Diplomatic Text
Deal June 22d. 1781
You were extremely kind my dear Miʃs Hamilton
in procuring me the pleasure of so particular an Account
of our Excellent Friends in Portugal. The Sight of dear
Lady Charlotte's Hand after the uncomfortable Intelligence of
her Health ever since she left England, was quite a Cordial.
The particularAttention of the Q. of Portugal[1] to this respectable
Family has been truely Royal, & worthy a descendant
of the dʃs of Braganza. Besides the pleasure one feels
in the Accommodation of our Friends, it is delightful to consi
der it as a proof of Regard to our King & Queen, & the
English Nation.
It grieves me to find you have not been
------------------------ so Ill & that[2] [t]hat you do not yet seem to be in perfect Health.
pray my dear take Care of your Health, which next
to a good conscience ought to be a principal object as not
only every Enjoyment, but every active Duty of Life depends
on it. I would chide you, if you were perfectly recovered
for having contributed any Thing by your own Fault
to make your self ill. I hope from our dear Miʃs Sharpe's
Letters that She is really better: though to remove an ill
Illneʃs so rooted as her's must be a work of Time.
As to my Self, my Head is as perverse as ever. It is
now so Stupified that I ʃcarce know what I write,
but it does not prevent my feeling that I am
with Sincere Affection, my dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your most obliged &
faithful
ECarter
will you be so good by
the first opportunity to send
the inclosed to Ly. Dartrey.
she likewise kindly sent me an
Account from Caldas, & I have no
frank to enclose it. She sets out from
Bristol before my Letter could reach her there.[3]
[4] [5]
1781
[6]
Miʃs Hamil[ton] [7]
Quee[n's ]Lodge
Windsor
Courtown
[8]
22d. June 1781
Mrs. Carter[9]
[10]
[11]
6
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Maria Francisca Isabel Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joana (1734-1816), Queen Maria I of Portugal from 1777.
2. The annotation does not seem to reconstruct perfectly what was lost in the torn manuscript, as ‘so ill’ does not follow naturally from the preceding ‘you have not been’.
3. The postscript begins above and to the right of the signature and spreads around and below it.
4. The address is in the hand of the provider of the free frank, James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, MP for Marlborough 1780-1793.
5. The address sheet has been torn in half and pasted to a support. For convenience it is reconstructed here as if all was on p.2
6. Bishop mark dated 23 June, in black ink.
7. Stamp in smudged red ink reading ‘FREE’.
8. Postmark ‘DEAL’.
9. This annotation is written upside down at the foot of the page.
10. Remains of a seal.
11. Text and markings moved to p.2.
Normalised Text
Deal June 22d. 1781
You were extremely kind my dear Miss Hamilton
in procuring me the pleasure of so particular an Account
of our Excellent Friends in Portugal. The Sight of dear
Lady Charlotte's Hand after the uncomfortable Intelligence of
her Health ever since she left England, was quite a Cordial.
The Attention of the Queen of Portugal to this respectable
Family has been truly Royal, & worthy a descendant
of the duchess of Braganza. Besides the pleasure one feels
in the Accommodation of our Friends, it is delightful to consider
it as a proof of Regard to our King & Queen, & the
English Nation.
It grieves me to find you have not been
------------------------ that you do not yet seem to be in perfect Health.
pray my dear take Care of your Health, which next
to a good conscience ought to be a principal object as not
only every Enjoyment, but every active Duty of Life depends
on it. I would chide you, if you were perfectly recovered
for having contributed any Thing by your own Fault
to make your self ill. I hope from our dear Miss Sharpe's
Letters that She is really better: though to remove an
Illness so rooted as her's must be a work of Time.
As to my Self, my Head is as perverse as ever. It is
now so Stupefied that I scarce know what I write,
but it does not prevent my feeling that I am
with Sincere Affection, my dear Miss Hamilton
Your most obliged &
faithful
Elizabeth Carter
will you be so good by
the first opportunity to send
the enclosed to Lady Dartrey.
she likewise kindly sent me an
Account from Caldas, & I have no
frank to enclose it. She sets out from
Bristol before my Letter could reach her there.
Miss Hamilton
Queen's Lodge
Windsor
Courtown
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Houghton Library Repository, Harvard University
Archive: Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton
Item title: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 22 June 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, thanking Hamilton for the news from Portugal, which she had also received from Lady Dartrey. She takes the attention given to the Finches by the Queen of Portugal as a compliment to the English King and Queen. The letter covers the health of Hamilton and Carter herself (not good) and of Mary Sharpe (possibly improved). In a postscript, Carter asks Hamilton to send an enclosure ‘by the first opportunity’ [presumably with a frank] to Lady Dartrey.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1781 June 22.
Length: 1 sheet, 000 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 26 February 2026)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 27 July 2026
