Single Letter

HAM/1/4/4/2

Letter from Mary Hamilton to Sir William Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]

16

Windsor 26th. Sept. 1782


      Highly grateful as I was my Dear Uncle for the Affectionate proof of
your regard on your recollection of me in so melancholy a Season, I was too
much shock'd and afflicted to be able to send an immediate acknowledgment
to your letter -- I mourn the death of Dear Lady Hamilton with ye. sincerest
sorrow, for I was attach'd to her by the liveliest gratitude for the kind
consideration she treated me with even from my earliest days of recollection, I weep
also for having lost a person whom I loved from inclination, & whom
I admired & esteem'd for her Virtues -- I feel for you my Dearest Sir --
I can easily judge what you must have suffer'd, & I am fully sensible
how irreparable is the loʃs You have Sustain'd. “The Death of real and
Virtuous friends is one of ye. heaviest trials of this Uncertain World,
But it is a delightful consolation when they leave us poʃseʃs'd of all
our Esteem, and that our thoughts can follow them with joyful hopes
of their complete happineʃs.”
This consolation is Yours -- this comfort
You have, & it will support you to bear properly the deprivation of a
happineʃs in the Society of one that was so deservedly dear to you.
Their Majesties have expreʃs'd themselves in the kindest manner
upon this Melancholy Subject, they spoke of Ldy. H: in ye. highest
terms of Commendation, they desired to see the letters You had written
to me, which after they had read they both said how much they
felt for you. May I take the liberty to hint (if you make me happy



by answering this) that You will take notice of their having
interested themselves in Your Affliction. I have a request to make,
which I think you will not refuse, it is, that you will send me
by the first opportunity of any persons coming to England something
that belong'd to my valued friend -- indulge me in this Weakneʃs,
if it is a Weakneʃs, An old letter Case, a drawing, any thing that
was hers, will content me -- never shall I want to be reminded
of her, but it will be a Satisfaction to me to poʃseʃs something
that she did, or something that was hers. Adieu my Dearest
Sir
, allow me to entreat the continuance of your affection
I will ever endeavour to deserve that of your Esteem. I remain
                             with Respect & true Affection Your Neice &
                                                         Friend
                                                                   M: H               
      If you write soon, direct to Windsor, otherwise to St. James's Palace
I imagine You have heard that their M. have had ye. Affliction
of losing their last Child[2] --

MH[3]

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


Notes


 1. This letter is quoted from in Anson & Anson (1925: 150-151).
 2. Prince Alfred, who died on 20 August 1782. See HAM/1/7/12/7, HAM/1/7/12/15, HAM/1/15/2/23.
 3. Moved annotation here from right of signature.

Normalised Text



Windsor 26th. September 1782


      Highly grateful as I was my Dear Uncle for the Affectionate proof of
your regard on your recollection of me in so melancholy a Season, I was too
much shocked and afflicted to be able to send an immediate acknowledgment
to your letter -- I mourn the death of Dear Lady Hamilton with the sincerest
sorrow, for I was attached to her by the liveliest gratitude for the kind
consideration she treated me with even from my earliest days of recollection, I weep
also for having lost a person whom I loved from inclination, & whom
I admired & esteemed for her Virtues -- I feel for you my Dearest Sir --
I can easily judge what you must have suffered, & I am fully sensible
how irreparable is the loss You have Sustained. “The Death of real and
Virtuous friends is one of the heaviest trials of this Uncertain World,
But it is a delightful consolation when they leave us possessed of all
our Esteem, and that our thoughts can follow them with joyful hopes
of their complete happiness.”
This consolation is Yours -- this comfort
You have, & it will support you to bear properly the deprivation of a
happiness in the Society of one that was so deservedly dear to you.
Their Majesties have expressed themselves in the kindest manner
upon this Melancholy Subject, they spoke of Lady Hamilton in the highest
terms of Commendation, they desired to see the letters You had written
to me, which after they had read they both said how much they
felt for you. May I take the liberty to hint (if you make me happy



by answering this) that You will take notice of their having
interested themselves in Your Affliction. I have a request to make,
which I think you will not refuse, it is, that you will send me
by the first opportunity of any persons coming to England something
that belonged to my valued friend -- indulge me in this Weakness,
if it is a Weakness, An old letter Case, a drawing, any thing that
was hers, will content me -- never shall I want to be reminded
of her, but it will be a Satisfaction to me to possess something
that she did, or something that was hers. Adieu my Dearest
Sir, allow me to entreat the continuance of your affection
I will ever endeavour to deserve that of your Esteem. I remain
                             with Respect & true Affection Your Niece &
                                                         Friend
                                                                   Mary Hamilton               
      If you write soon, direct to Windsor, otherwise to St. James's Palace
I imagine You have heard that their Majesties have had the Affliction
of losing their last Child --

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



 1. This letter is quoted from in Anson & Anson (1925: 150-151).
 2. Prince Alfred, who died on 20 August 1782. See HAM/1/7/12/7, HAM/1/7/12/15, HAM/1/15/2/23.
 3. Moved annotation here from right of signature.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Sir William Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/4/2

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mary Hamilton

Place sent: Windsor

Addressee: Sir William Hamilton

Place received: Naples (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 26 September 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Sir William Hamilton. Mary writes that she was too shocked and upset to send her Uncle an immediate response to his letter informing her of the death of her Aunt. Mary mourns the death of Lady Hamilton greatly. She writes that she was 'attach[e]d to her by the liveliest gratitude for the kind consideration she treated me with even from my earliest days of recollection'. She weeps for the loss of a woman she loved and she feels for Sir William. She notes that the King and Queen 'have expressed themselves in the kindest manner upon this Melancholy Subject', and spoke of Lady Hamilton in 'the highest terms of commendation'. They had expressed a desire to read the letter Sir William had sent her, after reading which they expressed how much they felt for him.
    Mary Hamilton requests that her Uncle send her at his first opportunity some item which belonged to her Aunt. She writes, 'indulge me in this Weakness [...] an old letter Case, a drawing, anything that was hers'.
    Dated at Windsor.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 445 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: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)

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: 10 December 2021

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