Single Letter

MS Eng 1778 15

Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      Many thanks to you my dear & amiable Friend for your
kind note. I return the Letters which you were so kindgood to
inclose & with them one which I recd from the Relation
which Miʃs S. mentions, by which you will see the State of
the Case. I recd. it before I left Town. If any Thing has happened
since I know not. Be so good to return me this Letter, &
say nothing about it, as I send it merely for your Inspection.
      I am glad we agree so well in our Judgment
Of Mde- Genlis.'s last work. dear Ly. Charlotte F. is reading it at
present. I long for her to be far enough advanced for us to
talk it over together. She is very well & in good Spirits, & thinks
prince Afred grows better. Ly Ch. was so good to drink Tea
with me yesterday at my Brother's,[1] & appeared very much pleased
with his Garden, which considering it is in a Town, & very small
is certainly very prettily laid out. It does not yet however
[a]ppear to full Advantage, as half the Trees are not in Leaf
[whi]ch[2] is every where the Case, in this Country. I never I think
[reme]mber so backward a Season.
      Miʃs S. sent a meʃsage the  ------ [3]
before I left Town with an offer for my niece[4] to  ------ [5]
me a visit, repeating however at the same Time, that
She Cd. not give up the point of her living with me.
You will easily imagine I declined the visit. I do not
wish the wounds of my Heart, which has been so cruelly
Stabbed by having this dear child first set against, &
then torn from me, to be continually kept open. Besides
as Miʃs S. deems me a person unfit to be trusted
with her Education, she might suffer in her morals
even by a visit. At all Events I am sure I could
do her no good, after She had writ to her Father[6] to
say she Shd. be unhappy to live with me. -- Why do
I trust my self on a Subject, which I feel so severely.
      Adieu my dear.      Pray return Mʃ S.'s Letter soon
& do not mention it to any Body. Yours most
      affectionately
                             EC.
deal May 31 1782

[7] [8]
[9]

Miʃs [Ha]milton[10]
                             Queen's Lodge
Cour[town][11]

                             [12]           Windsor
                             [S]t Jamses[13]

[14] [15]


[16]
15


                             1782[17]

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


Notes


 1. Carter's brothers included Nicholas (bapt. 26 February 1718), John (bapt. 28 February 1723) and James (bapt. 1 March 1726). John is recorded in adulthood as living in Deal, so he may well be the owner of the garden.
 2. The supplied ‘whi’ and likewise ‘reme’ in the line below are visible on the right of the sheet; it looks as if the torn-away portion has been placed or has attached itself there.
 3. Word, probably day, lost.
 4. It is stated by Pullin (2021: 101) that the young woman in question is Osmond Beauvoir's daughter ‘Betty’, but Elizabeth Beauvoir is neither Carter's niece, nor of school age. (Hannah More refers to her as ‘the Child’ in MS Eng 1778 176 p.4.) It is assumed here that the dispute concerns the much younger daughter Elizabeth of Carter's half-brother, Henry.
 5. Word, probably pay or make, lost.
 6. On the identification of child and father, see note above.
 7. The address is in the hand of the provider of the free frank, James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, MP for Marlborough 1780-1793.
 8. The address sheet has been folded in two and pasted to a support. For convenience it is reconstructed here as if all was on p.2
 9. Stamp reading ‘3 IV’, indicating that the letter went through the post on 3 June [after being redirected to London].
 10. Stamp in faded red ink reading ‘FREE’.
 11. The line through ‘Courtown’, the signature of the free-franker, is not a cancellation but a flourish that is part of the signature; cf. HAM/1/15/2/24 p.2, MS Eng 1778 6 p.2.
 12. Remains of a stamp, possibly reading ‘WIND[SOR]’.
 13. ‘Windsor’ has been crossed out and ‘[S]t Jamses’ [sic] written beneath it in an unknown hand.
 14. Stamp reading ‘DEAL’.
 15. Stamp reading ‘1 IV’, indicating that the letter first went through the post on 1 June.
 16. Text and markings moved to p.2.
 17. The year is written upside down at the foot of the page.

Normalised Text


      Many thanks to you my dear & amiable Friend for your
kind note. I return the Letters which you were so good to
enclose & with them one which I received from the Relation
which Miss Sharpe mentions, by which you will see the State of
the Case. I received it before I left Town. If any Thing has happened
since I know not. Be so good to return me this Letter, &
say nothing about it, as I send it merely for your Inspection.
      I am glad we agree so well in our Judgement
Of Madame Genlis.'s last work. dear Ly. Charlotte Finch is reading it at
present. I long for her to be far enough advanced for us to
talk it over together. She is very well & in good Spirits, & thinks
prince Afred grows better. Ly Charlotte was so good to drink Tea
with me yesterday at my Brother's, & appeared very much pleased
with his Garden, which considering it is in a Town, & very small
is certainly very prettily laid out. It does not yet however
appear to full Advantage, as half the Trees are not in Leaf
which is every where the Case, in this Country. I never I think
remember so backward a Season.
      Miss Sharpe sent a message the  ------ 
before I left Town with an offer for my niece to  ------ 
me a visit, repeating however at the same Time, that
She Could not give up the point of her living with me.
You will easily imagine I declined the visit. I do not
wish the wounds of my Heart, which has been so cruelly
Stabbed by having this dear child first set against, &
then torn from me, to be continually kept open. Besides
as Miss Sharpe deems me a person unfit to be trusted
with her Education, she might suffer in her morals
even by a visit. At all Events I am sure I could
do her no good, after She had written to her Father to
say she Shd. be unhappy to live with me. -- Why do
I trust my self on a Subject, which I feel so severely.
      Adieu my dear.      Pray return Ms Sharpe's Letter soon
& do not mention it to any Body. Yours most
      affectionately
                             Elizabeth Carter
deal May 31 1782




Miss Hamilton
                             Queen's Lodge
Courtown

                                       
                            








                            

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 1. Carter's brothers included Nicholas (bapt. 26 February 1718), John (bapt. 28 February 1723) and James (bapt. 1 March 1726). John is recorded in adulthood as living in Deal, so he may well be the owner of the garden.
 2. The supplied ‘whi’ and likewise ‘reme’ in the line below are visible on the right of the sheet; it looks as if the torn-away portion has been placed or has attached itself there.
 3. Word, probably day, lost.
 4. It is stated by Pullin (2021: 101) that the young woman in question is Osmond Beauvoir's daughter ‘Betty’, but Elizabeth Beauvoir is neither Carter's niece, nor of school age. (Hannah More refers to her as ‘the Child’ in MS Eng 1778 176 p.4.) It is assumed here that the dispute concerns the much younger daughter Elizabeth of Carter's half-brother, Henry.
 5. Word, probably pay or make, lost.
 6. On the identification of child and father, see note above.
 7. The address is in the hand of the provider of the free frank, James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, MP for Marlborough 1780-1793.
 8. The address sheet has been folded in two and pasted to a support. For convenience it is reconstructed here as if all was on p.2
 9. Stamp reading ‘3 IV’, indicating that the letter went through the post on 3 June [after being redirected to London].
 10. Stamp in faded red ink reading ‘FREE’.
 11. The line through ‘Courtown’, the signature of the free-franker, is not a cancellation but a flourish that is part of the signature; cf. HAM/1/15/2/24 p.2, MS Eng 1778 6 p.2.
 12. Remains of a stamp, possibly reading ‘WIND[SOR]’.
 13. ‘Windsor’ has been crossed out and ‘[S]t Jamses’ [sic] written beneath it in an unknown hand.
 14. Stamp reading ‘DEAL’.
 15. Stamp reading ‘1 IV’, indicating that the letter first went through the post on 1 June.
 16. Text and markings moved to p.2.
 17. The year is written upside down at the foot of the page.

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 15

Correspondence Details

Sender: Elizabeth Carter

Place sent: Deal

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London

Date sent: 31 May 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, explaining her decision to refuse a visit from her niece, who had repudiated her to her father, and the continued refusal of Mary Sharpe to allow the niece to live with her.
    The letter will have contained multiple enclosures. It appears to have been directed to Windsor under a free frank and to have been redirected to St James's Palace.
    Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1782 May 31.
   

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: 13 October 2026

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