HAM/1/3/1/3
Letter from Mrs Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
[1]
3.
Large Portion typed[2]
Taxal Tuesday July 30th: 1771
▼
How shall I expreʃs my gratitude
my dear Miʃs Hamilton, for the great Friendship you
have honour'd me with, & for the many Civilities
your good Papa & Mama have been so obliging to
shew to my dear Boy, which he is perpetually talk-
ing of? we think him much grown, & improved; &
I hope he is good; his dispositions seem at present
such as we cou'd wish; I pray God to continue them
so! & that he may increase in Virtue & Religion
rather than Fortune. Your dispositions my Dr: Miʃs H
have taken a happy turn; you lay out your whole time
in the improvement of your mind, & have no leisure
for those Childish diʃsipations so natural to your Sex
& Age; Go on, & be the delight of your fond parents,
as well as all your acquaintance; for I am certain
you have so much Humility that it will preserve you
from pedantry, a character which in our Sex is very
disagreeable, & is the cause why a Wise Woman is in
general disliked, the Men wou'd have no Rivals in
knowledge, & are angry at every Woman who shall attempt
it. but the truth is, our Sex are very apt to be proud of
what they know, & this is the true cause, why we are
despised, a fund of useful knowledge in either Sex is high-
ly commendable, if they keep in View the Ultimate End of
all Learning; the Glory of God; & knowledge of ones self.
this, my dear Miʃs Hamilton I think I can see by your Con-
versation & Letters, is your pursuit; & whilst you keep this
point in view, your Studys will always give you sattisfaction,
you may look back with pleasure on the time you have
spent on them, & you will have the heartfelt Joy of
self approbation, which will support you through all the
Calamities & vexations of this foolish Life; to which
every situation is liable. But I find I am preaching
a Sermon, instead of writing a Letter. I fear I
shall prove an odd Correspondent for a young Lady,
but remember 'tis your own fault, you woud have
me write to you.
Jack tells me, you are at present employ'd in work-
ing Chairs, I admire your taste, in having one single
figure; it is much more Elegant, than being crouded
full of different things, as is generally the case.
it is very entertaining work, tho' reckon'd bad
for the shape. I Shall long to see them, when they
are finish'd.
You are very kind in wishing to see yome, if Northn:
was not so far off, I believe I shoud indulge mey
self in taking a trip to you; but at present must
content myself with hearing from my good Friends
there;[3] who I have a sincere ------ regard for.
I hope Mr & Mrs.: Hamilton will accept my most
[sin]cere respects; & acknowledgments, for all th[eir]
favours; in which Mr D begs to joyn; & beli[eve]
me Dr: Miʃs H (with a thousand kind wishes for
your Health & happineʃs) your sincere Friend
S Dickenson
Sally desires her most Affcet
service to you. you are a violent favorite with her.
Miʃs Hamilton
Northampton
3d[4]
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This letter is selectively quoted in Anson & Anson (1925: 9-10).
2. Moved annotation here from space between dateline and letter, written diagonally.
3. Perhaps Mr Lawton is included in this phrase, although it may well just be a compliment paid to the Hamiltons.
4. This annotation appears in the right margin of the address panel, written vertically.
5. Small tear at the bottom of the page, where black sealing wax was applied to the underside to secure the letter.
Normalised Text
Taxal Tuesday July 30th: 1771
▼
How shall I express my gratitude
my dear Miss Hamilton, for the great Friendship you
have honoured me with, & for the many Civilities
your good Papa & Mama have been so obliging to
show to my dear Boy, which he is perpetually talking
of? we think him much grown, & improved; &
I hope he is good; his dispositions seem at present
such as we could wish; I pray God to continue them
so! & that he may increase in Virtue & Religion
rather than Fortune. Your dispositions my Dear Miss Hamilton
have taken a happy turn; you lay out your whole time
in the improvement of your mind, & have no leisure
for those Childish dissipations so natural to your Sex
& Age; Go on, & be the delight of your fond parents,
as well as all your acquaintance; for I am certain
you have so much Humility that it will preserve you
from pedantry, a character which in our Sex is very
disagreeable, & is the cause why a Wise Woman is in
general disliked, the Men would have no Rivals in
knowledge, & are angry at every Woman who shall attempt
it. but the truth is, our Sex are very apt to be proud of
what they know, & this is the true cause, why we are
despised, a fund of useful knowledge in either Sex is highly
commendable, if they keep in View the Ultimate End of
all Learning; the Glory of God; & knowledge of ones self.
this, my dear Miss Hamilton I think I can see by your Conversation
& Letters, is your pursuit; & whilst you keep this
point in view, your Studies will always give you satisfaction,
you may look back with pleasure on the time you have
spent on them, & you will have the heartfelt Joy of
self approbation, which will support you through all the
Calamities & vexations of this foolish Life; to which
every situation is liable. But I find I am preaching
a Sermon, instead of writing a Letter. I fear I
shall prove an odd Correspondent for a young Lady,
but remember 'tis your own fault, you would have
me write to you.
Jack tells me, you are at present employed in working
Chairs, I admire your taste, in having one single
figure; it is much more Elegant, than being crowded
full of different things, as is generally the case.
it is very entertaining work, though reckoned bad
for the shape. I Shall long to see them, when they
are finished.
You are very kind in wishing to see me, if Northampton
was not so far off, I believe I should indulge myself
in taking a trip to you; but at present must
content myself with hearing from my good Friends
there; who I have a sincere regard for.
I hope Mr & Mrs.: Hamilton will accept my most
sincere respects; & acknowledgements, for all their
favours; in which Mr Dickenson begs to join; & believe
me Dear Miss Hamilton (with a thousand kind wishes for
your Health & happiness) your sincere Friend
Sarah Dickenson
Sally desires her most Affectionate
service to you. you are a violent favourite with her.
Miss Hamilton
Northampton
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 Mrs Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/3/1/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham)
Place sent: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 30 July 1771
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sarah Dickenson to Mary Hamilton. Mrs Dickenson writes of her gratitude for Hamilton's friendship and for the civilities that Hamilton's parents have shown to her son 'which he is perpetually talking of'. Writing of her son, she states that he is all that she can wish and hopes that he may 'increase in Virtue & Religion rather than Fortune'.
The letter notes that Hamilton's strives for her own intellectual advancement and has no time for 'childish dissipations so natural to your sex & age'. She carries on to note that Hamilton has 'so much Humility that it will preserve you from pedantry, a character which in our Sex is very disagreeable, & is the cause why a Wise Woman is in general disliked'. Men, Mrs Dickenson notes, 'would have no Rivals in knowledge, & are angry at every Woman who shall affect it. [B]ut the truth is, our Sex are very apt to be proud of what they know, & this is the true cause, why we are despised'. Knowledge is a good thing for both sexes, if they keep in mind what the aim of learning is which to Mrs Dickenson is the 'Glory of God; & knowledge of ones self'. She believes that Hamilton holds this view and notes that this should give her satisfaction.
Mrs Dickenson notes that she has been told that Hamilton is 'employ[e]d on working Chairs' which she hopes to see once her work is complete.
She continues to write that if the distance were not so great she would love to visit Hamilton but as it is she will instead content herself with hearing from her and about her from her friends in Northampton.
Dated at Taxal [Derbyshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 543 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 27 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: 4 April 2022