Diplomatic Text
Dear Sir,
I receiv'd your letter of the 1st. of this Inst. which
I shou'd have thank'd you for immediately had I not
expected the favor of another letter from you in a few days
after with Robert's Account; that letter is now just come
to hand, & as you might be sure I cou'd have no objections
to make to it, I am sorry you did not inform me at the
same time where I might pay the money which I am ready
to do with a thousand thanks as soon as I receive your
instructions, or if you think proper you may draw upon
me for the amount, by a Bill payable at sight. Two Dogs
arrived here from Taxal some time ago, but for what use
I do not well understand, & Robt. has been endeavouring
to sell them, but without succeʃs. Upon your kind informa=
tion I got him to write to the Servant he had so impru=
dently engaged, to put him off, & a letter has been receiv'd
from the man with great lamentations for his disappoint=
ment. A letter was also wrote to the Watch maker at
Manchester, informing him that as the Clock was not finish'd
to the time promised, it wou'd not be received. I have with
much difficulty persuaded Robt. to give me a true state of
his debts, which do not exceed one hundred & thirty pounds;
upwards of sixty of which are for Telescopes & Air Pumps bought
at different shops, the rest for trifling Bills & money borrow'd,
for the whole I have taken upon myself the payment, which
will be final on my part; for what debts he may contract
hereafter, he must be himself responsible, as well as for the
consequences. I propose to make him an allowance of £300. pr.
Annum which is fully as much as he can expect from my In=
come; my Father had nearly twice as much, when he allow'd
my Brother only £200. Robert has aʃsured me most solemnly that
he will break off his connexion with Risman, I shall how=
ever endeavor to strengthen this promise by a penal obliga=
tion. Robt. for the first week after his arrival was silent
to a surprising degree, but he has of late become much
more cheerful & I must acknowledge behaves very well.
I do not put it in his power to dupe me any further
& I keep him at a very small allowance, which I shall do
till our agreement is completed, when he may dispose of him=
self & his money as he may think proper; he is determined
he says to return to Kiel for the object of improving him=
self, which he chuses in preference to any other place, as there
are no English there & as his money will go there much further
than in any other place. I beg to repeat my sincere thanks
to you & Mrs. Dickenson for the kind interest you have always
you have always expreʃs'd for this young man & hope the time
may come when he will be throughly conscious of his obli[gations]
to you both; I do not altogether despair of his amendment,
he now perceives that a perseverance in his errors must [be]
fatal, & this reflection may probably make him more
cautious. It was not in my power to avail myself of your
obliging invitation to Taxal having much busineʃs to
detain me here I beg to unite my best Compts. with Mrs. H.' Robt.
& my Daughter's to you & Mrs. Dickenson & remain
Dear Sir
Your Obliged & Affect. Humble Servt.
Frederick Hamilton
No. 2 Portman Square
September 24th. 1792[1]
[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Sir,
I received your letter of the 1st. of this Instant which
I should have thanked you for immediately had I not
expected the favour of another letter from you in a few days
after with Robert's Account; that letter is now just come
to hand, & as you might be sure I could have no objections
to make to it, I am sorry you did not inform me at the
same time where I might pay the money which I am ready
to do with a thousand thanks as soon as I receive your
instructions, or if you think proper you may draw upon
me for the amount, by a Bill payable at sight. Two Dogs
arrived here from Taxal some time ago, but for what use
I do not well understand, Robert has been endeavouring
to sell them, but without success. Upon your kind information
I got him to write to the Servant he had so imprudently
engaged, to put him off, & a letter has been received
from the man with great lamentations for his disappointment
. A letter was also written to the Watch maker at
Manchester, informing him that as the Clock was not finished
to the time promised, it would not be received. I have with
much difficulty persuaded Robert to give me a true state of
his debts, which do not exceed one hundred & thirty pounds;
upwards of sixty of which are for Telescopes & Air Pumps bought
at different shops, the rest for trifling Bills & money borrowed,
for the whole I have taken upon myself the payment, which
will be final on my part; for what debts he may contract
hereafter, he must be himself responsible, as well as for the
consequences. I propose to make him an allowance of £300. per
Annum which is fully as much as he can expect from my Income
; my Father had nearly twice as much, when he allowed
my Brother only £200. Robert has assured me most solemnly that
he will break off his connexion with Risman, I shall however
endeavour to strengthen this promise by a penal obligation
. Robert for the first week after his arrival was silent
to a surprising degree, but he has of late become much
more cheerful & I must acknowledge behaves very well.
I do not put it in his power to dupe me any further
& I keep him at a very small allowance, which I shall do
till our agreement is completed, when he may dispose of himself
& his money as he may think proper; he is determined
he says to return to Kiel for the object of improving himself
, which he chooses in preference to any other place, as there
are no English there & as his money will go there much further
than in any other place. I beg to repeat my sincere thanks
to you & Mrs. Dickenson for the kind interest you have always
expressed for this young man & hope the time
may come when he will be thoroughly conscious of his obligations
to you both; I do not altogether despair of his amendment,
he now perceives that a perseverance in his errors must be
fatal, & this reflection may probably make him more
cautious. It was not in my power to avail myself of your
obliging invitation to Taxal having much business to
detain me here I beg to unite my best Compliments with Mrs. Hamilton' Robert
& my Daughter's to you & Mrs. Dickenson & remain
Dear Sir
Your Obliged & Affectionate Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
No. 2 Portman Square
September 24th. 1792
Taxal Chapel in Frith
DerbyShire
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/1/4/2/19
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: London
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 24 September 1792
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson. He thanks Dickenson for paying his son's debts and asks for instructions on where to pay the money back. The letter notes that two dogs have been sent to his house from Taxal and he has no idea why. His son has attempted to sell them but as yet had no success. Frederick has persuaded his son Robert to write to the servant he so 'imprudently engaged' [probably in Taxal] to stop him coming to London and has received a letter from him full of his disappointment. He, with some difficulty, has persuaded his son to tell him the true amount of his debts which 'do not exceed one hundred & thirty pounds', over sixty pounds of which was for telescopes and air pumps. Frederick notes that this is the last time he will pay his son's debts and Robert in future will have to take the consequences of his own actions. He will make him an allowance of £300 per annum and Robert promises to break off all connection with Risman[?]. Robert has expressed his interest in returning to Kiel, Germany, which may be beneficial, as there are no English there and his money would 'go there much further'.
Dated at Portman Square.
Length: 1 sheet, 614 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: Emma Kelly, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Yiwei Yin, 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