Diplomatic Text
Deal. August 8: 1780
I have deferred writing to you
my dear till I cou'd give you the pleasure
of knowing that I have had that of
finding our dearest Mrs Carter in pretty
good health for her; by which I mean
that she is tormented as usual with the head
ake, but is otherwise well. We both lament
the uncertainty of your destination, which
seems to put our East Bourne expedition
to hazard. Let me know however as soon
as you can, if you please, how this matter
is likely to be settled. Pray do not be long
before you write as we are under a neceʃsity
of arranging our plan soon. I thank you
very much for your kind enquiry after my
health, which is as it commonly goes on. My
My heart truly rejoices that you feel happy
in your excursion. Indeed from what every
body who knows Lady C. Finch says of her
you must be so in her company; even without
the addition of poor Edwin's rivals. I dare
say our Yorkshire friends, have by this time
told you how much they are gratified by
receiving a letter from you.[1] They have mentioned
it to me with gratitude. Do not you stare
with astonishment at my having had the
aʃsurance to begin a correspondence with
persons so very little known to me as they
were? You well may, I wonder at my-self.
But little as I saw them, I felt their value,
and not being able to let the prize slip
thro' my fingers, I took the only method
their departure from London left me, of
seizing it. You see I can be very bold where
I think a valuable purpose may be gained
gained by boldneʃs. I have spent the
last six weeks at Mill Hill, from whence
I returned last Saturday. I had the happineʃs
of having Mrs Chapone with me, above a
fortnight of the time. I say the happineʃs
because such her company must be thought
by whoever is well acquainted with her.
She is indeed a perfect union of Goodneʃs
sense and chearfullneʃs. She desired me the
first time I shou'd write to you, to present
her compliments to you, with thtanks for
a very obliging letter which she received
from you in answer to some note you sent
her. I hope you have not forgot all about
it, but at least I have performed my
commiʃsion. -- Adieu my dear, may the
peace and happineʃs you now enjoy be
long continued to you, is the warmly
earnest wish of Your ever Affectionate
M. Sharpe
Our dear friend
friend desires her cordial love to you. She
says you have done her letter much honour
tho she will not allow it was yworth your
trouble to transcribe it. Adieu.
Our dear Mrs Carter desires her affectionate
compliments to Lady C. Finch.
[2] [3]
To
Miʃs Hamilton
East Bourne[4]
Suʃsex
Miʃs S. Augst: 8: 1780[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Sharpe had on 18 June passed on to Hamilton an affectionate remembrance from the Smelts (see HAM/1/22/25 p.2 col.2), presumably prompting Hamilton to write to them. Leonard Smelt had longstanding Yorkshire connections, having been baptised in Fleetham and eventually retiring to Langton, both in that county (ODNB). It is possible that the ‘Yorkshire friends’ include Nathaniel Cholmley (1721-1791) and his third wife Anne, daughter of the Smelts. Hamilton's later mention of Cholmley in May 1784 (see HAM/2/10 p.64) does not suggest familiarity, but Sharpe and Carter evidently knew the Cholmleys well enough to spend a fortnight with them at Howsham in August or September 1781 (see MS Eng 1778 9 p.2).
2. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
3. Remains of a bishop mark reading ‘9 AU’, indicating that the letter went through the post on 9 August, and of a postmark ‘[DE]AL’.
4. The numeral ‘6’ and the phrase ‘In all’ are written over the middle of the address in brown ink, representing postage due.
5. This annotation appears at the bottom of the page, written upside down.
Normalised Text
Deal. August 8: 1780
I have deferred writing to you
my dear till I could give you the pleasure
of knowing that I have had that of
finding our dearest Mrs Carter in pretty
good health for her; by which I mean
that she is tormented as usual with the head
ache, but is otherwise well. We both lament
the uncertainty of your destination, which
seems to put our East Bourne expedition
to hazard. Let me know however as soon
as you can, if you please, how this matter
is likely to be settled. Pray do not be long
before you write as we are under a necessity
of arranging our plan soon. I thank you
very much for your kind enquiry after my
health, which is as it commonly goes on.
My heart truly rejoices that you feel happy
in your excursion. Indeed from what every
body who knows Lady Charlotte Finch says of her
you must be so in her company; even without
the addition of poor Edwin's rivals. I dare
say our Yorkshire friends, have by this time
told you how much they are gratified by
receiving a letter from you. They have mentioned
it to me with gratitude. Do not you stare
with astonishment at my having had the
assurance to begin a correspondence with
persons so very little known to me as they
were? You well may, I wonder at my-self.
But little as I saw them, I felt their value,
and not being able to let the prize slip
through my fingers, I took the only method
their departure from London left me, of
seizing it. You see I can be very bold where
I think a valuable purpose may be
gained by boldness. I have spent the
last six weeks at Mill Hill, from whence
I returned last Saturday. I had the happiness
of having Mrs Chapone with me, above a
fortnight of the time. I say the happiness
because such her company must be thought
by whoever is well acquainted with her.
She is indeed a perfect union of Goodness
sense and cheerfulness. She desired me the
first time I should write to you, to present
her compliments to you, with thanks for
a very obliging letter which she received
from you in answer to some note you sent
her. I hope you have not forgotten all about
it, but at least I have performed my
commission. -- Adieu my dear, may the
peace and happiness you now enjoy be
long continued to you, is the warmly
earnest wish of Your ever Affectionate
Mary Sharpe
Our dear
friend desires her cordial love to you. She
says you have done her letter much honour
though she will not allow it was worth your
trouble to transcribe it. Adieu.
Our dear Mrs Carter desires her affectionate
compliments to Lady Charlotte Finch.
To
Miss Hamilton
East Bourne
Sussex
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/1/22/27
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Eastbourne
Date sent: 8 August 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to Hamilton's visit to Eastbourne with Lady Finch (HAM/1/12) and the Royal family. It also comments on Mrs Chapone, whom Sharpe describes as a woman who has the 'perfect union of Goodness sense and chearfullness'.
Dated at Deal, [Kent].
Length: 1 sheet, 482 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
