Single Letter

HAM/1/4/1/14

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


June 1780

My Dear Miʃs. Hamilton

      Your very obliging letter of the 6th. of this Inst. came
safe to me at my agreeable retreat near Dublin, where I have
been settled since the 20th. of May; I have at present no house
in Town, tho' I may probably get one before the winter.
I was very happy to be informed that you had freed yourself
from a certain embaraʃsment; you stood upon false ground,
where the danger and difficulties were entirely on your
side; such a situation was not new to me, for there hap=
pen'd
a similar instance in my own family more than
fifty years ago, which was the foundation of much perplexity
and of little credit. I am really interested in your happineʃs
and have therefore no difficulty in offering my sentiments
without reserve.
      As you mention'd that Lady Stormont imagined that
I had taken it amiʃs in not having receiv'd any notifica=
tion
of the birth of her second son, I took the opportunity
of letting her know, in very civil terms what my
                                                         sentiments



sentiments were upon the subject, that was not the first or
second instance of my having been neglected; I perceiv'd, that
notwithstanding the little attention I was honor'd with while
I was in London I was not thought worthy of its continu=
ance
; and that the old system was recurr'd to; however I
did what was proper on my part, and wrote to Ld. Stormont
offering my congratulations upon the occasion, who returned
me a very civil answer. What their ideas or intentions may
be with regard to me I can not easily conjecture; they are
I believe, as yet very undecided. If they are not themselves
struck with the propriety of having some regard to the
interests of a Person so nearly connected to them, they will
receive little trouble from my importunities. I find myself
now too old to engage in a new train of solicitations, and
as my situation and pretensions are already fully under=
stood
, I shou'd think it a meanneʃs to preʃs the subject upon
them with any further recommendatory arguments.
      I cannot well describe my alarms at the late frightful
tumults in London, and was apprehensive that something
similar might have happen'd in Dublin, but fortunately
proper precautions were opportunely interposed.



I am going on improving and beautifying my little Villa,
which has great merit from its charming situation, in=
deed
hardly to be surpaʃs'd. The plantations of my own
making are already so well advanced as nearly to answer
their design; the summer has hitherto been so remarkably
cold that the country has been leʃs agreeable than it
usually is at this season. Mrs. Hamilton desires to offer
her Compts. Mrs. Stratford is gone to the Country but propo=
poses
to return to Town in August upon some family bu=
sineʃs
that can not be put off. I have brought my Son
from school to paʃs a little time with us, he is now in
perfect health I shall be very happy to hear from you
when you have a leisure moment, Adieu Dear Miʃs
Hamilton
believe me as I am most sincerely
                                                         Your faithful & Affectt. Uncle
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
Latour -- Clontarf
      near Dublin[1]
June 25 th. 1780.



Mr. F. Hamilton
      June 25: 1780.

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Notes


 1. This address appears to the left of signature.

Normalised Text



My Dear Miss. Hamilton

      Your very obliging letter of the 6th. of this Instant came
safe to me at my agreeable retreat near Dublin, where I have
been settled since the 20th. of May; I have at present no house
in Town, though I may probably get one before the winter.
I was very happy to be informed that you had freed yourself
from a certain embarassment; you stood upon false ground,
where the danger and difficulties were entirely on your
side; such a situation was not new to me, for there happened
a similar instance in my own family more than
fifty years ago, which was the foundation of much perplexity
and of little credit. I am really interested in your happiness
and have therefore no difficulty in offering my sentiments
without reserve.
      As you mentioned that Lady Stormont imagined that
I had taken it amiss in not having received any notification
of the birth of her second son, I took the opportunity
of letting her know, in very civil terms what my
                                                        



sentiments were upon the subject, that was not the first or
second instance of my having been neglected; I perceived, that
notwithstanding the little attention I was honoured with while
I was in London I was not thought worthy of its continuance
; and that the old system was recurred to; however I
did what was proper on my part, and wrote to Lord Stormont
offering my congratulations upon the occasion, who returned
me a very civil answer. What their ideas or intentions may
be with regard to me I can not easily conjecture; they are
I believe, as yet very undecided. If they are not themselves
struck with the propriety of having some regard to the
interests of a Person so nearly connected to them, they will
receive little trouble from my importunities. I find myself
now too old to engage in a new train of solicitations, and
as my situation and pretensions are already fully understood
, I should think it a meanness to press the subject upon
them with any further recommendatory arguments.
      I cannot well describe my alarms at the late frightful
tumults in London, and was apprehensive that something
similar might have happened in Dublin, but fortunately
proper precautions were opportunely interposed.



I am going on improving and beautifying my little Villa,
which has great merit from its charming situation, indeed
hardly to be surpassed. The plantations of my own
making are already so well advanced as nearly to answer
their design; the summer has hitherto been so remarkably
cold that the country has been less agreeable than it
usually is at this season. Mrs. Hamilton desires to offer
her Compliments Mrs. Stratford is gone to the Country but proposes
to return to Town in August upon some family business
that can not be put off. I have brought my Son
from school to pass a little time with us, he is now in
perfect health I shall be very happy to hear from you
when you have a leisure moment, Adieu Dear Miss
Hamilton believe me as I am most sincerely
                                                         Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
Latour -- Clontarf
      near Dublin
June 25 th. 1780.



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 1. This address appears to the left of signature.

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/1/4/1/14

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: Dublin

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 25 June 1780

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to news of the birth of a second son to Lord and Lady Stormont [David Murray, seventh Viscount Stormont and second earl of Mansfield (1727-1796), diplomatist and politician (see HAM/1/18), and Louisa Cathcart (?1758-1843), daughter of Charles Schaw Cathcart, ninth Lord Cathcart and Hamilton's cousin]. Frederick Hamilton feels neglected that the Stormonts had not informed him of this news themselves. He writes that while in London, the Stormonts had honoured him with some attention but that he was now 'not worthy of its continu[ation] and that the old system was return[e]d to'. He nevertheless did what was right and proper and wrote his congratulations and received a 'civil' reply. The letter continues that he is unsure as to the intentions of the Stormonts towards him.
    Frederick Hamilton makes reference to the Gordon Riots [after George Gordon called for the repeal of the Catholic Act of 1778 which was enacted to revoke anti-Catholic legislation from the previous century, Gordon led a crowd of 60,000 protestors to the House of Commons to present a petition, and anti-Catholic riots spread across London, resulting in the destruction of property and businesses and the deaths and arrests of many people] and was initially anxious that such a riot would happen in Dublin but reports that precautions were put in place to help prevent it.
    The letter continues with news on his family.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 534 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: Fabienne Toupin, Professor of English Linguistics, University of Tours (submitted March 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

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