Rowland Hill, a schoolmaster invented the adhesive postage stamp in England in 1837. Through his efforts, the first adhesive stamp in the world was issued in England in 1840. Before the use of adhesive paper stamps, letters were hand stamped or postmarked with ink.
Postmarks were the invention of Henry Bishop and were at first called ‘Bishop Mark’ after the inventor. Bishop marks were first used in 1661 at the London General Post Office. They marked the day and month the letter was mailed. Roland Hill also created the first uniform postage that were based on weight rather than size. Hill’s stamps made the prepayment of mail postage possible and practical.
