Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/12/86

Note from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


▼


My dr Miʃs Hamilton -- Ten thousand
thanks for your little Billet & for
taking ye opportunity, to Congratulate
me on my dr. B.'s Return which
was indeed a fine day to me --
I must now intreat of you to answer
me as friend -- & which I have that
Idea of your Goodneʃs to me -- that I
know you will -- 1st Whether I have
any thing more to do abt. my
Distreʃs of this E—— with Respect
to ye Q. House -- 2dly whether
I did wrong to go to Ranelagh[1] after
wards -- for my poor Hairdreʃser
did come to his time -- & off I
went -- & was vastly entertain'd -- &


3dly- my dr. whether the Pʃses- &c
are likely enough, to mention this
misfortune of mine in any Letter
to my Dr Mother -- to make it
neceʃsary for me -- to do so --
I had no other Idea -- than of
telling her ye Melancholy Case
& how vex'd I was -- But it
has just now occurr'd to me --
That it would I know hurt her
much that it shd have
happen'd -- & she may Escape
knowing it -- which I shd much
wish -- At the same time
that I know not whether 'twould


be advisable to request Secrecy of
their R H's -- as If I had done
wrong when I was no ways to blame
And again if it ever was to
Come out my Mother would
be surpris'd I had never mention'd
so distreʃsing a Circumstance --
      Adieu -- I long to receive your
Advice which I know will be
good & just GRight --
      forgive this trouble &
believe me dr Miʃs Hamilton
yr. Oblig'd & Sincere humble
      Sert Henria Finch

a charming
Ranelagh indeed![2]


Miʃs Hamilton
      St James's[3]

                             [4]

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


Notes


 1. Ranelagh Gardens were public pleasure gardens in Chelsea.
 2. This postscript appears to the left of the signature, with a line drawn around to separate it from the rest of the text.
 3. The address is written vertically.
 4. Remains of a seal in red wax to the left and right of the address.

Normalised Text


▼


My dear Miss Hamilton -- Ten thousand
thanks for your little Billet & for
taking the opportunity, to Congratulate
me on my dear Brother's Return which
was indeed a fine day to me --
I must now entreat of you to answer
me as friend -- & which I have that
Idea of your Goodness to me -- that I
know you will -- 1st Whether I have
any thing more to do about my
Distress of this Evening with Respect
to the Queen's House -- 2dly whether
I did wrong to go to Ranelagh afterwards
 -- for my poor Hairdresser
did come to his time -- & off I
went -- & was vastly entertained -- &


3dly- my dear whether the Princesses &c
are likely enough, to mention this
misfortune of mine in any Letter
to my Dear Mother -- to make it
necessary for me -- to do so --
I had no other Idea -- than of
telling her the Melancholy Case
& how vexed I was -- But it
has just now occurred to me --
That it would I know hurt her
much that it should have
happened -- & she may Escape
knowing it -- which I should much
wish -- At the same time
that I know not whether 'twould


be advisable to request Secrecy of
their Royal Highness's -- as If I had done
wrong when I was no ways to blame
And again if it ever was to
Come out my Mother would
be surprised I had never mention'd
so distressing a Circumstance --
      Adieu -- I long to receive your
Advice which I know will be
good & just Right --
      forgive this trouble &
believe me dear Miss Hamilton
your Obliged & Sincere humble
      Servant Henrietta Finch

a charming
Ranelagh indeed!


Miss Hamilton
      St James's

                            

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



 1. Ranelagh Gardens were public pleasure gardens in Chelsea.
 2. This postscript appears to the left of the signature, with a line drawn around to separate it from the rest of the text.
 3. The address is written vertically.
 4. Remains of a seal in red wax to the left and right of the address.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Note from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/86

Correspondence Details

Sender: Harriet Finch

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London

Date sent: between June 1777 and November 1782
notBefore June 1777 (precision: high)
notAfter November 1782 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: A brief note from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 284 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 1 June 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: 27 September 2023

Document Image (pdf)