HAM/1/1/5/26
Letter from Charlotte, Princess Royal, now Queen of Württemberg, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
[1]
Louisbourg September 13th, 1815.
My dear Madam
I seize on the very first
opportunity to return you thanks for your
obliging Letter of July 8th, it gave me pleasure
to see your handwriting again. Ever having
thought of you with regard I have
frequently heard of you by my Friend
Lady Cremorne who I am glad to find
continues in tolerable health, and enjoyes
the comfort of making the situation
of Her late Lords Relations pleasant.
I was sorry to hear that you had both
lost your friend, Lady Wake, who I remember
your ever speaking of with Affection.[2] She
had. I understand the comfort of
seeing both her Daughters settled before her
death[3] which have been a great ease to
her mind as I believe her Daughter in
law[4] did not quite suit her.
I beg my dear Madam that you will
be convinced that it has given me
pleasure to hear several persons speak
in praise of Lady Anson's modesty and
amiable Character: I hope she will be
happy, and ever continue to shew you
every dutiful attention and to deserve
Your Affection. It appears to me a
great bleʃsing for You both that you
are to continue to live in the same
House though with seperate establishments
which is certainly a wise plan as it avoids
many unpleasant discuʃsions.
I will now take my leave and remain
with Regard My dear Madam
Affectionately Yours
Charlotte
[5]
From
Charlotte Augusta Matilda
Queen of Wurtemburgh.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This letter is separated by more than thirty years from the Princess Royal's childhood letters to Mary Hamilton. Hamilton had probably written in July 1815 to inform her of Louisa's marriage and continental honeymoon earlier that year. One intervening point of contact, albeit indirect, is quoted by Anson & Anson (1925: 321) from a 1797 diary entry not available to the present editors: ‘May 18th. Marriage of the Princess Royal to the Prince of Wirtemberg. Louisa & I went to the Privy Chamber at 10 o'clock and staid till 4 to see the Royal family.’.
2. Charlotte's information is evidently faulty, as Lady Wake is a caller in, for instance, May 2016 (see DDX 274/25 pp.233). Has she perhaps misremembered reports of the death in 1811 not of Lady Mary Wake but the better-known Lady Mary Coke? That is purely speculative, however.
3. Again, this is troublesome. The obvious implication is that both daughters were married. While Mary Anne Wake married a Colonel Roberts, Charlotte Wake apparently never married; she is still ‘Miss Wake’ on 25 July 1815 (see DDX 274/25 p.190).
4. Possibly relevant daughters-in-law are Jenny Gambier, second wife of William Wake, 9th Baronet, and Jane Eliza Dunkin, first wife of Richard William Wake.
5. This side of the page is blank.
Normalised Text
Louisbourg September 13th, 1815.
My dear Madam
I seize on the very first
opportunity to return you thanks for your
obliging Letter of July 8th, it gave me pleasure
to see your handwriting again. Ever having
thought of you with regard I have
frequently heard of you by my Friend
Lady Cremorne who I am glad to find
continues in tolerable health, and enjoys
the comfort of making the situation
of Her late Lords Relations pleasant.
I was sorry to hear that you had both
lost your friend, Lady Wake, who I remember
your ever speaking of with Affection. She
had. I understand the comfort of
seeing both her Daughters settled before her
death which have been a great ease to
her mind as I believe her Daughter in
law did not quite suit her.
I beg my dear Madam that you will
be convinced that it has given me
pleasure to hear several persons speak
in praise of Lady Anson's modesty and
amiable Character: I hope she will be
happy, and ever continue to show you
every dutiful attention and to deserve
Your Affection. It appears to me a
great blessing for You both that you
are to continue to live in the same
House though with separate establishments
which is certainly a wise plan as it avoids
many unpleasant discussions.
I will now take my leave and remain
with Regard My dear Madam
Affectionately Yours
Charlotte
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Charlotte, Princess Royal, now Queen of Württemberg, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/1/5/26
Correspondence Details
Sender: Charlotte Augusta Matilda, Princess Royal
Place sent: Ludwigsburg
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: low)
Date sent: 13 September 1815
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte, Princess Royal, now Queen Charlotte of Württemberg, to Mary Hamilton. She addresses Hamilton as 'My dear Madam' and thanks her for her letter of 8 July. She writes that 'it gave me pleasure to see your handwriting again', has always thought of Hamilton with regard and has heard often about her via her friend Lady Cremorne, who continues in 'tolerable health'. Charlotte is sorry to hear of the death of Hamilton's friend Lady Wake (see HAM/1/8), who she remembers Hamilton speaking of often and notes that she had the 'comfort of seeing both her Daughters settled before her death'. However, she is quite mistaken in her information on Lady Wake. She continues that she understands that Lady Wake's 'daughter in law did not quite suit her'.
Charlotte writes that she has heard several people speak favourably of Hamilton's daughter, Lady Anson's [née Dickenson, Louisa, (1787-1837) married Sir William Anson in 1815] 'modesty and amiable character' and hopes that she will continue to deserve Hamilton's affection.
Dated at Ludwigsburg.
Length: 1 sheet, 238 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version first created without transcription as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1. Transcription added after the funded period under the supervision of David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
Transliterator: Mercedes Bermúdez-Santiago, undergraduate student, University of Vigo (submitted 20 February 2025)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 4 June 2026
