September 5th, 1700, Penn writes to Logan that he sends a package for Governor Blackeston[65] to be forwarded to the sheriff of New Castle, showing that the custom was in vogue seventeen years after its origin. [65] _Penn and Logan Correspondence._ The _Duke of Yorke’s Laws_[66] under the laws made and passed by Benjamin Fletcher, governor of Pennsylvania, and the council and representatives, May 15th and June 1st, 1693, records one for the erection of a post office in Philadelphia by Andrew Hamilton, “from whence all letters & packets may be with all expedition sent into any of the parts of New England and other adjacent colonies in these parts of America, at which said office all returns and answers may be received.” Andrew Hamilton, or some other postmaster-general appointed by the king, was to demand and receive postage according to the following rates: single foreign letters 2d., and each packet 4d.; letters sent from Philadelphia to New York 4d. half penny, to Connecticut 9d., to Rhode Island 12d., to Boston 15d., to points beyond Boston 19d., to Maryland and Virginia 9d., and to every place within eighty miles of Philadelphia 4d. half penny. If foreign letters were left forty-eight hours uncalled for, they were to be delivered and one penny more for each demanded from receiver. Public letters were to go post free; ferriage was to be free for all, and constant posts were to be maintained from Philadelphia to New York and New Castle. [66] _Duke of Yorke’s Laws_, p. 224. At an assembly held at Philadelphia,[67] May 20th, 1697, Joseph Growden, “chairman of the grand comittee appointed to consider of Andrew Hamilton’s memorial for encouragement to support the post,” reported “that it was the vote of the comittee that a bill be prepared for encouragement to support the post both by the publick and upon private letters.” [67] _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, Vol. I., p. 524. Since the charge of the office had much exceeded the postage,[68] the assembly, “being sensible of the benefit of the said office to trade and commerce, and to the province and territories in general if it be continued, and of the great loss that will happen to both if it should happen to fall for want of encouragement,” it was voted that the rates be raised on foreign letters received from 2d. to 4d., on those sent from Philadelphia to New York from 4½d. to 8d., and other rates proportionately. Hamilton was to receive £20 in the silver money of the province from the public treasury annually for three years, the period during which the law was to be in force. [68] _Duke of Yorke’s Laws_, p. 262. In 1700, a bill was passed to be in effect seven years, which says:[69] [69] Martin’s _Bench and Bar of Philadelphia_, pp. 126-130.