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Scottish postal service before and after unification
Prior to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the postal service in Scotland was infrequent and only used for special purposes for limited periods of time.
Following the union, the postal service was placed under dual control with official communications between Scotland and England, via the Edinburgh/Berwick Road, overseen from London. The service in the rest of Scotland was controlled solely from Edinburgh.
In 1711 - four years after the 1707 Act of Union between England, Scotland and Wales - the British Post Office came into existence and ultimate control of the postal service of the whole service passed to London. As a result of the change, the former Postmaster General for Scotland became ‘Deputy Postmaster General’. He was the responsible for the service until in 1831 when the position was subsumed into the duties of the Postmaster General of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
