HAM/1/22/20

Note from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) to Mary Hamilton

diplomatic | normalised | metadata | image (pdf)

Diplomatic Text

I write to you my dear on this shabby
bit of paper, because I have not time to
get any other. I have a request to make
to you, which I hope you will be so good
to grant. it is a little bit of your hair
to make a locket for a bracelet, as a
companion to one I have of our dear M^rs
Carters. I think you will have no objection
to the companionship? Adieu. I lament
y^r confinement. Mama sends love to you
& thanks for y^e book. beleive me ever
                             Y^rs Affectionately
                                  M. Sharpe
Stanhope Street
      March 30 1780^[1]

Miʃs Hamilton^[2]

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

Notes

1. The dateline appears to the left of the signature.
2. The direction appears on the page by itself, broken into two fragments written in different directions when unfolded.

Normalised Text

I write to you my dear on this shabby
bit of paper, because I have not time to
get any other. I have a request to make
to you, which I hope you will be so good
to grant. it is a little bit of your hair
to make a locket for a bracelet, as a
companion to one I have of our dear Mrs
Carters. I think you will have no objection
to the companionship? Adieu. I lament
yr confinement. Mama sends love to you
& thanks for the book. believe me ever
                             Yours Affectionately
                                  Mary Sharpe
Stanhope Street
      March 30 1780

Miss Hamilton

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

Notes

1. The dateline appears to the left of the signature.
2. The direction appears on the page by itself, broken into two fragments written in different directions when unfolded.

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/1/22/20

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: to be determined

Date sent: 30 March 1780

Letter Description

Summary: Note from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. Sharpe writes asking for a little piece of her hair to make a locket for a bracelet that will be a 'companion' to the one she has already from Mrs Carter.
Dated at Stanhope Street, [London].

Length: 1 sheet, 105 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, M^rs. or M^rs may occur, but M.^rs or M^r.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

Revision date: 7 April 2026

Single Letter