HILL (Sir Rowland, 1795-1879, Originator of Penny Postage)

Autograph Letter Signed to Sir William Baldwin saying he has "great pleasure in complying with your request ...", 1 side 8vo., Hampstead, 18th May

Hill retired on full pension, and received in addition a parliamentary grant of 20,000l. In 1857 he had been made F.R.S., and in 1860 K.C.B.; in 1864 the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him by the university of Oxford, and in 1879 the freedom of the city of London. In his retirement he served on the royal commission on railways appointed in 1865. In a separate report, published in 1867, he recommended that the state should gradually purchase the railways by free covenant between the proprietors and the government, and that they should then be worked, not by the state, but by companies, to which they should be leased on such conditions as would most tend to public benefit. He died on 27 Aug. 1879, at his residence in Hampstead, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Item Date:  1872

Stock No:  38345