HAM/1/11/26
Letter from Thomas Dawson, Lord Dartrey (later Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Chelsea 3d. Apl May 1785[1] [2]
Dr Miʃs Hamilton ▼
Any point relative to your
Happyneʃs I am much flatterd in be-
=ing referrd to by you, & you may depend
every Confidence you place in me shall
remain unreveald -- Delicacy, the
characteristic of yourself, naturally
makes me attentive to that point --
but in such eʃsential matters, I
should think it a relief to your friends
that; more or leʃs Mr.. Dickeson's fathers
fortune (for present maintenance as
usual I shd understand to be known to
him) after any debts or provisions for
his younger Children shoud be mentiond
& your provision in proportion thereto
as to Remainder be such as this li
=berality consistent with the Means --
naturally woud dictate -- Any ad
=ventious[3] incidents out of Question
I am very sensible of honour[4]
Mr Dickesnon intended in meeting
me at Chester[5] & his Confidence placed
in my Character, The circumstances
attending my family prevents my
being able to avail my self thereof
but you may be aʃsurd of my
most Candid consideration & privacy
in any point you may Communi
=cate to
Dr. Ms Hamiltons
affte frd.
& obt servt
Dartrey
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved dateline up from same line as salutation.
2. Hamilton has overwritten ‘Apl’ with ‘May’.
3. The form adventious, though always far less frequent than its synonym adventitious, is recorded as a headword and still current (OED s.v. Accessed 03-08-2025).
4. The (untranscribed) stroke to the left of honour is perhaps a hint of the expected definite article, for example in the form ye. The writing is so slapdash that even when a missing letter is inserted belately in Dickenson's name in the next line, it goes in the wrong place.
5. John Dickenson visited Chester both in early April and early May (see HAM/1/2/2 and HAM/1/2/3), and both possible dates for this letter fall in the six-week gap in Hamilton's diary for 1785 (see HAM/2/15/3 p.69). Given the haste with which Dartrey's letter is scrawled and the fact that it is almost the very beginning of a month, we tentatively go with Hamilton's corrected date of 3 May 1785.
Normalised Text
Chelsea 3d. April 1785
Dear Miss Hamilton ▼
Any point relative to your
Happiness I am much flattered in being
referred to by you, & you may depend
every Confidence you place in me shall
remain unrevealed -- Delicacy, the
characteristic of yourself, naturally
makes me attentive to that point --
but in such essential matters, I
should think it a relief to your friends
that; more or less Mr.. Dickeson's fathers
fortune (for present maintenance as
usual I should understand to be known to
him) after any debts or provisions for
his younger Children should be mentioned
& your provision in proportion thereto
as to Remainder be such as this liberality
consistent with the Means --
naturally would dictate -- Any adventious
incidents out of Question
I am very sensible of honour
Mr Dickesnon intended in meeting
me at Chester & his Confidence placed
in my Character, The circumstances
attending my family prevents my
being able to avail my self thereof
but you may be assured of my
most Candid consideration & privacy
in any point you may Communicate
to
Dear Miss Hamiltons
affectionate friend
& obedient servant
Dartrey
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 Thomas Dawson, Lord Dartrey (later Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/11/26
Correspondence Details
Sender: Thomas Dawson, Lord Dartrey
Place sent: Chelsea
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 3 May 1785
when 3 May 1785 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lord Dartrey to Mary Hamilton, concerning John Dickenson and his father's fortune.
Dated at Chelsea.
Original reference No. 26.
Length: 1 sheet, 185 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 31 March 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: 8 August 2025