Single Letter

HAM/1/4/1/30

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Nov. /86

Dear Madam

      In answer to your letter with the enclosed which
has perhaps given you some uneasineʃs, you are to
understand that it is a swindling piece of busineʃs
in which your name has been made use of to de=
fraud
some credulous fool, your real Christian
name has been purposely avoided to prevent a
prosecution for a forgery. I thought it a proprie=
ty
to apprise Sir Robt. Herries's Cashier of the inten=
ded
fraud, it seems the Bill was presented at
his House by a Woman on Saturday last but he
refused payment, he informed me at the same
time that he was certain money had been recei=
ved
upon it; you can do nothing in this busineʃs
but remain quiet without giving yourself the
smallest uneasineʃs, I do not think you will receive
any further letter upon the subject, if you



shou'd I wou'd recommend it to you to transmit
to Mr. Jackson your Attorney, who will know how
to act in case any thing shoud be neceʃsary to be done.
As for myself I wou'd by no means appear to Mr. Berger
the dupe or any of the party. If any Person
cou'd be so weak to advance money upon the Draft
of a Persons without being acquainted with their
writing or Christian names he is not to be pitied.
This is supposing Berger an innocent Person, but
even that is doubtful, a little time will clear
up the whole matter which at all events can be
of no serious consequence to you.
      We have lost our worthy Friend Mr. Glover who
died early on Friday morning last; we have
made the proper inquiries after Mrs. & Miʃs Glover
but are as yet ignorant in what manner he
has left his property, but I am not uneasy upon
that subject as I am certain he poʃseʃs'd an excellent
disposition, I confeʃs I feel myself sincerely inte=



rested
for poor Miʃs Glover, & I am certain I shall
not be disappointed I beg to be rememberd to
Mr. Dickenson & remain Dear Mrs. Dickenson

                             Your faithful & Affect. Humble ser[vant]
                                                         Frederick Hamilton
Bedford Square
      Novr. 26th. 1786.[1]


P.S.
      Mrs. Stratford has been
with us [on] her return from Paris
& staid only 8 days, she is now on
her way to Dublin. I made the explanation
you desir'd.




[M]rs. Dickenson[2]
      Taxal
Chapel le Frith
                Cheshire
[3]

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


Notes


 1. These two lines appear to the left of the signature.
 2. A stamp that reads 'CHESTERFIELD' can be seen just above the address.
 3. Remains of a mark, reading '28 NO', indicating that the letter went through the post on 28 November 1786.

Normalised Text



Dear Madam

      In answer to your letter with the enclosed which
has perhaps given you some uneasiness, you are to
understand that it is a swindling piece of business
in which your name has been made use of to defraud
some credulous fool, your real Christian
name has been purposely avoided to prevent a
prosecution for a forgery. I thought it a propriety
to apprise Sir Robert Herries's Cashier of the intended
fraud, it seems the Bill was presented at
his House by a Woman on Saturday last but he
refused payment, he informed me at the same
time that he was certain money had been received
upon it; you can do nothing in this business
but remain quiet without giving yourself the
smallest uneasiness, I do not think you will receive
any further letter upon the subject, if you



should I would recommend it to you to transmit
to Mr. Jackson your Attorney, who will know how
to act in case any thing should be necessary to be done.
As for myself I would by no means appear to Mr. Berger
the dupe or any of the party. If any Person
could be so weak to advance money upon the Draft
of a Persons without being acquainted with their
writing or Christian names he is not to be pitied.
This is supposing Berger an innocent Person, but
even that is doubtful, a little time will clear
up the whole matter which at all events can be
of no serious consequence to you.
      We have lost our worthy Friend Mr. Glover who
died early on Friday morning last; we have
made the proper inquiries after Mrs. & Miss Glover
but are as yet ignorant in what manner he
has left his property, but I am not uneasy upon
that subject as I am certain he possessed an excellent
disposition, I confess I feel myself sincerely interested



for poor Miss Glover, & I am certain I shall
not be disappointed I beg to be remembered to
Mr. Dickenson & remain Dear Mrs. Dickenson

                             Your faithful & Affectionate Humble servant
                                                         Frederick Hamilton
Bedford Square
      November 26th. 1786.


P.S.
      Mrs. Stratford has been
with us on her return from Paris
& stayed only 8 days, she is now on
her way to Dublin. I made the explanation
you desired.




Mrs. Dickenson
      Taxal
Chapel le Frith
                Cheshire

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. These two lines appear to the left of the signature.
 2. A stamp that reads 'CHESTERFIELD' can be seen just above the address.
 3. Remains of a mark, reading '28 NO', indicating that the letter went through the post on 28 November 1786.

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/1/4/1/30

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith

Date sent: 28 November 1786

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to a fraud that involved the use of Mary Hamilton's name. Money had been given to an unknown woman on production of a bill to a Mr Berger. A bill was also presented elsewhere by this woman and refused. Frederick Hamilton writes that Mr Berger is not to be pitied as he should have known better as he was unacquainted with the handwriting and was not aware of Mary Hamilton's Christian name. He advises Mary Hamilton not to be concerned and to contact her attorney if anything further happens relating to this. The letter also informs Mary Hamilton of the death of her friend Mr Glover. He has made enquiries with Mrs and Miss Glover, who are not yet aware of how 'he has left his property'. Dated at Bedford Square [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 393 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: Rachael Cochrane, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)

Transliterator: Munkhdavaa Oktyabri, 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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