MS Eng 1778 71
Letter from Elizabeth Carter to John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
71
Mrs. Carter30th. Jan[ry]
1787
With great Joy I congratulate yo[u]
on the happy Confinement of our dear Friend
▼
& on the Addition to your domestic Comforts.
I should have written to you as soon as I
received the Account, but my untoward
Head suffered so much from the Change of
Weather, that I was obliged to lay it on a
Pillow. Will you have the Goodneʃs to
--- present my Compliments & Thanks to
Mrs Rundle for her obliging communication
of the welcome Intelligence of dear Mrs Dickens[on]['s]
having safely past through her Tryal?
To complete your Happineʃs, I hope
you will regain a perfect State of Health
before you leave Bath, by a Bleʃsing on
the Waters, & the Medecine which you are
taking. They may both perhaps act with
with more Efficacy now your Mind is freed from
that Solicitude that it must have felt on a Subject
so very interesting to your Happineʃs.
Our Friends in Clarges Street are well:
Mrs Vesey's Health I think much better than
last year. Miʃs A. Clarke has had a very bad
Cold, for which she has very prudently con
-fined her self, during the very uncertain
Weather which we have had. When it grows
more settled, I hope she will be able to get out.
/ Mrs delany has had a very strong feverish
Attack for which she has been let Blood
twice, & was thought in Danger: but is
now much better. A Life like hers is valuable
on many Accounts: but very particularly so
to poor Miʃs Porte -- Adieu: I must write
a few Lines for you to read; to Mrs Dickenson
as I hope it will be some Time before she
attempts to read any Thing her self.
Much Joy to you my dear Friend in your
little play fellow who I hope will fully
recompense you for every Thing you
have suffered in her production. pray give
her a Kiʃs, & welcome her into the World
for me.
I can give you but an imperfect Account
of Mrs Newton, as she is still at Kew. All I
have heard is that she soon found the
Child,[1] but that the Woman, who carried it
away, refuses to let Mrs Newton have it;
on the plea that Mr Hand had given
her expreʃs orders not to let any one have
it, without an absolute order from him: of
which I suppose, she produced her proofs,
for Mrs Newton tried for legal Aʃsistance,
without being able to obtain it. In a Letter
to Miʃs A. Clarke, she gives no particulars, but
refers[2] our Enquiries till she comes to Town.
which I hope will now be soon: for I think
it will be better for her Spirits to be among
her Friends.
I was at Mrs Vesey's last night where
your Friends rejoyced together on your
Safety. Mr Walpole has had no Return of
his Gout. He has the same Wit, the same
good Humour, & the same Agrèmens[3] as
ever. Lady Herries was of the party. Her
Health is I hope better upon the whole their
usual.
Mrs Montagu is very well & mentions
with pleasure the time she past with you at
Bath. She is very happy in the Applause
her Nephew has gained, by his Speech on
Seconding the Addreʃs.[4] Even Mr Fox though
of the opposite party, Complimented him upon
it.
Adieu my dear Friend. Though I hope
You are well enough to tempt You to be rash, I ho[pe]
Mr Dickenson will take care you shall be prudent, [&][5]
keep You extremely quiet for some Time. Yours most
Affectionately E Carter
Be so good to send the inclosed to Mrs Henry[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. See MS Eng 1778 69 p.2.
2. An obsolete use of refer in sense ‘defer’ (OED s.v., v. IV.17.a. Accessed 07-10-2026).
3. This is agrémen(t) ‘[i]n plural. Agreeable qualities, circumstances, etc.’ (OED s.v., n., 1. Accessed 07-10-2026).
4. ‘On 23 Jan. 1787 [Matthew Montagu] seconded the Address, and, in reference to the French commercial treaty, ended his speech with a panegyric on Pitt’ (Hist. Parl.).
5. The ampersand supplied at the end of this line, just like the last two letters of ‘hope’ on the previous line, can be read through the paper by enhancing the image of p.3 in Mirador.
6. Postscript moved here from the left margin of p.1, written vertically. John Dickenson's diary does not mention this request, but both he and his wife do call on Mrs Henry in Bath, for instance on 7 April 1787 (see DDX 274/19 p.35). She is mentioned again on 11 October 1788 in MS Eng 1778 82 p.3 as having been very ill when she left England for Ireland, confirmed in HAM/1/2/21 p.2 col.2 of July 1789.
Normalised Text
With great Joy I congratulate you
on the happy Confinement of our dear Friend
▼
& on the Addition to your domestic Comforts.
I should have written to you as soon as I
received the Account, but my untoward
Head suffered so much from the Change of
Weather, that I was obliged to lay it on a
Pillow. Will you have the Goodness to
present my Compliments & Thanks to
Mrs Rundle for her obliging communication
of the welcome Intelligence of dear Mrs Dickenson's
having safely passed through her Trial?
To complete your Happiness, I hope
you will regain a perfect State of Health
before you leave Bath, by a Blessing on
the Waters, & the Medicine which you are
taking. They may both perhaps act with
more Efficacy now your Mind is freed from
that Solicitude that it must have felt on a Subject
so very interesting to your Happiness.
Our Friends in Clarges Street are well:
Mrs Vesey's Health I think much better than
last year. Miss Anna Clarke has had a very bad
Cold, for which she has very prudently confined
her self, during the very uncertain
Weather which we have had. When it grows
more settled, I hope she will be able to get out.
Mrs delany has had a very strong feverish
Attack for which she has been let Blood
twice, & was thought in Danger: but is
now much better. A Life like hers is valuable
on many Accounts: but very particularly so
to poor Miss Porte -- Adieu: I must write
a few Lines for you to read; to Mrs Dickenson
as I hope it will be some Time before she
attempts to read any Thing her self.
Much Joy to you my dear Friend in your
little play fellow who I hope will fully
recompense you for every Thing you
have suffered in her production. pray give
her a Kiss, & welcome her into the World
for me.
I can give you but an imperfect Account
of Mrs Newton, as she is still at Kew. All I
have heard is that she soon found the
Child, but that the Woman, who carried it
away, refuses to let Mrs Newton have it;
on the plea that Mr Hand had given
her express orders not to let any one have
it, without an absolute order from him: of
which I suppose, she produced her proofs,
for Mrs Newton tried for legal Assistance,
without being able to obtain it. In a Letter
to Miss Anna Clarke, she gives no particulars, but
refers our Enquiries till she comes to Town.
which I hope will now be soon: for I think
it will be better for her Spirits to be among
her Friends.
I was at Mrs Vesey's last night where
your Friends rejoiced together on your
Safety. Mr Walpole has had no Return of
his Gout. He has the same Wit, the same
good Humour, & the same Agrèmens as
ever. Lady Herries was of the party. Her
Health is I hope better upon the whole their
usual.
Mrs Montagu is very well & mentions
with pleasure the time she passed with you at
Bath. She is very happy in the Applause
her Nephew has gained, by his Speech on
Seconding the Address. Even Mr Fox though
of the opposite party, Complimented him upon
it.
Adieu my dear Friend. Though I hope
You are well enough to tempt You to be rash, I hope
Mr Dickenson will take care you shall be prudent, &
keep You extremely quiet for some Time. Yours most
Affectionately Elizabeth Carter
Be so good to send the inclosed to Mrs Henry
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 John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 71
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: London
Addressee: John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bath (certainty: high)
Date sent: 28 January 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton. Carter asks John Dickenson to thank Mrs Rundell for an account of Hamilton's safe childbirth and apologises to him that headaches have delayed her writing. She wishes him a recovery to full health before he leaves Bath. She reports on the health of their friends Mrs Vesey, Anna Clarke and Mrs Delany.
She then writes ‘a few Lines’ for him to read to his wife, ‘as I hope it will be some Time before she attempts to read any Thing her self’. She wishes Hamilton joy in her ‘little play fellow’ and asks her to give the baby a kiss from her. She reports that Mrs Newton has tracked down her missing granddaughter, but that the woman who took it is under orders from Mr Hand [Mrs Newton's son and father of the child] not to hand it over without his authority. Hamilton's friends, including Mr Walpole, Lady Herries and Mrs Montagu, celebrated her safety at a gathering at Mrs Vesey's. Carter closes by enjoining Dickenson to ensure his wife is 'prudent' and kept quiet. A postscript mentions an enclosure for a Mrs Henry.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton; London, 1787 January 28.
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: (Partial plain text transliteration submitted 7 October 2026)
Transliterator: Pete Morris, Artificial Intelligence and Ideas Adoption (AIIA), The University of Manchester Library (Partial 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
