Diplomatic Text
92
1797
Many Thanks to you my dear
Friend for your kind Note. I am
delighted with the description which
Miʃs Bloʃset gives me of Leighton House
& shall be rejoyced to find that it
will be convenient in all Respects for
you to take it. This Situation is peculi
arly desirable from the Circumstance
of to speak in Mr Christie's phrase
of such an “agreeable Vicinage”.[1] Pray
let me know, as soon as this Affair
is decided.
My Health is much as it
was when we parted, & I am very
thankful it is no worse. My spirits are
very good: & I am inclined to hope
I shall gain Ground when I can take
the Bark, which I propose to do, as
soon as the pain, which the late
very unsettled weather has rather
increased, is a little abated.
We are in a turbulent State
in the downs. One of the mutinous
92
ships has discharged the Captain &
most of the officers, & by what I
hear is in absolute Anarchy. The other
has promised to return to it's duty.
Since Sunday when both were pre
paring to quit their station in
the downs, & go to their Fellow Rebels
at the Nore.[2] They were prevented by
a circumstance worthy relating. The
pilot, a deal man, overheard their Reso
lution, & wrote to his Friends to beg they
would contrive to get him on Shore, or
he did not think he should come alive, as
he was very averse to carrying away
the ship. On this 3 of our Boatmen
took a light Galley, & went along
side of the ship. talked with the
pilot on indifferent subjects, & gave
him an opportunity of jumping into
the Galley, with which they set off as
fast as poʃsible. As soon as the pilot,
was mist, the Crew of the Ship dispatch'd
a Boat with 7 men to take him: but he
happily had reached the Shore just as
his Pursuers had got up with him.
Another of our deal Boats then Went
after the rebel Boat, took it, & put the
7 men in prison. Thus the Scheme
of running away with the Ship was
disappointed, as the navigation
from the downs to the Nore is so
dangerous, that it would be too
hazardous for a Ship to attempt it
without a pilot.
I have this moment
been informed that our Telegraph
brings the joyful News that all
the Ships at the Nore have returnd
to their Duty.
Adieu. with my kind Re
-membrance to Mr Dickenson &
Louisa, I am your most obliged
& affectionate
ECarter
deal June 10. 1797
For
Mrs dickenson.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This elegant phrase is used in the newspaper advertising of James Christie (1730-1803), founder of the famous auction house and known to many in Carter's circle; on Christie see ODNB.
2. The Nore is a sandbank at the end of the Thames Estuary which was a Royal Navy anchorage. It was the site of one of two extensive mutinies in 1797; see Wikipedia.
Normalised Text
Many Thanks to you my dear
Friend for your kind Note. I am
delighted with the description which
Miss Blosset gives me of Leighton House
& shall be rejoiced to find that it
will be convenient in all Respects for
you to take it. This Situation is peculiarly
desirable from the Circumstance
to speak in Mr Christie's phrase
of such an “agreeable Vicinage”. Pray
let me know, as soon as this Affair
is decided.
My Health is much as it
was when we parted, & I am very
thankful it is no worse. My spirits are
very good: & I am inclined to hope
I shall gain Ground when I can take
the Bark, which I propose to do, as
soon as the pain, which the late
very unsettled weather has rather
increased, is a little abated.
We are in a turbulent State
in the downs. One of the mutinous
ships has discharged the Captain &
most of the officers, & by what I
hear is in absolute Anarchy. The other
has promised to return to it's duty.
Since Sunday when both were preparing
to quit their station in
the downs, & go to their Fellow Rebels
at the Nore. They were prevented by
a circumstance worthy relating. The
pilot, a deal man, overheard their Resolution
, & wrote to his Friends to beg they
would contrive to get him on Shore, or
he did not think he should come alive, as
he was very averse to carrying away
the ship. On this 3 of our Boatmen
took a light Galley, & went alongside
of the ship. talked with the
pilot on indifferent subjects, & gave
him an opportunity of jumping into
the Galley, with which they set off as
fast as possible. As soon as the pilot,
was missed, the Crew of the Ship dispatched
a Boat with 7 men to take him: but he
happily had reached the Shore just as
his Pursuers had got up with him.
Another of our deal Boats then Went
after the rebel Boat, took it, & put the
7 men in prison. Thus the Scheme
of running away with the Ship was
disappointed, as the navigation
from the downs to the Nore is so
dangerous, that it would be too
hazardous for a Ship to attempt it
without a pilot.
I have this moment
been informed that our Telegraph
brings the joyful News that all
the Ships at the Nore have returned
to their Duty.
Adieu. with my kind Remembrance
to Mr Dickenson &
Louisa, I am your most obliged
& affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
deal June 10. 1797
For
Mrs dickenson.
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 92
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 10 June 1797
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter is delighted with Miss Blosset's description of Leighton House, which Hamilton's family is proposing to take as their residence.
The main part of the letter concerns one incident in the Nore mutiny, in which men from Deal rescued a pilot who did not wish to aid the mutineers, were pursued in their galley by a boatful of mutineers but just made it to shore, upon which another boat from Deal captured the pursuers.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1797 June 10.
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: 20 October 2026
