Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton, I have but 5 Minutes left to write a
Line before the Post goes, Miʃs G. will tell you the sad Catastrophe
that has happen'd of the Packet being taken that carried Mrs Feilding
from Lisbon, & as Mr & Mrs Graham & Miʃs Cathcart are involv'd
in the same Distreʃs, I determin'd to write you a few words, that
you may inform Lady Stormont that they are safe & well at
Vigo in Spain, where they were landed by the American Privateer
(that took them soon after they sail'd) the 26th. of June. Mrs Feilding
herself wrote me this Account. 'tis probable Mr Graham has convey'd
the same Intelligence to England, but as all Posts are attended wth.
uncertainties at such a distance, I thought it wd. be a Satis-
-faction to you & to Ly Stormont to have such Authentick
Account of their Safety. The rest of the Story as much as we
know, my Letter to Miʃs G. will inform you of, & I am Sure
you will pity us all for this distreʃs. Adieu
Ever most Affly. Yrs.
C.Finch
I wrote by the Packet that sail'd last Sunday July 1st.
both to you, & to Miʃs Goldsworthy.
Caldas July 4th. 1781 --
To
Miʃs Hamilton[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton, I have but 5 Minutes left to write a
Line before the Post goes, Miss Goldsworthy will tell you the sad Catastrophe
that has happened of the Packet being taken that carried Mrs Feilding
from Lisbon, & as Mr & Mrs Graham & Miss Cathcart are involved
in the same Distress, I determined to write you a few words, that
you may inform Lady Stormont that they are safe & well at
Vigo in Spain, where they were landed by the American Privateer
(that took them soon after they sailed) the 26th. of June. Mrs Feilding
herself wrote me this Account. 'tis probable Mr Graham has conveyed
the same Intelligence to England, but as all Posts are attended with
uncertainties at such a distance, I thought it would be a Satisfaction
to you & to Lady Stormont to have such Authentic
Account of their Safety. The rest of the Story as much as we
know, my Letter to Miss Goldsworthy will inform you of, & I am Sure
you will pity us all for this distress. Adieu
Ever most Affectionately Yours
Charlotte Finch
I wrote by the Packet that sailed last Sunday July 1st.
both to you, & to Miss Goldsworthy.
Caldas July 4th. 1781 --
To
Miss Hamilton
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 Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/31
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Caldas da Rainha
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 4 July 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She has five minutes to write a few lines about the taking of the packet that Mrs Fielding, Mr and Mrs Graham and Miss Cathcart were aboard on their way to Lisbon. Finch was determined to let Lady Stormont know they are safe and well in Vigo in Spain. The Graham’s may be writing themselves but the post is unreliable so she thought it better that she has definite assurances of their safety.
Dated at Caldas.
Length: 1 sheet, 212 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 1 May 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