Diplomatic Text
Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
Nothing but the constant hurry that I have been in since my
return to Bath coud have prevented my returning you thanks much
sooner for your most obliging letter. I can aʃsure you with the utmost
sincerity, that I was really distreʃs'd in not having an opportunity
of aʃsuring you in person that my sentiments towards you are in
every respect such as you coud wish; I have long felt great satis=
faction by the accounts of your excellent conduct; you have not
a more zealous friend than Ld. Dartry & whose judgement can
be better relied upon; he informs me you are to be of his party
to Spa. Your account of the danger you was in made me trem=
ble, I hope you have not sufferd by the frights for I know you have
weak nerves. My Daughter is amazingly improved & I may say
without partiality is a very handsome Girl with many accom=
plishments. I wish she had a little of your steadineʃs, I mean
------------------------------------------------------------ [pre]
paring for our departure from Bath, which will be in about three
weeks. I have taken a very good House in Dublin for one year & propose
to paʃs two or three months at my Living in the North. I cou'd have
wish'd to have met with so much indulgence as not to have been
call'd upon to residence, I have never as yet experienced the least favor
or aʃsistance from my Friends & it is now owing entirely to Ld Abercorn
that I am reduced to this disagreeable neceʃsity, which I shoud by
no means have yielded to were it not from the attention due on
my part to my Children. If I can be of any service to Mrs. Hamilton
in Ireland she will find me heartily disposed to obey her commands
I aʃsure you I never meant to give her the smallest uneasineʃs, nor
had I any idea of the busineʃs that occasion'd it when I left her
at Northampton. I can not expreʃs how much I regret having miʃsd
the opportunity of seeing you as I hardly know when I may have
another; in the mean time I have real satisfaction in knowing
that you have good connections & with persons that are sensible
of your merit, but as independence is the prime object in this
life I shall be happy when you inform of any decisive step
------------------------------------------------------------
Daughter desire to join with me in affectionate Compts. to Mrs. H. and
you. I am with great regard Dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your faithful & Affect. Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
Bath May 11th. 1776.[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Miss Hamilton,
Nothing but the constant hurry that I have been in since my
return to Bath could have prevented my returning you thanks much
sooner for your most obliging letter. I can assure you with the utmost
sincerity, that I was really distressed in not having an opportunity
of assuring you in person that my sentiments towards you are in
every respect such as you could wish; I have long felt great satisfaction
by the accounts of your excellent conduct; you have not
a more zealous friend than Lord Dartrey & whose judgement can
be better relied upon; he informs me you are to be of his party
to Spa. Your account of the danger you was in made me tremble
, I hope you have not suffered by the frights for I know you have
weak nerves. My Daughter is amazingly improved & I may say
without partiality is a very handsome Girl with many accomplishments
. I wish she had a little of your steadiness, I mean
------------------------------------------------------------ preparing
for our departure from Bath, which will be in about three
weeks. I have taken a very good House in Dublin for one year & propose
to pass two or three months at my Living in the North. I could have
wished to have met with so much indulgence as not to have been
called upon to residence, I have never as yet experienced the least favour
or assistance from my Friends & it is now owing entirely to Lord Abercorn
that I am reduced to this disagreeable necessity, which I should by
no means have yielded to were it not from the attention due on
my part to my Children. If I can be of any service to Mrs. Hamilton
in Ireland she will find me heartily disposed to obey her commands
I assure you I never meant to give her the smallest uneasiness, nor
had I any idea of the business that occasioned it when I left her
at Northampton. I can not express how much I regret having missed
the opportunity of seeing you as I hardly know when I may have
another; in the mean time I have real satisfaction in knowing
that you have good connections & with persons that are sensible
of your merit, but as independence is the prime object in this
life I shall be happy when you inform of any decisive step
------------------------------------------------------------
Daughter desire to join with me in affectionate Compliments to Mrs. Hamilton and
you. I am with great regard Dear Miss Hamilton
Your faithful & Affectionate Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
Bath May 11th. 1776.
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 Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/1/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 11 May 1776
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He writes to Mary assuring her of his regard for her, and regrets that he missed seeing her when he travelled to Northampton. He has heard from Lord Dartr[e]y (see HAM/1/11) that she is to be of his party to Spa (see Diary HAM/2/1). He notes that his niece has no more 'zealous [a] friend than' Dartrey, and suggests she should rely upon his judgement if need be.
The letter refers to a previous letter that Hamilton had sent to her uncle, which noted her being in some danger. The Reverend Hamilton hopes that she has 'not suffer[e]d by the frights for I know you have weak nerves'. Moving on to his own daughter, he describes her as handsome and as having many accomplishments, though he wishes she also had more of Hamilton's 'steadiness'.
Frederick Hamilton writes that he is to travel to Dublin shortly, where he has taken a house for one year, and intends to spend two or three months in his living in the North. He complains that he has never received assistance from friends and that it is 'owing entirely to L[or]d Abercorn [a family member] that I am reduced to this disagreeable necessity, which I shou[l]d by no means have yielded to were it not from the attention due on my part to my children'. Dated at Bath.
Length: 1 sheet, 435 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Georgia Tutt (submitted May 2018)
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