Diplomatic Text
Dear Sir,
We are extremely disappointed to hear that you
and Mrs. Dickenson have determined to put off your visit
to your Friends in London to so distant a period. I had
really promised myself great satisfaction in having
an opportunity of aʃsuring you personally how sen=
sible I am of my obligations to you for your very kind
attention to me upon a late occasion. My Son left us
a fortnight ago to join his Regiment at Nottingham,
his equipment with his Commiʃsion have cost me at
least £1500. to which I have to add an Allowance of
Two Hundred Pounds a year in addition to his pay, which
I hope he will be able to manage so as to make it answer,
for further I positively cannot aʃsist him. I have lately
made an exchange of my Living in the North of Ireland
for a very moderate one in the best part of Suffolk, by
which I am a loser of about £300 a year. I propose to
reside upon it four or five months in the summer as
I have a tolerable House with good accommodations,
& we mean to look upon it as a Country retreat which
will not only defray all expences attending it, but also my
Sons allowance, & the satisfaction of my own mind must
stand in balance for my loʃs of income. The Living is
call'd Stanton, equally distant from Thetford & St. Edmund,
Bury, a very beautiful Country, with excellent roads & a
capital neighbourhood. Enclosed is my Bond for the money
you have lent me, it has been executed some time, & is
attested by a Notary Publick & his Clerk, half a years
Interest will be due upon it the 5th. of April next, which
I will pay as you may please to direct me. I am to receive
from the Person Ld. Abercorn presents to my Living in Ireland
£1500 for my House, which he is by law obliged to give me
Security to pay me in Two Years in equal yearly payments
this Security I propose to hand over to you in addition
to my Bond, which I conceive will be better than any col=
lateral Security I cou'd give you upon my Estate in Scot=
land. At all events when you find occasion for your
money it must be forthcoming after Six months notice
& in the mean time you may rest aʃsured that the
enclosed Bond alone is security sufficient & indubita=
ble for God forbid that I shoud trifle with in such a
matter as this! My Son is fully acquainted with the trans=
action & of your conduct in it. You will please to acknow=
ledge the Receipt of the Bond as soon as convenient to
you; I thought it might come to you as safely by Post as
in the way you proposed, which I preferr'd from my im=
patience to acquit myself. I am very glad to hear so good
an account of my little God Daughter, & hope sincerely that
you may have encreasing satisfaction in her. You can not
well conceive Lady Stormont's happineʃs upon her acquisi=
tion of a Daughter, which is indeed a very beautiful Child,
& perfectly healthy; I have the honor of being her God Father
also. All little unfriendly ideas that Ld. S_t might have
given foundation for some years ago, are now perfectly
obliterated. Lady Frances Harpur is beginning to see
her Friends a little she is to be with us with Mrs. Graham
& Miʃs Cathcart in a very private way next Friday evening.
The Duke & Dutcheʃs of Atholl have been in Town about
a fortnight with their whole Family; they have a
House in Hanover Square formerly inhabited by the
Imperial Minister. I beg that you will remember me affection=
ately to Mrs. Dickenson. I am not sure that our not seeing
you the next spring is not owing to some of her œconomi=
cal suggestions, for this however I confeʃs she is not to be
ridiculed, nor am I disposed to do it. Mrs. Hamilton desires
to be rememberd to you & Mrs. Dickenson. I shall say nothing
from my Daughter as I know she means to write immediate=
ly herself, I remain with great regard,
Dear Sir,
Your faithful & Obliged
Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
Oxford Street -- 249
February 10th. 1790.[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Sir,
We are extremely disappointed to hear that you
and Mrs. Dickenson have determined to put off your visit
to your Friends in London to so distant a period. I had
really promised myself great satisfaction in having
an opportunity of assuring you personally how sensible
I am of my obligations to you for your very kind
attention to me upon a late occasion. My Son left us
a fortnight ago to join his Regiment at Nottingham,
his equipment with his Commission have cost me at
least £1500. to which I have to add an Allowance of
Two Hundred Pounds a year in addition to his pay, which
I hope he will be able to manage so as to make it answer,
for further I positively cannot assist him. I have lately
made an exchange of my Living in the North of Ireland
for a very moderate one in the best part of Suffolk, by
which I am a loser of about £300 a year. I propose to
reside upon it four or five months in the summer as
I have a tolerable House with good accommodations,
& we mean to look upon it as a Country retreat which
will not only defray all expenses attending it, but also my
Sons allowance, & the satisfaction of my own mind must
stand in balance for my loss of income. The Living is
called Stanton, equally distant from Thetford & St. Edmund,
Bury, a very beautiful Country, with excellent roads & a
capital neighbourhood. Enclosed is my Bond for the money
you have lent me, it has been executed some time, & is
attested by a Notary Public & his Clerk, half a years
Interest will be due upon it the 5th. of April next, which
I will pay as you may please to direct me. I am to receive
from the Person Lord Abercorn presents to my Living in Ireland
£1500 for my House, which he is by law obliged to give me
Security to pay me in Two Years in equal yearly payments
this Security I propose to hand over to you in addition
to my Bond, which I conceive will be better than any collateral
Security I could give you upon my Estate in Scotland
. At all events when you find occasion for your
money it must be forthcoming after Six months notice
& in the mean time you may rest assured that the
enclosed Bond alone is security sufficient & indubitable
for God forbid that I should trifle with in such a
matter as this! My Son is fully acquainted with the transaction
& of your conduct in it. You will please to acknowledge
the Receipt of the Bond as soon as convenient to
you; I thought it might come to you as safely by Post as
in the way you proposed, which I preferred from my impatience
to acquit myself. I am very glad to hear so good
an account of my little God-daughter, & hope sincerely that
you may have increasing satisfaction in her. You can not
well conceive Lady Stormont's happiness upon her acquisition
of a Daughter, which is indeed a very beautiful Child,
& perfectly healthy; I have the honour of being her God Father
also. All little unfriendly ideas that Lord Stormont might have
given foundation for some years ago, are now perfectly
obliterated. Lady Frances Harpur is beginning to see
her Friends a little she is to be with us with Mrs. Graham
& Miss Cathcart in a very private way next Friday evening.
The Duke & Duchess of Atholl have been in Town about
a fortnight with their whole Family; they have a
House in Hanover Square formerly inhabited by the
Imperial Minister. I beg that you will remember me affectionately
to Mrs. Dickenson. I am not sure that our not seeing
you the next spring is not owing to some of her œconomical
suggestions, for this however I confess she is not to be
ridiculed, nor am I disposed to do it. Mrs. Hamilton desires
to be remembered to you & Mrs. Dickenson. I shall say nothing
from my Daughter as I know she means to write immediately
herself, I remain with great regard,
Dear Sir,
Your faithful & Obliged
Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
Oxford Street -- 249
February 10th. 1790.
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 John Dickenson
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/2/13
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: London
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith (certainty: low)
Date sent: 10 February 1790
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson. He reports on family and financial matters. His son left for his Regiment in Nottingham two weeks ago. The cost of his equipment and his commission was £1500, to which an allowance of £200 per annum is to be added. He reports that he has lately changed his living in the North of Ireland to a moderate one [Stanton] in Suffolk and his income will diminish by £300 per annum by this change. He hopes to reside at the living for four or five months each summer and consider it as a country retreat. Lady Stormont has given birth to a daughter, who he is godfather to. He notes that 'all little unfriendly ideas that L[or]d S[tormon]t might have given foundation for some years ago, are now perfectly obliterated'. He notes that Lady Frances Harpur (see HAM/1/16) is beginning to see her friends a little and reports that the Duke and Duchess of Atholl are in Town and have a house in Hanover Square that had formerly been the residence of the imperial minister.
Dated at Oxford Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 721 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: Kim Kahan, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Mingzhen Wu, 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