HAM/1/4/5/1
Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Diplomatic Text
[1]
6
Typed
Naples
1st. Lady Hamilton
to Mrs C Hamilton
about 1770
A Letter from Ly Cathcart
My Dear Mrs Hamilton has given me the
truest concern as it gives us a very
poor account of your health, & Ias I can
not be so well satisfy'd of that particular
from any body as from Mr Hamilton or
your self, I cannot help writing to beg
you will give me some account, of your
disorder I remember you once talk'd of
making a visit to Naples, I wish you
would, it would do you both good, & I
can Aʃsure you we live in so English
a Stile that you need not fear any
of the Italian ceremonys & nonsense
with us -- we enter as little as poʃsible
into their Stupid Aʃsemblys -- in the
Winter are almost intirely with the English
& in the Summer live much to ourselves
which is the only way of being at
all comfortable in this Country -- with
this quiet kind of Life I have quite reco
ver'd my health & am now rather fat
than lean -- but the Climate fine as it
is, is certainly not good for the Spirits
for mine were never so bad as since
I came here -- our greatest diversion is
going upon the Sea where we paʃs
many hours fishing, we take our dinner
& eat it upon a Rock: & try to forget
we are within fifty Miles of a great
City -- Mr Hamilton will not envy us when
I tell him Ld Holland[2] is coming to paʃs
the next Winter here; however there is
no more five hundred pounds to be got
upon Election Matters that is one Comfort
if there was I should not be so easy,
as these are not agreeable expences --
Hamiltons principal friend here is
Count Lascaris the Sardinian Minister --
he is a Sensible Man, ------------
------------------------ Mr Hamilton may re[mem]
ber him in England where he was for
some time with his Uncle the Comte
de Rubion -- pray how does my little
friend Miʃs Hamilton do? I beg my love
to her, & likewise to Mr Hamilton & le[t]
me intreat you to let us know exactly how ---
both do, for nobody can be more truly in
terested in every thing which concerns you
than My Dear Mrs Hamilton
Yr Most Affecte- Sister &
Obliged humble [Servant]
CHamilton
Naples
July ye 13th-[3]
Hamilton joins in Love
[4]
[5]
The Honble. Mrs Hamilton
at Northampton
Northamptonshire
Inghilterra
by way of London
Lady Hamilton
to Mrs Hamilton[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 3-4).
2. Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland of Foxley 1705-1774 had a reputation for his mercenary behaviour while in government.
3. The dateline appears to the left of the signature.
4. Remains of a seal, in red wax, as well as a Bishop mark with the letters AV and the number 5, dated 5 August.
5. Various numbers have been written accross the address, likely indicating postage paid.
6. This annotation is written vertically to the left of the address.
Normalised Text
A Letter from Lady Cathcart
My Dear Mrs Hamilton has given me the
truest concern as it gives us a very
poor account of your health, & as I can
not be so well satisfied of that particular
from any body as from Mr Hamilton or
your self, I cannot help writing to beg
you will give me some account, of your
disorder I remember you once talked of
making a visit to Naples, I wish you
would, it would do you both good, & I
can Assure you we live in so English
a style that you need not fear any
of the Italian ceremonies & nonsense
with us -- we enter as little as possible
into their Stupid Assemblies -- in the
Winter are almost entirely with the English
& in the Summer live much to ourselves
which is the only way of being at
all comfortable in this Country -- with
this quiet kind of Life I have quite recovered
my health & am now rather fat
than lean -- but the Climate fine as it
is, is certainly not good for the Spirits
for mine were never so bad as since
I came here -- our greatest diversion is
going upon the Sea where we pass
many hours fishing, we take our dinner
& eat it upon a Rock: & try to forget
we are within fifty Miles of a great
City -- Mr Hamilton will not envy us when
I tell him Lord Holland is coming to pass
the next Winter here; however there is
no more five hundred pounds to be got
upon Election Matters that is one Comfort
if there was I should not be so easy,
as these are not agreeable expenses --
Hamiltons principal friend here is
Count Lascaris the Sardinian Minister --
he is a Sensible Man,
Mr Hamilton may remember
him in England where he was for
some time with his Uncle the Comte
de Rubion -- pray how does my little
friend Miss Hamilton do? I beg my love
to her, & likewise to Mr Hamilton & let
me entreat you to let us know exactly how ---
both do, for nobody can be more truly interested
in every thing which concerns you
than My Dear Mrs Hamilton
Your Most Affectionate Sister &
Obliged humble Servant
Catherine Hamilton
Naples
July the 13th-
Hamilton joins in Love
The Honourable Mrs Hamilton
at Northampton
Northamptonshire
Inghilterra
by way of London
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 Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/5/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow)
Place sent: Naples
Addressee: Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: between 1768 and 1771
notBefore 1768 (precision: high)
notAfter 1771 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton to Mary Hamilton's mother. She writes to ask about her sister-in-law’s health. She notes that she and her husband had once talked of visiting Naples and Hamilton wishes they would as they would find it beneficial to their health and notes that they live in so ‘English a Stile that you need not fear any of the Italian ceremonies and nonsense with us’. She and her husband take part in Italian Assemblies as little as possible and in the Winter they are almost exclusively with the English and in Summer they are by themselves.
The sheet contains manuscript annotations written by a member of the family, noting that this letter was written around 1770. The letter is undated but the archivist has decided to place this letter at the beginning of the sequence on the basis of this note; the contents of the letter do not permit a specific date to be determined. Anson & Anson (1925: 3) dates this letter to 1768.
Dated at Naples [Italy].
Original reference No. 6.
Length: 1 sheet, 401 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: Tino Oudesluijs, 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: 13 August 2023