Diplomatic Text
Dear Miʃs Hamilton
I have just now receiv'd your very agreeable letter of the
20th. of April, which by some accident must have been detain'd
upon the road as by the course of the Post it shoud have come
to hand some days sooner. I must sincerely congratulate you
upon the event you have communicated to me which on all
accounts I think a most fortunate one. I cannot sufficiently
express what I feel on account of the generous conduct of your
excellent & worthy Friends Ld. & Ldy Dartrey. next to that I am
highly flatter'd by this singular testimony of the approbation
of your merit, for you may [be] aʃsured that your conduct has been
strictly scrutiniz'd. Your situation will be attended with dif=
=ficulties and will require the utmost prudence & caution, as you
know, all the avenues of a Court are surrounded with flattery
and deceit, but still I am confident that the same circumspection
and good sense that have recommended you will enable you
to steer a steady course & avoid every danger. You will naturally exert
every power to acquit yourself faithfully in this important trust;
and tho' your whole time may not be requir'd, yet I am sure you will
think it no sacrifice to devote it wholly to this single object, &
this you will consider as the best return you can make to your
generous friends. I am so far from thinking that there cou'd be
any doubt or objection to your acceptance of this offer, that I look
upon it as a very great one, and as the earnest of future good
fortune in store for you. My sincere good wishes will ever attend
you; nor will you have, I trust, occasion hereafter to remind me
of any want of affection & attention as it wou'd wou'd be a
real reproach to me; cou'd I be insensible of your steady attach=
ment. Mrs. Hamilton has desir'd me to expreʃs to you her satis=
faction upon this occasion & we both desire that you will present
our Compts. to Mrs. Hamilton Mrs. Stratford also desires to be rememberd
to you. I change my Quarters in about a fortnight as the term
for which I took the House I am now in will then be out. I have
got another tolerable one in Glocester Street no. 12. where you will
direct when you favor me with your next I am
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your faithful & Affecte. Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Miss Hamilton
I have just now received your very agreeable letter of the
20th. of April, which by some accident must have been detained
upon the road as by the course of the Post it should have come
to hand some days sooner. I must sincerely congratulate you
upon the event you have communicated to me which on all
accounts I think a most fortunate one. I cannot sufficiently
express what I feel on account of the generous conduct of your
excellent & worthy Friends Lord & Lady Dartrey. next to that I am
highly flattered by this singular testimony of the approbation
of your merit, for you may be assured that your conduct has been
strictly scrutinized. Your situation will be attended with difficulties
and will require the utmost prudence & caution, as you
know, all the avenues of a Court are surrounded with flattery
and deceit, but still I am confident that the same circumspection
and good sense that have recommended you will enable you
to steer a steady course & avoid every danger. You will naturally exert
every power to acquit yourself faithfully in this important trust;
and though your whole time may not be required, yet I am sure you will
think it no sacrifice to devote it wholly to this single object, &
this you will consider as the best return you can make to your
generous friends. I am so far from thinking that there could be
any doubt or objection to your acceptance of this offer, that I look
upon it as a very great one, and as the earnest of future good
fortune in store for you. My sincere good wishes will ever attend
you; nor will you have, I trust, occasion hereafter to remind me
of any want of affection & attention as it would be a
real reproach to me; could I be insensible of your steady attachment
. Mrs. Hamilton has desired me to express to you her satisfaction
upon this occasion & we both desire that you will present
our Compliments to Mrs. Hamilton Mrs. Stratford also desires to be remembered
to you. I change my Quarters in about a fortnight as the term
for which I took the House I am now in will then be out. I have
got another tolerable one in Gloucester Street no. 12. where you will
direct when you favour me with your next I am
My Dear Miss Hamilton
Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/4/1/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Dublin (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: not before 22 April 1777
notBefore 22 April 1777 (precision: high)
notAfter April 1777 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter is undated but Frederick Hamilton writes that it is a reply to his niece's letter dated 20 April 1777. The letter relates to Mary Hamilton being offered a place at Court as a sub-governess to the Princesses. Lord and Lady Dartrey had informed Mary Hamilton that she was being considered for a place at Court in 1777, and in this letter her Uncle describes Lord and Lady Dartrey's efforts on Hamilton's behalf as 'generous'. He counsels Mary Hamilton to be prudent, as 'all the avenues of a Court are narrowed with flattery and deceit', and advises that her good sense will prevent her getting into any danger. He suggests that, although her whole time may not be occupied by the post, it will be the best course for her to devote her whole time to it. He encourages her to accept the role, noting that there can be no objection to her accepting the position, as it as an excellent opportunity for her future prospects.
Length: 1 sheet, 415 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 2013/14 provided by G.L. Brook bequest, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: George Bailey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Xiaoxuan Wang, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Huishi Hu, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
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