Diplomatic Text
I trust sufficiently my dear
Miʃs Hamilton to the expreʃsions
of kindneʃs you have used to= wards me
to claim your congratulations on the
recovery of my beloved friend: which
has so far taken place, that she
goes out for air to= morrow for the
first time, if the day is fine.
I am sure you have too much sensibility
not to judge of the heart felt joy
this gives me.
I intend if my dear nusery[1] continues
mending, to go to the meʃsiah on
Wednesday. Can you go with me
if I do? I wish you may & if you
give me leave will ------ go to
settle the point with you entirely
at breakfast on Tuesday morning
Adieu -- Yrs Affectly-
M Sharpe
21st. March
17799
Sunday night[2]
Miʃs Hamilton[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The reading here is problematic. If nursery is intended, the only appropriate sense, ‘person who is nursed’, is only recorded by OED between 1642 and 1650 (s.v., n. and adj., II.8.c. Accessed 13-05-2025).
2. The dateline appears to the left of the closing formula.
3. The direction is written upside down.
Normalised Text
I trust sufficiently my dear
Miss Hamilton to the expressions
of kindness you have used to= wards me
to claim your congratulations on the
recovery of my beloved friend: which
has so far taken place, that she
goes out for air to= morrow for the
first time, if the day is fine.
I am sure you have too much sensibility
not to judge of the heart felt joy
this gives me.
I intend if my dear nusery continues
mending, to go to the messiah on
Wednesday. Can you go with me
if I do? I wish you may & if you
give me leave will go to
settle the point with you entirely
at breakfast on Tuesday morning
Adieu -- Yours Affectionately
Mary Sharpe
Sunday night
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: Note from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/22/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: to be determined
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: to be determined
Date sent: 21 March 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. Sharpe wishes to attend Handel's Messiah and asks if Hamilton will come with her.
Length: 1 sheet, 127 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: XML version first created without transcription as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1. Transcription added after the funded period under the supervision of David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
Transliterator: Pete Morris, Artificial Intelligence and Ideas Adoption (AIIA), The University of Manchester Library (Plain text transliteration submitted 22 May 2025)
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: 7 April 2026
