Diplomatic Text
Typed
29
30[1]
13 June 1803 -- Eighteen Years ago what a
▼
▼
Simpleton you was to bestow yourself on me -- I
should have been happy to have spent this anniversary
of our happy Union at Home where I could have told you
how sincerely I have always loved you & that my Esteem
my friendship & my Love can know no Increase
That sweet Daughter of ours
that amiable pledge of our Love
is very dear to my Heart & I
feel an additional gratification from observing
the similarity of her Character to your own, in thing's
most eʃsential -- Adieu my dear dear Wife -- may
you enjoy many Years of Health & Happineʃs & live
to see yr Louisa united to a Man, who will be as grateful
for the matrimonial Bleʃsings he may enjoy, as is
at this moment Yr Faithful & Affe
Husband
JD
From Birch Hall
Typed[2]
------------------------------------------------------------[3]
This flood distreʃses my pocket -- every exertion must be made
to save what graʃs we can to mow -- desire the Horses may be
kept out of that furthest piece in Dove House Close as I recommended
▼
in a former letter & let the Lucern[4] & Graʃs from the Shrubbery &c
be given to the Horses -- What with one Loʃs or another I must go to
Bedford soon in good ernest -- I will not fret about what can be
remedied, having too many causes to feel myself the happiest Man in
------------ [5]
Single[6]
To
Mrs. Dickenson[7]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds-
[8]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved the two different numbers here from their respective positions below the first line.
2. Written in ink rather than pencil.
3. The page was cut off, removing at least one line.
4. ‘The leguminous plant Medicago sativa, resembling clover, cultivated for fodder; purple medick’ (OED s.v. lucerne | lucern n. 2a. Accessed 15-02-2021).
5. The page was cut off, removing further writing once present.
6. This refers to the document being a single sheet.
7. The address is overwritten with a ‘8’, indicating postage due.
8. Remains of a stamp marked ‘Manchester, June 1803’, in black ink, as well as a seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
13 June 1803 -- Eighteen Years ago what a
▼
▼
Simpleton you was to bestow yourself on me -- I
should have been happy to have spent this anniversary
of our happy Union at Home where I could have told you
how sincerely I have always loved you & that my Esteem
my friendship & my Love can know no Increase
That sweet Daughter of ours
that amiable pledge of our Love
is very dear to my Heart & I
feel an additional gratification from observing
the similarity of her Character to your own, in thing's
most essential -- Adieu my dear dear Wife -- may
you enjoy many Years of Health & Happiness & live
to see your Louisa united to a Man, who will be as grateful
for the matrimonial Blessings he may enjoy, as is
at this moment Your Faithful & Affectionate
Husband
John Dickenson
------------------------------------------------------------
This flood distresses my pocket -- every exertion must be made
to save what grass we can to mow -- desire the Horses may be
kept out of that furthest piece in Dove House Close as I recommended
▼
in a former letter & let the Lucern & Grass from the Shrubbery &c
be given to the Horses -- What with one Loss or another I must go to
Bedford soon in good earnest -- I will not fret about what can be
remedied, having too many causes to feel myself the happiest Man in
------------
Single
To
Mrs. Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
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 John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/2/42
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Dickenson
Place sent: Rusholme, near Manchester
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 13 June 1803
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton. He writes of his love for Hamilton on the eighteenth anniversary of their marriage [in 1785].
Dated from Birch Hall.
Original reference No. 30.
Length: 1 sheet, 242 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 16 July 2020)
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: 2 November 2021