Yesterday I received an email regarding some research I’d done on my 6x Great-Grandfather Samuel Borton (1706-1769) owner of the Dolphin Inn in Oxford. The email concerned a poster which advertised Samuel Borton’s Post Chaise service to Piccadilly via Nettlebed, Maidenhead and Colnbrook.
The owner of the poster was wondering about the date. Initially I had thought it was later 18th century and that the Samuel Borton was Samuel Senior’s son, also called Samuel (born 1737). But having found a number of advertisements in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, I wasn’t so sure.
The first from 1756…
The second from 1764…
And finally from 1766…
The route is pretty much the same between them, save for London where the final destination changes. Perhaps a telling point is the price. Between 1764 and 1766 this was 7d a mile and I’m wondering if we can assume that the poster, also advertising the route at 7d a mile, is of a similar time? (I did think that 7d a mile sounded very expensive, and having run the price through an historical inflation calculator, I was shocked to discover that 7d a mile equates to £12.88 a mile in today’s money!
Having plotted the route in Google Maps, I could estimate that the total cost to London would be over £800!!
Anyway, it was a wonderful thing for me to see and I will try and determine one way or another which Samuel Borton it is!