Diplomatic Text
Deal
Decr 9= 1779
And what shall I say to you
my dear Miʃs Hamilton for my long
silence? Why really the very truth, that
I have been so poorly in health ever
since I received your last kind letter,
that I have not been able without
very great pain to set pen to paper.
The Tunbridge waters have I beleive
been of great service to my spirits,
particularly, but all my complaints
are of late turned to faint sickneʃses
which attack me the moment I have
held a pen for a quarter of an hour.
This I hope will obtain your mercy
which I feel must plead for me, before
my seeming neglect can be forgiven.
My health is now I think improving,
& I hope to be what the folk here call
braave, by the time I am in the way
to enjoy the comfort I promise myself
with you this winter. I rejoyce much in
the thought that the time is drawing
very nigh, when I shall have the satisfacti=
on of conversing with you, in a manner
more pleasing, as well as easy to my= self,
than that I can at present have recourse
to. I much regreted my dear Miʃs
Hamilton that my beloved Mrs Carter &
I cou'd not have the pleasure of seeing
you at Mill Hill. I in particular, besides
the satisfaction I shall always have in
seeing you any where, wish particularly
particularly to see you there, to give you
a peep at my amiable widow, & her
sweet children; as I know your heart
wou'd share the joy mine feels, in the
permiʃsion of being the instrument of
comfort to the almost broken hearted
mother, and the lovely innocents. She, &
her two little girls have been here with me,
ever since our dear friend & I left
Mill Hill. I asked her here for change
of air, as I feared for her declining
health; and requested her stay, for my ow[n]
sake, having found much satisfacti[on in]
her company, at times when I cou'd not
be with my best beloved friend. Her health
is amazingly recovered, greatly to my comfort.
Forgive all this about a stranger to
you. but you are not so to her story,
& that I know will interest your benevolence
in her wellfare.
I shall be very much obliged to you for
for the proposed introduction to Miʃs Gunning.
I have a very great prediliction for any
one you think well of; the appearance of
the young lady whom I once saw must incline
every one to like her. Her
My beloved Mama desires to be affectly
remembered to you. She is much as usual
▼
not worse; and that with her sad head ake
is I fear all we must hope for. Adieu my
dear I hope we shall very soon meet &
am ever Yrs Most Affecttly
M. Sharpe.
[1] [2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A bishop mark, reading ‘11 DE’, indicates that the letter went through the post on 11 December.
2. Seal, in red wax, and stamp reading ‘DEAL’ to the right of the address as unfolded.
3. A large numeral ‘3’ to the left of the address indicates postage due.
4. Address moved here from middle of page.
Normalised Text
Deal
December 9= 1779
And what shall I say to you
my dear Miss Hamilton for my long
silence? Why really the very truth, that
I have been so poorly in health ever
since I received your last kind letter,
that I have not been able without
very great pain to set pen to paper.
The Tunbridge waters have I believe
been of great service to my spirits,
particularly, but all my complaints
are of late turned to faint sicknesses
which attack me the moment I have
held a pen for a quarter of an hour.
This I hope will obtain your mercy
which I feel must plead for me, before
my seeming neglect can be forgiven.
My health is now I think improving,
& I hope to be what the folk here call
braave, by the time I am in the way
to enjoy the comfort I promise myself
with you this winter. I rejoice much in
the thought that the time is drawing
very nigh, when I shall have the satisfaction
of conversing with you, in a manner
more pleasing, as well as easy to my= self,
than that I can at present have recourse
to. I much regretted my dear Miss
Hamilton that my beloved Mrs Carter &
I could not have the pleasure of seeing
you at Mill Hill. I in particular, besides
the satisfaction I shall always have in
seeing you any where, wish
particularly to see you there, to give you
a peep at my amiable widow, & her
sweet children; as I know your heart
would share the joy mine feels, in the
permission of being the instrument of
comfort to the almost broken hearted
mother, and the lovely innocents. She, &
her two little girls have been here with me,
ever since our dear friend & I left
Mill Hill. I asked her here for change
of air, as I feared for her declining
health; and requested her stay, for my own
sake, having found much satisfaction in
her company, at times when I could not
be with my best beloved friend. Her health
is amazingly recovered, greatly to my comfort.
Forgive all this about a stranger to
you. but you are not so to her story,
& that I know will interest your benevolence
in her welfare.
I shall be very much obliged to you
for the proposed introduction to Miss Gunning.
I have a very great predilection for any
one you think well of; the appearance of
the young lady whom I once saw must incline
every one to like her.
My beloved Mama desires to be affectionately
remembered to you. She is much as usual
▼
not worse; and that with her sad head ache
is I fear all we must hope for. Adieu my
dear I hope we shall very soon meet &
am ever Yours Most Affectionately
Mary Sharpe.
The Palace
St James's
London
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) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/22/15
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 9 December 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. The letter is concerned with Sharpe's health. The waters at Tunbridge Wells, she believes, have been beneficial to her spirits, 'but all my complaints are of late turned to faint sicknesses which attack me the moment I have held a pen for a quarter of an hour'. Sharpe is sorry that Hamilton is unable to visit her and Mrs Carter at Mill Hill, and notes that her 'beloved mama' [Carter] desires to be remembered to Hamilton and that she is 'much as usual not worse', and has a headache. Sharpe continues to write of Mrs O'Keefe (HAM/1/22/13) and on a proposed introduction to Miss Gunning (HAM/1/15).
Dated at Deal, [Kent].
Length: 1 sheet, 487 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
