Essays on Sussex County and New Jersey Postal History

Len Peck ~ SUSSEX COURT HOUSE ~ First Sussex County P.O.SUSSEX COURT HOUSE: FIRST POST OFFICE IN SUSSEX COUNTYBy Len PeckOn February 20, 1792, the 2 nd Congress, Session I, Chapter VII, passed “An Act to establishthe Post office and Post Roads within the United States.” (See Fig. 1.) Previous postal legislationunder the Continental Congress and then under the Constitutional Government had been enacted,which held together an inherited postal system, but this was the first that outlined the entireConfederation Post Office. It is the first that mentioned Sussex Court House in Sussex County, N.J.Fig. 1: Page from the Journal of Congress, 2 nd Congress, Session 1, Chapter 7 Feb. 20, 1792, Act to Establish thePost Office and Post Roads within the United States. Route a.) describes the route between New York andPhiladelphia; b.) describes the route from Philadelphia through Bethlehem and Easton to Kingston and Rhinebeckon the Hudson – mentioning Sussex Court House, and c.) describes the route from Newark/ Elizabethtown to SussexCourt House. Of these, the a.) route was long established, and mail was carried on it by this time through contractswith stage companies. Routes b.) and c.) both required a post rider A pdf version of the complete text of the Act isavailable. 1This act confirmed some 48 post offices that were formerly established on the mainNorth/South route between Wiscassett in the Maine Territory and Savannah, Georgia and addedthree more. It also confirmed 25 post offices that formerly existed under the British ColonialSystem on minor or cross routes, and added 66 to those routes as well. This brought the totalnumber of post offices in the 13 states to 142.Vol. 35/No. 4201NJPHWhole No. 168 November 200712