May, 1698,[61] in response to a complaint that posts and other travellers met with great difficulty in journeying through the colony, especially in the township of Stonington, the court ordered the selectmen to lay out convenient highways, kept cleared and open, unless they passed through ancient common fields, or the general or county court ordered otherwise, and "made good with sufficient causeis and bridges as need shall require," failure to observe these instructions to be punished by a fine of £10 into the public treasury, and for a continuance of the offence by an annual fine of £10 to be levied upon the selectment or inhabitants.
[61] _Colonial Records_, Vol. IV., p. 246-47.
In May, 1704,[62] the general court decreed that since the post was often impeded, "in cases extraordinarie the authoritie may grant a bill to the Constables for the defraying of such charges as are really necessary."
[62] _Colonial Records_, Vol. IV., p. 468.
Watson,[63] in his _Annals of Philadelphia_, bases on MSS. in the possession of the Pemberton family, his statement that as early as July, 1683, a weekly post was established by order of William Penn and a grant given to a certain Henry Waldy of Tekonay to hold one, and "supply passengers with horses from Philadelphia to New Castle or the Falls of the Delaware; the rates from the Falls to Philadelphia 3d., to Chester 5d., to New Castle 7d., to Maryland 9d., and from Philadelphia to Chester 2d., to New Castle 4d., to Maryland 6d." Winsor, in the _Narrative and Critical History_, adds that the notices of the departure of the post were put on the meeting-house doors and in other public places.
[63] Watson, Vol. II., p. 391. Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, Vol. III., p. 491. _Historical Magazine_, Vol. III., p. 221.
The same year (1683)[64] a law was passed at Philadelphia directing the way in which official letters should be dispatched, in order that the governor might obtain "true and speedy information regarding public affairs, as well from Europe as the neighboring colonies and remote parts of this province and territories thereof." "Be it Enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every Justice of the Peace, Sheriff or Constable within the respective counties of this province and territories thereof, to whose hands or knowledge any Letter or Letters shall come, directed to or from the governor, shall dispatch them, within 3 hours at the farthest, after the receipt or knowledge thereof, to the next Sheriff or Constable, and so forwards, as the Letter directs, upon the penalty of 20s. for every hour's delay. And in such cases, all Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs or Constables are hereby empowered to press either man or horse for that service, allowing for a horse or man, 2 pence by the mile, to be paid out of the public stock."