonists. The practice of using taverns and inns as post offices mimicked European practices. After all, what better place to designate as a post office than a spot where everybody came and where everybody knew your name centuries before “Cheers” hit the airwaves. Although one imagines that the TV bar’s resident know-it-all letter carrier—Cliff Clavin—would have loved having a post office in his favorite watering hole.

Fairbanks was originally from England, born in 1588 to George Fairbanks and Isabella Stancliffe in Lincolnshire. There he married Elizabeth Daulton and the couple had two children before deciding to take a chance on the new world. They immigrated to America in 1634, only five years before his tavern was named Boston’s post office. Richard Fairbanks’ held the post office in his tavern until his death in 1667.

Updated Information

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995). p 648

• Origins and Parents: Unknown
• Birth about 1608
• Arrival 1633 Boston
• Death after 29 Jan 1654 and bef 15 Apr 1667 Boston
• Wife: Elizabeth Maiden name unknown
• Children: Only two Constance and Zacheus

The rest of the information posted below is nonsense.

See also TAG 37-65-72 which does *not* include Richard as a relative of the other Fairbanks.

See also: http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Richard_Fairbanks_(2)

ORIGIN: Unknown MIGRATION: 1633 FIRST RESIDENCE: Boston OCCUPATION: Innkeeper ("[blank] Fairbanks" licensed to sell wine & strong water in Boston, 12 March 1637/8, 4 November 1646 [MBCR 1:221, 2:173]). Postmaster ("For preventing the miscarriage of letters; & it is ordered, that notice be given that Rich[a]rd Fairbanks his house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the sea, or are to be sent thither, are to be brought unto; & he is to take care that they be delivered or sent according to their directions; & he is allowed for every such letter a 1d., & must answer all miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind; provided that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither, except he please" [MBCR 1:281]).

BIRTH: By about 1608 based on estimated date of marriage. DEATH: After 29 January 1654/5 [SLR 2:105-06] and before 15 April 1667 [SLR 5:190-92], and probably closer to the former date. MARRIAGE: By 1633 Elizabeth _____; in October 1633 "Elizabeth Fairebancke the wife of our brother Richard Fairebancke" was admitted to Boston church [BChR 16]; not seen after the birth of her second child in 1639.