Single Letter

HAM/1/4/2/1

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson

Diplomatic Text


      To Mr Dickenson      May /85      Typed

      Sir,

      I call'd this morning upon Miʃs Hamilton and
was informed that she proposed to set out tomorrow
morning to accompany Lord & Lady Dartrey on a tour
to Devon Shire, & that they were not to return to London
sooner than a month at least. I confeʃs I coud not help
expreʃsing my surprize to Miʃs Hamilton, whom I
supposed to be engaged in attentions naturally belong=
ing
to her future plan, that she shou'd have leisure
for such a seemingly ill timed excursion. I thought
myself authorised to be a little minute in my en=
quiries
and am very sorry to say I receiv'd very little
satisfaction in her answers. It came out, that she
agreed to this expedition in compliance with the
advice of some of her Friends, who hoped she might
receive benefit by it, as it is visible her health has
been affected by the agitation and anxiety of mind
she has suffer'd for some time past. My decided



opinion to her was, that as long as the cause subsisted, her
anxiety wou'd accompany her where ever she went, & that
I wou'd by all means recommend it to her to decline ta=
king
any step that might, however unjustly, throw un=
favorable
insinuations upon your conduct. Relying
upon the sincerity of my advice, she went immediately
to make her excuses to Ld. & Ly. Dartrey. If you shou'd think
that I have acted with any judgement, you will I hope
be the leʃs startled at my presuming to offer you my
advice tho' unasked. As a Friend to Miʃs Hamilton I can=
not
help feeling very sensibly, that the circumstances of
her engagement to you have led her into very mortify=
ing
& perplexing situations; these I will allow may
hitherto have been unavoidable; but I cannot easily
suppose that the continuation of them shou'd be so
likewise. I think Sir, it is really incumbent upon you
to come to Town immediately; by so doing many dis=
agreeable
surmises wou'd be annihilated; you wou'd
at the same time have an opportunity of conversing with
some of Miʃs H.s Friends, who might possibly be of use when
they understand circumstances they ought to know,
but which they are yet strangers to. I am very far



from wishing to pry into other Persons affairs, but the
busineʃs in question cannot be transacted without a
mutual confidence. As I propose to leave London the first
week in June, & to be absent about five months, it wou'd
be a great satisfaction to me to be of some use in this
busineʃs before I set out; I therefore flatter myself that you
will not find it inconvenient to comply with my re=
quest
, by which you wou'd afford the greatest satis=
faction
to one who merits every attention in your
power, and give me an opportunity at the same [time]
of demonstrating the regard with which [I]
remain
                                                         Sir,
                                                         Your faithful Humble Servt.
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
Bedford Square
      May 20th. 1785.[1]




Dickinson Junr. Esqr.
      Taxal
      Chapel le Frith
                DerbyShire


[2]
Mr. Hamilton
May 20-85[3]

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


Notes


 1. This dateline appears to left of signature.
 2. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 3. This annotation appears at the bottom of the page below the address when unfolded, written upside down.

Normalised Text


           

      Sir,

      I called this morning upon Miss Hamilton and
was informed that she proposed to set out tomorrow
morning to accompany Lord & Lady Dartrey on a tour
to Devon Shire, & that they were not to return to London
sooner than a month at least. I confess I could not help
expressing my surprise to Miss Hamilton, whom I
supposed to be engaged in attentions naturally belonging
to her future plan, that she should have leisure
for such a seemingly ill timed excursion. I thought
myself authorised to be a little minute in my enquiries
and am very sorry to say I received very little
satisfaction in her answers. It came out, that she
agreed to this expedition in compliance with the
advice of some of her Friends, who hoped she might
receive benefit by it, as it is visible her health has
been affected by the agitation and anxiety of mind
she has suffered for some time past. My decided



opinion to her was, that as long as the cause subsisted, her
anxiety would accompany her where ever she went, & that
I would by all means recommend it to her to decline taking
any step that might, however unjustly, throw unfavourable
insinuations upon your conduct. Relying
upon the sincerity of my advice, she went immediately
to make her excuses to Lord & Lady Dartrey. If you should think
that I have acted with any judgement, you will I hope
be the less startled at my presuming to offer you my
advice though unasked. As a Friend to Miss Hamilton I cannot
help feeling very sensibly, that the circumstances of
her engagement to you have led her into very mortifying
& perplexing situations; these I will allow may
hitherto have been unavoidable; but I cannot easily
suppose that the continuation of them should be so
likewise. I think Sir, it is really incumbent upon you
to come to Town immediately; by so doing many disagreeable
surmises would be annihilated; you would
at the same time have an opportunity of conversing with
some of Miss Hamiltons Friends, who might possibly be of use when
they understand circumstances they ought to know,
but which they are yet strangers to. I am very far



from wishing to pry into other Persons affairs, but the
business in question cannot be transacted without a
mutual confidence. As I propose to leave London the first
week in June, & to be absent about five months, it would
be a great satisfaction to me to be of some use in this
business before I set out; I therefore flatter myself that you
will not find it inconvenient to comply with my request
, by which you would afford the greatest satisfaction
to one who merits every attention in your
power, and give me an opportunity at the same time
of demonstrating the regard with which I
remain
                                                         Sir,
                                                         Your faithful Humble Servant
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
Bedford Square
      May 20th. 1785.




Dickinson Junior Esqr.
      Taxal
      Chapel le Frith
                DerbyShire



(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
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 1. This dateline appears to left of signature.
 2. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 3. This annotation appears at the bottom of the page below the address when unfolded, written upside down.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/2/1

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: London

Addressee: John Dickenson

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

Date sent: 20 May 1785

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson. The letter relates to Mary Hamilton's proposed tour of Devonshire with Lord and Lady Dartrey (see HAM/1/11). Frederick Hamilton writes that he visited Mary Hamilton and was informed that she was planning to travel to Devonshire for at least a month, and was due to leave the following day. Her Uncle was surprised and advised that as she was to be married shortly she should rather spend her time planning for her future. [She accepted his advice and sent her apologies to Lord and Lady Dartrey.] His niece had been suffering with anxiety for some time and the letter suggests that Mr Dickenson and her engagement may have played a part in this. Frederick Hamilton suggests to Dickenson that he visit London immediately. In doing so 'many disagreeable surmises would be annihilated' and it would also provide Dickenson with an opportunity to meet with Hamilton's friends, 'who might possibly be of use when they understand circumstances they ought to know but which they are yet strangers to'.
    Dated at Bedford Square [London].
   

Length: 3 sheets, 501 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 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.

Research assistant: Sarah Connor, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo

Transliterator: Xinyu Shi, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2017)

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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