EARLY COVER EX "LENOX ST. GEORGES" TO MADEIRA - VIA LONDON "P. PACQUET" WITH 2 BISHOP MARKS; 28 Nov. 1776 EL (ordering a "Hogshead of your very best wine...by the very first Opportunity for Annotto Bay or Portland" - presumably meaning Port Antonio, in Portland parish) from "Lenox St. Georges" without Jamaican postal marks (sent under cover or by hand?) and addressed to Newton Gordon "Madeira P. Pacquet" and charged "1N" (Packet rate) and most unusually having very fine London "2/IY" Bishop Marks both on front (rare) and back. Endorsed as having arrived in Madeira on 25 July 1777. Communications (and shipping routes) were clearly disrupted by the start of the American War of Independence, but the wine trade clearly continued.Cross Reference: MADEIRA, LONDON POSTAL HISTORY (Image)