Single Letter

HAM/1/13/28

Letter from Eleanor Glover (née Lenton) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Decbr. 15t. 1785
Albemarle Street

My Dear Miranda


      I not only love you, but
admire that amiable disposition that you
are bleʃs'd with; & your feelings for me, & my
Dear Child
, upon this melancholy occasion,
will endear you to me if poʃsible, more
then ever: At presant my heart is too full
to enter upon the subject of my late
loʃs. his character in life is too great
to be slightly touch'd upon; in private
life, such a Husband, Parent, Master,
& Friend; none superior, & few his Equals.
tears flow so fast, I must stop my pen
upon that subject. --
In full confidence I shall keep nothing
from you, I will repeat your own words,
it is not from curiosity, but real friendship,
that you wish to know how my Dear late
husband
has left his Affairs; & how Richd
has behav'd upon this occasion, you may
be aʃsured, not properly, it is not in his
nature: at his first coming to Town,
he told me, he did not see that his
Father
appear'd to be near Death; & thus
he need not have come so soon; I gave
him for answer, that the Dr. told me,



                             2
upon his first coming to Town he was so
bad, that had there not been an immedi-
ate
alteration, he cou'd not have liv'd eight
& forty hours; this was the first salutation
I receiv'd from him; what cou'd I expect
after this behaviour, a dark & sullen contenance,
this lasted for six weeks after he returned
to Town; not one word was ever utterd
relative to his Fathers sufferings, neither
my tears, or his Fathers Mourns, had any
effect upon his mind; poor unhappy Man;
so was his conduct, that at last, I dreaded
the sight of him; about ten Days before
my Dear husband departed, he told me I
must prepare for a confusion; I gave
him for answer, that I had met with
nothing else since I came into the family,
& was prepar'd against every thing that
might happen & so it ended: I perfectly under-
-stood
the poor retch, that if there had
been a loop hole to snatch hold of, he wou'd
have taken the advantage. but I thank
God there is none. -- what an unfeel-
-ing
Creature must he be, he wanted
to open his Fathers Will himself, which
I wou'd not permit; I told him it was
a discredit to himself, Even to think of it.
Mr. Antrobus of spring Garden, & Mr.
Thomas Lewis
were the two friends that
came, upon that melancholy occasion. --



                             3
upon seeing them come in, I was ready to
drop, but tears came came to my relief;
I can aʃsure you it was almost more than
a feeling heart cou'd well bear. --
upon reading the Will, his countenance
chang'd, & he look'd very happy; by that we
all suppos'd that it far exseeded his
expectation. -- As near as we can gueʃs,
it is Eleven thousand pound, besides the
library, & three hundred pound, I am to
pay him, for presant use. -- I am left
Executrix & residuary legatee; all that
is personal, is in my power, excepting
the Plate, & that for life, then goes
to his Son. -- I have reason to be-
-leive
that my income will be near
a thousand a year, or may be full,
but at presant I can't tell. --
every one admires that noble distri-
-bution
that he has made, every one
perfectly independent of each other
Dear Creature, he had a mind too
great & noble, to have a narrow
thought belong to him. --
My poor Dear Girl, is all gratitude,
to me, & her Dear Father. & I fear
She at presant, has sufferd in her health
health; but I hope, She will soon be better



                             4
Our good Friend, Anna maria, has been
all goodneʃs to us, under all our Afflictions,
what a comfort it was to have such a friend.
I shall always acknowlede the obligation.
& at the same time, I am much oblig'd
to you, & your better half; for your kind
& friendly attention to us; tell your
Dickenson, that I think him worthy of
you; & that is paying him; the greatest
compliment, that can be pay'd. --
I have receiv'd his friendly letter, with
thanks, but he must not expect an
answer, for I have a great dislike to
my pen: We have saved a lock of Dear
Mr. Glovers hair, if you will be so
good as to send the measure of your
Finger, I will order a ring to be
made. I beg you will present our
most respectful compliments to
your good Father, & Sisters, & are
much oblig'd to them, for the kind
part they took in our Afflictions.
Eliz: is got home & desires her best
Compliments. -- my head at presant
is very full of busineʃs. From      your
most sincere & Affcte. friend.      E Glover
my love to your good husband[1]

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


Notes


 1. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.

Normalised Text


December 15t. 1785
Albemarle Street

My Dear Miranda


      I not only love you, but
admire that amiable disposition that you
are blessed with; & your feelings for me, & my
Dear Child, upon this melancholy occasion,
will endear you to me if possible, more
than ever: At present my heart is too full
to enter upon the subject of my late
loss. his character in life is too great
to be slightly touched upon; in private
life, such a Husband, Parent, Master,
& Friend; none superior, & few his Equals.
tears flow so fast, I must stop my pen
upon that subject. --
In full confidence I shall keep nothing
from you, I will repeat your own words,
it is not from curiosity, but real friendship,
that you wish to know how my Dear late
husband has left his Affairs; & how Richard
has behaved upon this occasion, you may
be assured, not properly, it is not in his
nature: at his first coming to Town,
he told me, he did not see that his
Father appeared to be near Death; & thus
he need not have come so soon; I gave
him for answer, that the Dr. told me,



                            
upon his first coming to Town he was so
bad, that had there not been an immediate
alteration, he could not have lived eight
& forty hours; this was the first salutation
I received from him; what could I expect
after this behaviour, a dark & sullen countenance,
this lasted for six weeks after he returned
to Town; not one word was ever uttered
relative to his Fathers sufferings, neither
my tears, or his Fathers Mourns, had any
effect upon his mind; poor unhappy Man;
so was his conduct, that at last, I dreaded
the sight of him; about ten Days before
my Dear husband departed, he told me I
must prepare for a confusion; I gave
him for answer, that I had met with
nothing else since I came into the family,
& was prepared against every thing that
might happen & so it ended: I perfectly understood
the poor wretch, that if there had
been a loop hole to snatch hold of, he would
have taken the advantage. but I thank
God there is none. -- what an unfeeling
Creature must he be, he wanted
to open his Fathers Will himself, which
I would not permit; I told him it was
a discredit to himself, Even to think of it.
Mr. Antrobus of spring Garden, & Mr.
Thomas Lewis were the two friends that
came, upon that melancholy occasion. --



                            
upon seeing them come in, I was ready to
drop, but tears came to my relief;
I can assure you it was almost more than
a feeling heart could well bear. --
upon reading the Will, his countenance
changed, & he looked very happy; by that we
all supposed that it far exceeded his
expectation. -- As near as we can guess,
it is Eleven thousand pound, besides the
library, & three hundred pound, I am to
pay him, for present use. -- I am left
Executrix & residuary legatee; all that
is personal, is in my power, excepting
the Plate, & that for life, then goes
to his Son. -- I have reason to believe
that my income will be near
a thousand a year, or may be full,
but at present I can't tell. --
every one admires that noble distribution
that he has made, every one
perfectly independent of each other
Dear Creature, he had a mind too
great & noble, to have a narrow
thought belong to him. --
My poor Dear Girl, is all gratitude,
to me, & her Dear Father. & I fear
She at present, has suffered in her
health; but I hope, She will soon be better



                            
Our good Friend, Anna maria, has been
all goodness to us, under all our Afflictions,
what a comfort it was to have such a friend.
I shall always acknowledge the obligation.
& at the same time, I am much obliged
to you, & your better half; for your kind
& friendly attention to us; tell your
Dickenson, that I think him worthy of
you; & that is paying him; the greatest
compliment, that can be paid. --
I have received his friendly letter, with
thanks, but he must not expect an
answer, for I have a great dislike to
my pen: We have saved a lock of Dear
Mr. Glovers hair, if you will be so
good as to send the measure of your
Finger, I will order a ring to be
made. I beg you will present our
most respectful compliments to
your good Father, & Sisters, & are
much obliged to them, for the kind
part they took in our Afflictions.
Elizabeth is got home & desires her best
Compliments. -- my head at present
is very full of business. From      your
most sincere & Affectionate friend.      Eleanor Glover
my love to your good husband

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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Eleanor Glover (née Lenton) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/28

Correspondence Details

Sender: Eleanor Glover (née Lenton)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 15 December 1785

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Mrs Eleanor Glover to Mary Hamilton, on the death of Richard Glover. Glover writes that she not only loves but admires Hamilton for her 'amiable disposition' that she has been 'bless[e]d with' and for her feelings that she has for her and her daughter Mary. Glover is too upset to write upon her loss at the moment. His 'character in life is too great to be slightly touch[e]d upon'. Glover touches on Richard Glover as an excellent parent, husband and friend but notes that she has to stop her pen on the subject.
    The letter continues on how Glover left his affairs and on his son, also named Richard and on his poor conduct.
    Dated at Albemarle Street [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 823 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 25 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: 2 November 2021

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