Diplomatic Text
Dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your letter of the 3d. of this Inst. which I receiv'd yesterday
has reliev'd me from much anxiety on your account; what you
say of your present state of health, and of the attention
that you experience is highly satisfactory to your Friends, as
they must esteem it as the best testimony, that your conduct
is approved of. I have been settled at my House within
3 miles of Dublin since the 20th. of May last & find it in every
respect a most agreeable & convenient residence, the situation
cannot be excell'd as it commands the view of the Bay of Dublin
with the opposite Hills cover'd with Villas. I have a little
farm of about fifty English Acres, the half of which is in a Lawn
in front of my House, pastur'd by sheep & other cattle, which
enliven the scene & are very useful in other respects. With
regard to the small Parish in my neighbourhood which wou'd
be so eligible an acquisition to me, by justifying my absen=
ting myself from my Living in the North of Ireland, of all
places in the world the most detestable, I do not see that I have
at present any chance of attaining it, so that I am not without
my apprehensions of being at last reduced to the neceʃsity of
giving up that Living, if my residence there shou'd be insisted
upon; this wou'd be a very distreʃsing reduction of my in=
come, but still of two evils the least.
I am truly concern'd to hear that Ld. Dartrey has met with
so great an affliction, this is I believe the second within these few
years, for if I remember right he loʃs'd a son by a fall from a
horse.
Mr. Brown has transmitted me the Papers you mention
and I have returned them signed. Tho' Mrs. Hamilton must
enjoy great satisfaction in the thoughts of your present con=
nections, yet she must feel the loʃs of the comfort of your so=
ciety very severely, especially as she does not enjoy a good state
of health. I beg you will do me the favor when you write
to present my Compts. to her. Poor Mrs. Stratford has disposed
of herself very unfortunately to a man of fortune indeed, but
so wretched a being that it is impossible for me [to] keep up
any intercourse with him, so that we do not see her as often
as we cou'd wish, she has a daughter about eight months
old and is in the way of adding to his family a second time.
My second Daughter is a very agreeable Child now ten years
old & will I hope be more fortunate than her Sister. My Son is with
us and is at last recover'd from the bad consequences of the
inoculation & will be a very well looking boy. When I
was mentioning some particulars of this place I forgot to in=
form you that we mean to make it our constant residence
for some time at least, and to paʃs the next winter here. I
have been at so great an expence in the purchase, additions
furnishing &c. that this is a matter more of prudence than of
choice Mrs. Hamilton desires to join with me in Compts. &
every good wish I am
Dear Miʃs. Hamilton
Your Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
August 11th. 1778[1]
Latour -- Clontarf
near Dublin
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Miss Hamilton
Your letter of the 3d. of this Instant which I received yesterday
has relieved me from much anxiety on your account; what you
say of your present state of health, and of the attention
that you experience is highly satisfactory to your Friends, as
they must esteem it as the best testimony, that your conduct
is approved of. I have been settled at my House within
3 miles of Dublin since the 20th. of May last & find it in every
respect a most agreeable & convenient residence, the situation
cannot be excelled as it commands the view of the Bay of Dublin
with the opposite Hills covered with Villas. I have a little
farm of about fifty English Acres, the half of which is in a Lawn
in front of my House, pastured by sheep & other cattle, which
enliven the scene & are very useful in other respects. With
regard to the small Parish in my neighbourhood which would
be so eligible an acquisition to me, by justifying my absenting
myself from my Living in the North of Ireland, of all
places in the world the most detestable, I do not see that I have
at present any chance of attaining it, so that I am not without
my apprehensions of being at last reduced to the necessity of
giving up that Living, if my residence there should be insisted
upon; this would be a very distressing reduction of my income
, but still of two evils the least.
I am truly concerned to hear that Lord Dartrey has met with
so great an affliction, this is I believe the second within these few
years, for if I remember right he lost a son by a fall from a
horse.
Mr. Brown has transmitted me the Papers you mention
and I have returned them signed. Though Mrs. Hamilton must
enjoy great satisfaction in the thoughts of your present connections
, yet she must feel the loss of the comfort of your society
very severely, especially as she does not enjoy a good state
of health. I beg you will do me the favour when you write
to present my Compliments to her. Poor Mrs. Stratford has disposed
of herself very unfortunately to a man of fortune indeed, but
so wretched a being that it is impossible for me to keep up
any intercourse with him, so that we do not see her as often
as we could wish, she has a daughter about eight months
old and is in the way of adding to his family a second time.
My second Daughter is a very agreeable Child now ten years
old & will I hope be more fortunate than her Sister. My Son is with
us and is at last recovered from the bad consequences of the
inoculation & will be a very well looking boy. When I
was mentioning some particulars of this place I forgot to inform
you that we mean to make it our constant residence
for some time at least, and to pass the next winter here. I
have been at so great an expense in the purchase, additions
furnishing &c. that this is a matter more of prudence than of
choice Mrs. Hamilton desires to join with me in Compliments &
every good wish I am
Dear Miss. Hamilton
Your Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
August 11th. 1778
Latour -- Clontarf
near Dublin
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/1/4/1/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Clontarf
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: low)
Date sent: 11 August 1778
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton relating to his estate in Dublin. The letter describes a small parish in his neighbourhood which he would be pleased to acquire, as it would justify his absences from his living in the north of Ireland, though he does not believe this would be possible.
The remainder of the letter is concerned with news of family and friends. He explains that his daughter Elizabeth, despite marrying a man of fortune, has an unhappy marriage (see HAM/1/4/1/2) and he hopes his second daughter, then aged ten, will be more fortunate. He reports that his son is with him in Ireland and is recovering from a bad reaction to his inoculation [probably for smallpox].
Length: 1 sheet, 569 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: Iago Valin-Lopez, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Rachel Harrison, 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