Diplomatic Text
51
Deal Wednesday June 16. 1784
If your Letter had been sent, my
dear Friend, agreeably to it's Date, you
would have received the papers immediately
but it did not reach me till last night.
On the outside of it was writ (I suppose at
the post office, that the person who franked
it, is out of parliament.[1]
I most entirely agree with you,
& I believe I exprest my opinion before, that
you should not enter upon any Correspondence
of any kind with Mr B. nor aʃsign any Reasons
for your Refusal. In all Controversies of this
kind, the Men always find an Advantage,
& I believe they never fail to interpret it
as an Encouragement to their Hopes, when
ever a Woman enters into any Explanati
on of the Reasons of her Refusal. I think
too it will be best for you to avoid seeing
or meeting him as far as poʃsibly you can.
No Man who has Ever proposed him self
for a Husband, means to content himself with the
Title of a Friend. I give you my opinion the
more warmly on this Subject, from my having
once suffered severely in a similar Case, though
I thought I had taken every poʃsible precaution
to prevent being misunderstood.
Yes indeed my dear, I do heart
-ily rejoyced with you on having so nobly
discharged a very painful Duty. I honour
the Firmneʃs & Spirit with which you
obtained a promise of more guarded Behavi
our.[2] Your mentioning particular Instances.
was doing the work effectually. General Advice
in this Case would have done but little Good.
I agree with you in the persuasion of the
purity of her Mind. But Impropriety of Conduct,
too often leads by imperceptible Steps, to the
most fatal Consequences.
It grieves me to find you have
had so much to lower your Spirits. It may be
some Consolation to you under the Loʃs of Lady
King, to reflect that a longer Life must
have been rendered in good degree uncomforta
ble to her, by a Separation from her Daughter.
I feel for what you must have suffered by
the Illneʃs of Miʃs A. Clarke. It will give
me sincere pleasure to hear that her
Health is perfectly restored. Be so good to
aʃsure her of my affectionate best wishes
& pray do not forget to mention how
She does, when you write.
I am glad you heard the music &
have no Doubt how much you enjoyed so
noble an Entertainment.[3] I should have
wished extremely to have gone to the
Abbey, if it could have been effected with
out the Hazard of my Suffering too much.
I am much obliged to you for
our Friend Miʃs H. More's Letter.
I beg my dear you will afford
me a Sheet of paper, & not write on
the Envelope of your Letter, which is
generally So worn, & so torn by the
Seal, that some words are lost. & the whole
in danger of dropping to pieces. Adieu
my dear Friend ever most faithfully &c
affectionately your's E. Carter.
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. There is no closing bracket.
2. Carter is again commending Hamilton's mentoring by correspondence of Anne Thursby (cf. MS Eng 1778 49 p.1) and has presumably been informed of Thursby's response, which Hamilton received on 5 June 1784 (see HAM/2/10 p.122).
3. A performance of Handel's Messiah on 5 June 1784 (see HAM/2/10 p.121).
4. This page is blank.
Normalised Text
Deal Wednesday June 16. 1784
If your Letter had been sent, my
dear Friend, agreeably to it's Date, you
would have received the papers immediately
but it did not reach me till last night.
On the outside of it was written (I suppose at
the post office, that the person who franked
it, is out of parliament.
I most entirely agree with you,
& I believe I expressed my opinion before, that
you should not enter upon any Correspondence
of any kind with Mr Bourdieu nor assign any Reasons
for your Refusal. In all Controversies of this
kind, the Men always find an Advantage,
& I believe they never fail to interpret it
as an Encouragement to their Hopes, whenever
a Woman enters into any Explanation
of the Reasons of her Refusal. I think
too it will be best for you to avoid seeing
or meeting him as far as possibly you can.
No Man who has Ever proposed him self
for a Husband, means to content himself with the
Title of a Friend. I give you my opinion the
more warmly on this Subject, from my having
once suffered severely in a similar Case, though
I thought I had taken every possible precaution
to prevent being misunderstood.
Yes indeed my dear, I do heartily
rejoice with you on having so nobly
discharged a very painful Duty. I honour
the Firmness & Spirit with which you
obtained a promise of more guarded Behaviour
. Your mentioning particular Instances.
was doing the work effectually. General Advice
in this Case would have done but little Good.
I agree with you in the persuasion of the
purity of her Mind. But Impropriety of Conduct,
too often leads by imperceptible Steps, to the
most fatal Consequences.
It grieves me to find you have
had so much to lower your Spirits. It may be
some Consolation to you under the Loss of Lady
King, to reflect that a longer Life must
have been rendered in good degree uncomfortable
to her, by a Separation from her Daughter.
I feel for what you must have suffered by
the Illness of Miss Anna Clarke. It will give
me sincere pleasure to hear that her
Health is perfectly restored. Be so good to
assure her of my affectionate best wishes
& pray do not forget to mention how
She does, when you write.
I am glad you heard the music &
have no Doubt how much you enjoyed so
noble an Entertainment. I should have
wished extremely to have gone to the
Abbey, if it could have been effected without
the Hazard of my Suffering too much.
I am much obliged to you for
our Friend Miss Hannah More's Letter.
I beg my dear you will afford
me a Sheet of paper, & not write on
the Envelope of your Letter, which is
generally So worn, & so torn by the
Seal, that some words are lost. & the whole
in danger of dropping to pieces. Adieu
my dear Friend ever most faithfully &c
affectionately your's Elizabeth Carter.
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 51
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 16 June 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, in which Carter advises Hamilton neither to correspond with Bourdieu nor, as far as possible, to meet him, citing her own unfortunate experience with an importunate suitor. She again commends Hamilton for her firm guidance of Anne Thursby, with its effectual use of ‘particular instances’ rather than ‘General Advice’. She tries to raise Hamilton's spirits after the death of Lady King and Anna Maria Clarke's illness. She is glad Hamilton enjoyed the performance of the Messiah, which she too would have liked to attend, had it only been practical. She closes by asking Hamilton to use another sheet of paper inside rather than by continuing her letters on the envelope.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1784 June 16.
Length: 2 sheets, 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: 3 October 2026
