Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/7/6/19

Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      My dear Madam

      I do not deserve the goodneʃs you
have shewn me in suffering your obliging Letter to have
remained so long unanswered. Mrs. F. & myself are both
infinitely obliged to you for your kind Congratulations : Mrs. F.
is very anxious to be known to you, & is as happy as the rest of your
friends, in the prospect of seeing you in London in the Spring.
We shall be there in the Spring for a short time . I have no house
in Town, that being beyond the reach of my Finances at present.
The Circumstances of my connexion with Mrs. F. are somewhat
singular. She is the only Child of a man of large fortune, & beloved
by him in a great degree : He gave his consent to our Marriage, but
he settled his estate upon his daughter, but has given us little or
nothing at present, or ever, I beleive, will give; so much stronger
is his Love for his Guineas then his daughter: But this is entre nous.
My little woman however, who is all Goodneʃs, does every thing in her
power to make me amends for the stranger behaviour of her Father.
      Your very worthy friend Mrs. Delaney left Windsor a few
days ago : She honoured us with a visit the day before she went to
Town: She charged me to tell you that she loved you as much as


ever, but that she was no longer able to write herself or to indite to themLetters to her friends.
She has great comfort in her young Companion Miʃs Port who is
grown a very fine Girl.      Miʃs Burney often enquires for you :
She begins to find herself very much at her ease, notwithstanding
she is upon very distant terms with poor Madam S. whose
constant state of Ill health cannot but sower her temper : the good
old Lady has however a good heart; she was pleased with your recollection
of her.
      Matters go on in a certain house pretty much as
usual : The Sons, let Papa do all he can, will be young men :
The second is, I am sorry to say it, quite drawn into the Vortex of
Pleasure, & follows hard the steps of his older Brother: The third
is in a bad state of health: the fourth is now travelling about, & is
at present at Geneva.[1]
      Your friend Mr. Preston the Bishop of
Ferns was to have been brought upon the English Bench, but
some disagreement between the Minister here, & the Minister
in Ireland, has put a stop to the exchange for the present.
We have sustained a heavy loʃs in our Church by the death of our
worthy Dean, but the King has appointed a Succesʃor with whom we
are all highly pleased Dr. Douglaʃs.      We are to be very gay here
about the middle of August: We are certainly to have an Installation.
Three Rooms are already fitted up in the Castle in a style truly


Royal, -- & great alterations are making in St. Georges
Chapel, the expence of which will amount to 7,000 £o.[2]
as Mr. Dickinson is a Lover of the Arts he must not fail to see
this place, & the great works going on : I hope I need not say
how happy I shall be to be his Cicerone[3] : It will give equal
pleasure to Mrs. F to attend upon Mrs. D. if she can prevail upon
herself to give one look more upon old Windsors Towers.

      I am somewhat anxious about the fate of this Letter,
as I recollect very imperfectly the direction you gave me :
If the little Louisa engages all your attention, Mr. D. perha[ps]
will ha[ve the go]odneʃs to favour me with a few Lines, so[on]
after he [receives] this.
      Give my best Compts: to him, &[4]
Beleive me
                             Dear madam
                                       your most faithful
                                            humble Servt-
                                                         J Fisher
Windsor Jan: 28. 1788



Mrs. Dickenson[5]
      at
Taxal near
      Chapel la frith[6]
                             Derbyshire

                             [7]
[8]

1881 to[9]
Revd Mr. Fisher
Janry 28- 1788[10]
Afterwards BP. of Exeter[11]

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


Notes


 1. Prince Edward completed his education in Geneva in 1789. He remained there for at least another year.
 2. After the king assigned Henry Emlyn as the architect, St. George's Chapel received numerous restorations and alterations between 1776 and 1795.
 3. ‘A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers’ (OED s.v. Cicerone n. Accessed 16-11-2020).
 4. There is a tear at the end of this line, and it is unclear whether any text has been lost (perhaps a mention of Louisa Dickenson), or whether the 'and' should be read as the beginning of the salutation.
 5. Partially obscured postmark 'WINDSOR', in sepia ink.
 6. A large figure 8, three lines high, has been written to the left of the address, denoting postage due. A large figure 3 has been crossed out on the other side of the address.
 7. Remains of a stamp in which a 'JA' is still legible, indicating a posting date of 30 January.
 8. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
 9. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.
 10. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.
 11. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.

Normalised Text


      My dear Madam

      I do not deserve the goodness you
have shown me in suffering your obliging Letter to have
remained so long unanswered. Mrs. Fisher & myself are both
infinitely obliged to you for your kind Congratulations : Mrs. Fisher
is very anxious to be known to you, & is as happy as the rest of your
friends, in the prospect of seeing you in London in the Spring.
We shall be there in the Spring for a short time . I have no house
in Town, that being beyond the reach of my Finances at present.
The Circumstances of my connexion with Mrs. Fisher are somewhat
singular. She is the only Child of a man of large fortune, & beloved
by him in a great degree : He gave his consent to our Marriage,
he settled his estate upon his daughter, but has given us little or
nothing at present, or ever, I believe, will give; so much stronger
is his Love for his Guineas than his daughter: But this is entre nous.
My little woman however, who is all Goodness, does every thing in her
power to make me amends for the strange behaviour of her Father.
      Your very worthy friend Mrs. Delaney left Windsor a few
days ago : She honoured us with a visit the day before she went to
Town: She charged me to tell you that she loved you as much as


ever, but that she was no longer able to write herself or to indite Letters to her friends.
She has great comfort in her young Companion Miss Port who is
grown a very fine Girl.      Miss Burney often enquires for you :
She begins to find herself very much at her ease, notwithstanding
she is upon very distant terms with poor Madam Schwellenberg whose
constant state of Ill health cannot but sour her temper : the good
old Lady has however a good heart; she was pleased with your recollection
of her.
      Matters go on in a certain house pretty much as
usual : The Sons, let Papa do all he can, will be young men :
The second is, I am sorry to say it, quite drawn into the Vortex of
Pleasure, & follows hard the steps of his older Brother: The third
is in a bad state of health: the fourth is now travelling about, & is
at present at Geneva.
      Your friend Mr. Preston the Bishop of
Ferns was to have been brought upon the English Bench, but
some disagreement between the Minister here, & the Minister
in Ireland, has put a stop to the exchange for the present.
We have sustained a heavy loss in our Church by the death of our
worthy Dean, but the King has appointed a Successor with whom we
are all highly pleased Dr. Douglass.      We are to be very gay here
about the middle of August: We are certainly to have an Installation.
Three Rooms are already fitted up in the Castle in a style truly


Royal, -- & great alterations are making in St. Georges
Chapel, the expense of which will amount to 7,000 £o.
as Mr. Dickinson is a Lover of the Arts he must not fail to see
this place, & the great works going on : I hope I need not say
how happy I shall be to be his Cicerone : It will give equal
pleasure to Mrs. Fisher to attend upon Mrs. Dickinson if she can prevail upon
herself to give one look more upon Windsors Towers.

      I am somewhat anxious about the fate of this Letter,
as I recollect very imperfectly the direction you gave me :
If the little Louisa engages all your attention, Mr. D. perhaps
will have the goodness to favour me with a few Lines, soon
after he receives this.
      Give my best Compliments to him, &
Believe me
                             Dear madam
                                       your most faithful
                                            humble Servant
                                                         John Fisher
Windsor January 28. 1788



Mrs. Dickenson
      at
Taxal near
      Chapel la frith
                             Derbyshire

                            




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



 1. Prince Edward completed his education in Geneva in 1789. He remained there for at least another year.
 2. After the king assigned Henry Emlyn as the architect, St. George's Chapel received numerous restorations and alterations between 1776 and 1795.
 3. ‘A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers’ (OED s.v. Cicerone n. Accessed 16-11-2020).
 4. There is a tear at the end of this line, and it is unclear whether any text has been lost (perhaps a mention of Louisa Dickenson), or whether the 'and' should be read as the beginning of the salutation.
 5. Partially obscured postmark 'WINDSOR', in sepia ink.
 6. A large figure 8, three lines high, has been written to the left of the address, denoting postage due. A large figure 3 has been crossed out on the other side of the address.
 7. Remains of a stamp in which a 'JA' is still legible, indicating a posting date of 30 January.
 8. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
 9. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.
 10. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.
 11. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin of the page.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/6/19

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Fisher

Place sent: Windsor

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

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

Date sent: 28 January 1788

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton, relating to Fisher's wife and news of the Royal family and friends at Windsor. Mrs Fisher is looking forward to meeting Hamilton and they are to come to London in Spring although they have not taken a house as he has not the finance at the time. Fisher notes that although his wife's father is very wealthy, he has given them 'little or nothing' and that he has more love for his money than for his daughter'. He describes his wife as 'all goodness' and that she does everything in her power to make amends for her father.
    Fisher notes that he has received a visit from Hamilton's friend, Mrs Delany who wished him to tell her that she loves her as much as ever but is unable to write herself. He notes that Frances Burney often makes enquires on Hamilton and notes that she is 'upon very distant terms with poor Madam S [Scwellenberg] whose constant state of ill health cannot but sower her temper'.
    Writing about the Royal princes, Fisher notes that Prince Frederick is 'I am sorry to say it, quite drawn into the Vortex of pleasure & follows hard the steps of his elder brother'.
    The letter continues with news on the Bishop of Ferns, William Prestion and with improvements and refurbishments at Windsor
   

Length: 1 sheet, 659 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 16 November 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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