HAM/1/22/14
Letter from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) and Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Deal
Septr 30= 1779
As I have many letters to write
my dear Miʃs Hamilton, and wish to be
clear of debts before I go to Mill Hill,
I fear I can not comply with your kind
desire of a long letter from this place at
present; you probably will however have a
pretty many of that sort from herence when
I have more time to dispose of, and will
therefore I hope receive this scrap graciously,
which waits on you only to inform you
that my dear Mamars Carter and I intend being
at Mill Hill next Tuesday afternoon, and
leaving it the Friday sen- night after;
and that if during that time you can spend
spend one day and night there, it will make
us very happy.
I had no doubt but the story of poor Mrs
O'Keeffe wou'd move your compaʃsion: alas it
wants no embellishment in the relation of
it to procure the pity of a feelling heart,
the sad circumstances of it are full sufficient.
I flatter my- self however that she is now in a way
to be comfortable. Pray if you have any
hope of being able to come to us, write
directly to Mill Hill; in the mean time adieu.
excuse my disobedience in regard to the
length of this ------ for the present, & beleive
me Yrs Affectly
M. Sharpe
[1]
Indeed my dear Miʃs Hamilton, I do very cordially attest
my Love for you, under my own Hand. I must defer your
other Injunction, & give you my opinion of the Book,
till we meet as I hope we shall, at Mill Hill. In the
mean Time now, do not you go staring[2] & marry a Tom Jones,
bleʃsing your Stars all the While, & thinking you have
made a notable choice, because he is not a Blyfil.[3]
-- This Caution however given en Riant[4] to you, might
be very seriously neceʃsary to many a poor
Sentimental Miʃs, & perhaps you will think
it's being so, a Sufficient Critique upon the
History of Tom Jones, without any further Addition.
Adieu, E Carter.
[5]
My beloved Mrs: Carterama says I have limited you
to one day & night for yr visit at Mill
Hill. I hope you will not be so wicked a[s she]
is in this particular,[6] for let me ex[press]
my self ever so awkwardly, I trust I need [no]t
take much pains to aʃsure you that the
longer you can stay the greater will be my
Satisfaction
Miʃs Hamilton
Queen's Lodge
Windsor.[7]
Mrs. Carter & Miʃs
Sharpe[8]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The remainder of this page and nine lines of the next are in the hand of Elizabeth Carter. There is a copy of Carter's portion of the letter, probably in Hamilton's own hand, at MS Eng 1778 1a.
2. The expression go staring possibly relates to the proverb ‘there is a difference between staring and stark mad’ (OED s.v. staring adj., Phrases. Accessed 09-03-2026). The copy letter has the dubious reading go starving.
3. A reference to Master Blifil, a rival to the novel's eponymous hero.
4. The French en riant ‘jokingly’ is underlined in the copy letter.
5. The postscript on the rest of this page and the address on the next are in the hand of Mary Sharpe.
6. The reconstruction of the words under the seal depends in part on wicked being taken in the sense ‘mischievous’ (OED s.v., adj., 3.a., ‘usually more or less jocular’. Accessed 09-03-2026).
7. A large numeral ‘5’ over the address and a second scribble, possibly ‘3’ crossed out, indicate postage due.
8. This annotation appears in the right margin, written vertically.
Normalised Text
Deal
September 30= 1779
As I have many letters to write
my dear Miss Hamilton, and wish to be
clear of debts before I go to Mill Hill,
I fear I can not comply with your kind
desire of a long letter from this place at
present; you probably will however have a
pretty many of that sort from hence when
I have more time to dispose of, and will
therefore I hope receive this scrap graciously,
which waits on you only to inform you
that my dear Mrs Carter and I intend being
at Mill Hill next Tuesday afternoon, and
leaving it the Friday sen- night after;
and that if during that time you can
spend one day and night there, it will make
us very happy.
I had no doubt but the story of poor Mrs
O'Keeffe would move your compassion: alas it
wants no embellishment in the relation of
it to procure the pity of a feeling heart,
the sad circumstances of it are full sufficient.
I flatter my- self however that she is now in a way
to be comfortable. Pray if you have any
hope of being able to come to us, write
directly to Mill Hill; in the mean time adieu.
excuse my disobedience in regard to the
length of this for the present, & believe
me Yours Affectionately
Mary Sharpe
Indeed my dear Miss Hamilton, I do very cordially attest
my Love for you, under my own Hand. I must defer your
other Injunction, & give you my opinion of the Book,
till we meet as I hope we shall, at Mill Hill. In the
mean Time now, do not you go staring & marry a Tom Jones,
blessing your Stars all the While, & thinking you have
made a notable choice, because he is not a Blyfil.
-- This Caution however given en Riant to you, might
be very seriously necessary to many a poor
Sentimental Miss, & perhaps you will think
it's being so, a Sufficient Critique upon the
History of Tom Jones, without any further Addition.
Adieu, Elizabeth Carter.
My beloved Mrs: Carter says I have limited you
to one day & night for your visit at Mill
Hill. I hope you will not be so wicked as she
is in this particular, for let me express
my self ever so awkwardly, I trust I need not
take much pains to assure you that the
longer you can stay the greater will be my
Satisfaction
Miss Hamilton
Queen's Lodge
Windsor.
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 Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) and Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/22/14
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas) and Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 30 September 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Sharpe and Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. The letter is in two parts.
The first is written by Sharpe, who invites Hamilton to visit her and Mrs Carter at Deal and again writes of Mrs O'Keefe (see HAM/1/22/13), who she knew would 'move [...] [Hamilton's] compassion'.
The second section is written by Elizabeth Carter, who sends Hamilton her love and writes that she will give her opinion on the book when she hopes to see Hamilton at Mill Hill. In the meantime Carter advises Hamilton not to 'go staring & marry a Tom Jones, blessing your stars all the while & thinking you have made a notable choice'. Although given to Hamilton in jest, Carter notes that such advice 'might be very seriously necessary to many a poor Sentimental Miss & perhaps you will think it's being so, a Sufficient Critique upon the History of Tom Jones, without any further addition'.
Dated at Deal, [Kent].
Length: 1 sheet, 418 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
