HAM/1/4/7/26
Letter from Jean Cathcart (née Hamilton) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Diplomatic Text
manuscript EGA
St Petersburg
16 NS Octr. 1771
Dear Madam,
▼
My Brother Frederick has acquainted
us, by a letter received yesterday, of the
great loʃs our family had made by the
death of our Eldest Brother, who was too
affectionate himself, not to be regretted
by us, very sincerely, for that, & many
other good qualities he was poʃseʃsed of:
Your Affliction & Miʃs Hamilton's, my Brother
Frederick mentions to be very great, as I
can well imagine, having seen how
you lived together: No circumstance of
that time will ever escape my memory:
Tis in that View that I offer myself to your
remembrance in this time of your distreʃs,
desiring you would be aʃsured of my
sincere sympathy for you, & that you
will ever find me the same as in my
Dear Brothers life time, full of regard
and good wishes for yourself & your
daughter, whom I hear with pleasure
from Br Fredy, turns out an Exceeding
good young Woman. As we are at so
great a distance, you will have had time
before you receive this to have a little
recover'd your Spirits, & shall be glad
to hear that your health has not suffer'd
by the great shock you have met with, &
Miʃs Hamilton also. My Lord joins me
in these Compliments of regard, & Condoleance
& the Children desire to add theirs, they are all
so much grown you would Scarcely know
them.[3]
Believe me Dear Madam,
Ever your Affectionate
Humble Servant
J. Cathcart.
[4]
[5]
52[7]
[8]
[9]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A note apparently concerning this letter is catalogued separately as HAM/1/4/7/27.
2. Number moved here from below the dateline and opening salutation.
3. Presumably the youngest child, 15-month-old Catherine, is not to be included here. Sadly, the writer herself was to die just a month later (HAM/1/4/7/29).
4. Bishop mark in black ink, dated 11 November, overwritten with figures in ink.
5. Postmark 'ST PETERSBOVRG' in black ink.
6. The address is crossed by a number of markings by post office employees, including the words 'null IN' and a figure 3.
7. This annotation is written vertically.
8. Bishop mark in black ink, dated 11 November.
9. Seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
St Petersburg
16 New Style October 1771
Dear Madam,
▼
My Brother Frederick has acquainted
us, by a letter received yesterday, of the
great loss our family had made by the
death of our Eldest Brother, who was too
affectionate himself, not to be regretted
by us, very sincerely, for that, & many
other good qualities he was possessed of:
Your Affliction & Miss Hamilton's, my Brother
Frederick mentions to be very great, as I
can well imagine, having seen how
you lived together: No circumstance of
that time will ever escape my memory:
Tis in that View that I offer myself to your
remembrance in this time of your distress,
desiring you would be assured of my
sincere sympathy for you, & that you
will ever find me the same as in my
Dear Brothers life time, full of regard
and good wishes for yourself & your
daughter, whom I hear with pleasure
from Brother Fredy, turns out an Exceeding
good young Woman. As we are at so
great a distance, you will have had time
before you receive this to have a little
recovered your Spirits, & shall be glad
to hear that your health has not suffered
by the great shock you have met with, &
Miss Hamilton also. My Lord joins me
in these Compliments of regard, & Condolence
& the Children desire to add theirs, they are all
so much grown you would Scarcely know
them.
Believe me Dear Madam,
Ever your Affectionate
Humble Servant
Jean Cathcart.
The Honourable
Mrs: Charles Hamilton
in
Northamptonshire
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 Jean Cathcart (née Hamilton) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/7/26
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Jane Cathcart (née Hamilton)
Place sent: St Petersburg
Addressee: Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 16 October 1771
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Jean Cathcart to Mrs Hamilton on the death of her husband, Charles Hamilton, which she has just been informed of by a letter from her brother, Frederick Hamilton.
Dated at St Petersburg.
Original reference No. 10.
Length: 1 sheet, 259 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 3 August 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