This is fascinating.

This is fascinating.

Originally shared by George S Hammond

I posted this to a small community, but it is so neat, I want to share it generally

In the late 17th and early 18th century, postage was paid by the recipient of a letter, not the sender. If the local postmaster could not deliver a letter (because the recipient had moved, or died, or simply refused to accept the letter), the letter was usually destroyed. In 1679, a Frenchman,  Simon Veillaume, who called himself Simon de Brienne ("lord of Brienne") was appointed postmaster for the Hague. He had responsibility for delivering all letters to or from the southern Netherlands, France, and Spain. By 1686 Simon had also become chamberlain and confidant to the Stadholder, Willem von Nassau, Prince of Orange, and so Simon's wife, Maria Germain, became postmistress. In 1689, after the Glorious Revolution of the previous year, Prince Willem became William III, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and Simon and Maria joined his service in London, where Simon was appointed Keeper of the Wardrobe in Kensington Palace. Ten years later, Simon sold his appointment for £1550 and a cask of fine Burgundy wine, and returned to the Hague, and resumed his position as postmaster. Unlike his contemporaries, Simon and his wife kept the letters they could not deliver. Perhaps they hoped that they would be able to deliver them in the future, and thus get paid. One of their trunks, containing about 2600 undelivered letters sent between 1689 and 1707, has been preserved. The letters were sent from all over Europe, and are written in at least 5 different languages.  600 of them have never been opened. Translations are not yet available, but even just the photos are evocative:
http://brienne.org/
They are special in that many of them were sent by ordinary folks, merchants and musicians, Huguenot exiles, not elites whose letters might have otherwise been saved.
This article from YaleNews has more detail.
http://news.yale.edu/2015/11/05/postal-piggybank-17th-century-sheds-light-culture-time