Mail carrier's indenture certificate

November 17, 1789

This is a mail carrier's indenture paper between Joseph Barnard and Postmaster General Samuel Osgood, dated November 17, 1789, for carrying mail between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Portland, Massachusetts [Maine]. The contract is for $600 per year and requires mail transport by horseback three times per week May through October and two times per week November through April. The document has blanks that have been filled in by hand with the names, dates, and particulars; and the printed sections include the name of "Ebenezer Hazard," which has been overwritten by hand as "Samuel Osgood," who replaced Hazard as fourth Postmaster General September 26, 1789 to August 12, 1791.