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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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An Act of Parliament created a colonial postal system in 1711, but service was irregular and the number of post roads few until Parliament appointed Benjamin Franklin Postmaster-General in 1753. Franklin's Whig sympathies cost him his position and mail service broke down during the imperial crisis between England and the North American colonies. The residents of Deerfield, Massachusetts, formed a plan to keep up mail delivery in those tense and exciting times. Twenty-five Deerfield, Massachusetts, residents each paid William Mosman twelve shillings to carry mail from Boston to Deerfield in 1773.

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