Single Letter

HAM/1/4/4/25

Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                             Somerset Street June 12th.
                                                         1791

      I received your Letter of last
March at Bruʃsells where it
was transmitted to me from
Naples. Nothing that falls from
your pen My Dear Niece can
offend me or any one else for
you write from your heart and
that fortunately is a good and
a tender One. I have always
liked what you have written on
a certain delicate Subject &
you and I think very much alike
on that Subject. I shoud be very
sorry to go out of England which
I propose doing the 1st. of September
                                                         without;



without seeing you but I have
still so much busineʃs to do here
& perhaps must go into Wales
that I cannot say exactly when
I shall be at liberty & if I do come
to you in August it can only be
for a few days I must not think
now of fishing or shooting. I
shall soon know more of my destiny
for I am fighting off from going
to Wales if poʃsible. My old
Friends drew me away so much
that poor Emma paʃses her time but
ill here but she has the good sense
to know that it coud not be other-
wise
& will last but a short time



when we shall get back to the
very good Society which her
excellent conduct has insured her
at Naples. There is not a person
on Earth she wishes to see so
much as yourself nor to whom
she thinks herself so much
obliged Pray tell Mr. Dickinson
how sensible I am of his kindn[ess]
& that if he allows me to come
to him & you the manner I am
lodged will be perfectly indifferent
to me     Adieu My Dear Niece
      if you knew how have been
& am still hurry'd you woud pity
me & I am now starved with cold
after the hot weather of 3 days
                                                         Ever yrs. affectly & sincerely
                                                         Wm. Hamilton



Mrs. Dickenson
at Taxal Chapel le Frith
      near Buxton
            Derbyshire[1]


[2]
[3]

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


Notes


 1. A large number 6 denoting postage due has been written across the address, 3 lines deep.
 2. Bishop mark in black ink.
 3. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Normalised Text


                             Somerset Street June 12th.
                                                         1791

      I received your Letter of last
March at Brussells where it
was transmitted to me from
Naples. Nothing that falls from
your pen My Dear Niece can
offend me or any one else for
you write from your heart and
that fortunately is a good and
a tender One. I have always
liked what you have written on
a certain delicate Subject &
you and I think very much alike
on that Subject. I should be very
sorry to go out of England which
I propose doing the 1st. of September
                                                        



without seeing you but I have
still so much business to do here
& perhaps must go into Wales
that I cannot say exactly when
I shall be at liberty & if I do come
to you in August it can only be
for a few days I must not think
now of fishing or shooting. I
shall soon know more of my destiny
for I am fighting off from going
to Wales if possible. My old
Friends drew me away so much
that poor Emma passes her time but
ill here but she has the good sense
to know that it could not be otherwise
& will last but a short time



when we shall get back to the
very good Society which her
excellent conduct has ensure her
at Naples. There is not a person
on Earth she wishes to see so
much as yourself nor to whom
she thinks herself so much
obliged Pray tell Mr. Dickinson
how sensible I am of his kindness
& that if he allows me to come
to him & you the manner I am
lodged will be perfectly indifferent
to me     Adieu My Dear Niece
      if you knew how have been
& am still hurried you would pity
me & I am now starved with cold
after the hot weather of 3 days
                                                         Ever yours affectionately & sincerely
                                                         William Hamilton



Mrs. Dickenson
at Taxal Chapel le Frith
      near Buxton
            Derbyshire



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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. A large number 6 denoting postage due has been written across the address, 3 lines deep.
 2. Bishop mark in black ink.
 3. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/4/25

Correspondence Details

Sender: Sir William Hamilton

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

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

Date sent: 12 June 1791

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He is in England once more and notes that nothing his niece writes can offend him. He continues that he has always liked what she 'had written on a certain delicate subject, & you and I think very much alike on that subject' [presumably this relates to his relationship with his mistress Emma Lyon].
    Sir William writes that now he is back in England, his old friends take up so much of his time that 'Emma passes her time but ill here, but she has the good sense to know that it cannot be otherwise' [as Sir William's mistress, Emma will not be accepted into English 'society'] and that they will soon be back in Naples and in the 'good Society which her excellent conduct has insured her' there. He writes that Emma wishes to meet Hamilton more than anyone on 'Earth'.
    Dated at Somerset Street [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 335 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 28 July 2020)

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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