The quotations of your correspondent G. P. P., from Polwhele's _Cornwall_, relate to the same individual, and a more general construction must, I think, be put upon the expression "our countryman," than that it inferred a native of the county. The family of Prideaux was one of great antiquity, and originated in Cornwall (their first seat being at Prideaux Castle there), and had estates there in the time of the above Edmund. His father, Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton (the first baronet), studied the law in the Inner Temple, where he became very eminent for his skill and learning. He is stated to have raised a large estate in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. He married * * *; secondly, Catherine, daughter of Piers Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Esq., by whom he had two sons, Sir Peter his successor, and Edmund, the subject of your correspondent's Queries, who is thus described in Prince's _Worthies of Devon_, p. 509.:-- "This gentleman was bred to the law, and of so great a reputation, as well for zeal to religion as skill in the law, it is not strange he was chosen a Member of that which was called the Long Parliament, wherein he became a very leading man; for, striking in with the prevailing party of those times (though he never joined with them in setting upon the life of his Sovereign), he grew up to great wealth and dignity. He was made Commissioner of the Great Seal [1643. Rushworth, vol. iii. p. 242.], worth 1500l. a-year and by ordinance of Parliament practised within the bar as one of the king's counsel, worth 5000l. per annum. After that he was Attorney General, _worth what he pleased to make it_ [!!], and then _Postmaster General_ ... from all which rich employments he acquired a great estate, and among other things purchased the _Abbey of Ford_, lying in the Parish of Thorncombe, in Devonshire, where he built a noble new house out of the ruins of the old," &c. Prideaux cannot be called the inventor of the Post-office, although to him may be attributed the extension of the system. The first inland letter office, which, however, extended to some of the principal roads only, was established by Charles I. in 1635, under the direction of Thomas Witherings, who was superseded in 1640. On the breaking out of the civil war, great confusion was occasioned in the conduct of the office, and about that time Prideaux's plan seems to have been conceived. {268} He was chairman of a committee in 1642 for considering the rates upon inland letters; and afterwards (1644) appointed Postmaster, in the execution of which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation. Prior to this, letters were sent by special messengers, or postmasters, whose duty it was to supply relays of horses at a certain mileage. (_Blackstone_, book i. c. 8. s. 3.)