Single Letter

HAM/1/4/1/9

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Feb 1779

Dear Miʃs Hamilton

      I have inadvertently deferr'd thanking you for your
last letter much longer than I ought to have done; but
shall not offer any further apology, as it might have
the appearance of treating you with too much forma=
lity
.
      I am happy to find that you have borne your
late loʃs with such proper resignation; your dutiful
affection to your Parent was too evident to leave any
doubt of the distreʃs you must have felt in being de=
prived
of her. It must have been a very great satis=
faction
to you at that crisis, to find that your conduct
had created you so many Friends, which without flat=
tery
I may say, that I am sure you will know how
to retain.
      The Papers you mention can be of no use to you
or to me, so that you may destroy them if they are



an incumbrance. I have already recommended it to
Mr. Fetherston to remit to you as soon as poʃsible half
a years Jointure due to Mrs. Hamilton the 1st. of November
last, tho' I fear it will not come as soon as you may
expect, for the poverty and distreʃs of this Country is not
to be conceiv'd & Rents cannot be got in as formerly; if
Ireland does not get some relief soon as its trade and
manufactures are totally at a stand all ranks of peo=
ple
must suffer in proportion in the general calamity;
you will also receive an Arrear of Jointure money
from Scotland in which I hope Mr. Brown will be punc=
tual
tho' I have also receiv'd from him great complaints
of the scarcity of money in that Quarter. Mr. Fetherston
mention'd to me that he had receiv'd no acknowledge=
ment
for his last remittance; but said he wou'd write
to you himself. If you shou'd think at any time that
my advice cou'd be of service to you in your Affairs
you may command it and be aʃsured that it will
be given with perfect sincerity.
      I have pass'd the Winter here in great solitude not



by choice for after my great expences upon this Place
I cou'd not afford to keep two Houses. Mrs. Hamilton is
well & desires to be affectionately rememberd to you; my two
Children are also in perfect health and are indeed in
every respect as promising as I cou'd wish. My Daughter
Jane so call'd after Lady Cathcart is between 10 & 11 years old
is very handsome & has uncommon abilities. My Son is between
7 & 8 & as he is now thoroughly recover'd. I intend to put him
to a very [go]od school in the spring -- Adieu Dr. Miʃs H[amilton]
believe [me] ever
                                                         Your faithful & Affect. ------ Uncle
                                                                   Frederick Hamilton
Latour, near Dublin
Feby 16th. 1779.[1]



[2]
Miʃs Hamilton
      St. James's Palace
                             London

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. This dateline appears to the left of the signature.
 2. Part of page, and in turn part of the address, has been cut off.

Normalised Text



Dear Miss Hamilton

      I have inadvertently deferred thanking you for your
last letter much longer than I ought to have done; but
shall not offer any further apology, as it might have
the appearance of treating you with too much formality
.
      I am happy to find that you have borne your
late loss with such proper resignation; your dutiful
affection to your Parent was too evident to leave any
doubt of the distress you must have felt in being deprived
of her. It must have been a very great satisfaction
to you at that crisis, to find that your conduct
had created you so many Friends, which without flattery
I may say, that I am sure you will know how
to retain.
      The Papers you mention can be of no use to you
or to me, so that you may destroy them if they are



an encumbrance. I have already recommended it to
Mr. Fetherston to remit to you as soon as possible half
a years Jointure due to Mrs. Hamilton the 1st. of November
last, though I fear it will not come as soon as you may
expect, for the poverty and distress of this Country is not
to be conceived & Rents cannot be got in as formerly; if
Ireland does not get some relief soon as its trade and
manufactures are totally at a stand all ranks of people
must suffer in proportion in the general calamity;
you will also receive an Arrear of Jointure money
from Scotland in which I hope Mr. Brown will be punctual
though I have also received from him great complaints
of the scarcity of money in that Quarter. Mr. Fetherston
mentioned to me that he had received no acknowledgement
for his last remittance; but said he would write
to you himself. If you should think at any time that
my advice could be of service to you in your Affairs
you may command it and be assured that it will
be given with perfect sincerity.
      I have passed the Winter here in great solitude not



by choice for after my great expenses upon this Place
I could not afford to keep two Houses. Mrs. Hamilton is
well & desires to be affectionately remembered to you; my two
Children are also in perfect health and are indeed in
every respect as promising as I could wish. My Daughter
Jane so called after Lady Cathcart is between 10 & 11 years old
is very handsome & has uncommon abilities. My Son is between
7 & 8 & as he is now thoroughly recovered. I intend to put him
to a very good school in the spring -- Adieu Dear Miss Hamilton
believe me ever
                                                         Your faithful & Affectionate ------ Uncle
                                                                   Frederick Hamilton
Latour, near Dublin
February 16th. 1779.




Miss Hamilton
      St. James's Palace
                             London

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 1. This dateline appears to the left of the signature.
 2. Part of page, and in turn part of the address, has been cut off.

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/1/4/1/9

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: Clontarf

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London

Date sent: 16 February 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton, relating to jointures due to her mother and the poor economic situation in Ireland. He is happy to hear that Mary has borne the death of her mother with 'proper resignation'. He has recommended to Mr Fetherston to remit to her half a year's jointure due to Mrs Hamilton. However, he fears that 'it will not come as soon as you may expect, for the poverty and distress of this Country is not to be conceiv'd & Rents cannot be got in as formerly; if Ireland does not get some relief soon as its trade and manufactures are totally at a stand all ranks of people must suffer in proportion in the general calamity'. Frederick adds that he has passed the winter here [in Clontarf] in great solitude, as he could not afford to maintain two houses. However, his family are all in good health.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 469 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: Vicky Murphy, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)

Transliterator: Chloe Bayode, 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

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