Diplomatic Text
99
1799
Many Thanks to you, my dear kind friend, for
your affectionate Expreʃsions about my Health. It is, I
thank God, better, than at my Age I had Reason to expect.
I am indeed very sorry for the uncomforta
-ble Situation, & still worse Prospects of poor Miʃs
A. M Clarke. Yet indeed it gives me more Concern, than
Surprize. Though I believe her Intentions are always
good, her Proceedings have seemed to discover, a strange
want of Judgment. Cannot you prevail on her, to submit
to the direction of such excellent & well tried Friends
as Mr Dickenson & you, & Mrs Glover? By the Instances
which you give me of her Imprudence, I fear it must
end in Ruin. -- The Difficulty under which she labours
from the Behaviour of her unfortunate Sister, is indeed
a grievous Misfortune, & it is hard to gueʃs how it can
be remedied, as this poor Creature, either from Weakneʃs
or derangement of Understanding seems to be scarcely
an accountable Being. Perhaps the best Method Miʃs A-m. C
could take, might be to put her to ------ board with
some sober well disposed man & his Wife, who might have
some Authority over her, & prevent her squandering away
her Fortune in glaʃs Coaches &c. By your Account I
fear, it will be impoʃsible for her Sister to have any
Influence over her. -- what is become of Mrs Barnard?
We have been for some time all Hurry and
Bustle in this place, by the Embarkation of the Troops from
our Shore. Nothing in my long life, has been equal to the
preparations for this Expedition. Hitherto its Succeʃs
has been very important. God grant that our Endeavours
may end, in procuring a general Peace, a Bleʃsing prefe
rable to the most splendid Victories. -- I am rejoiced
to find from all Accounts, that Sr James Pulteneys wound
is not dangerous.[1] I grieve for all who have lost their
Friends in the late Conflict: but one is naturally most
interested, for those one knows: & Sr James Pulteney is
of so amiable a disposition, that all who are acquainted
with him, must feel concerned in his Preservation.
I beg to be kindly remembered to
Mr Dickenson & my young Friend Louisa, & am
My dear Mrs dickenson
Your obliged & affectionate
ECarter
PS. I have as you desired,
burnt your Letter
deal Sept 14. 1799
[2]
For
Mrs Dickenson
With Mrs. Bloʃsets'
love. received to day.[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Pulteney's entry in ODNB records that he ‘participated in the ill-fated expedition to The Helder in the Netherlands and commanded the first wave of troops landed in the face of the enemy on 27 August 1799’. In 1794 Pulteney had married (and taken the surname of) Henrietta Laura Pulteney, who with her father had been accompanied by Carter to Paris in 1782 (see MS Eng 1778 25).
2. This page is blank.
3. The direction and Blosset's note are written vertically.
Normalised Text
Many Thanks to you, my dear kind friend, for
your affectionate Expressions about my Health. It is, I
thank God, better, than at my Age I had Reason to expect.
I am indeed very sorry for the uncomfortable
Situation, & still worse Prospects of poor Miss
Anna Maria Clarke. Yet indeed it gives me more Concern, than
Surprise. Though I believe her Intentions are always
good, her Proceedings have seemed to discover, a strange
want of Judgement. Cannot you prevail on her, to submit
to the direction of such excellent & well tried Friends
as Mr Dickenson & you, & Mrs Glover? By the Instances
which you give me of her Imprudence, I fear it must
end in Ruin. -- The Difficulty under which she labours
from the Behaviour of her unfortunate Sister, is indeed
a grievous Misfortune, & it is hard to guess how it can
be remedied, as this poor Creature, either from Weakness
or derangement of Understanding seems to be scarcely
an accountable Being. Perhaps the best Method Miss Annamaria Clarke
could take, might be to put her to board with
some sober well disposed man & his Wife, who might have
some Authority over her, & prevent her squandering away
her Fortune in glass Coaches &c. By your Account I
fear, it will be impossible for her Sister to have any
Influence over her. -- what is become of Mrs Barnard?
We have been for some time all Hurry and
Bustle in this place, by the Embarkation of the Troops from
our Shore. Nothing in my long life, has been equal to the
preparations for this Expedition. Hitherto its Success
has been very important. God grant that our Endeavours
may end, in procuring a general Peace, a Blessing preferable
to the most splendid Victories. -- I am rejoiced
to find from all Accounts, that Sir James Pulteneys wound
is not dangerous. I grieve for all who have lost their
Friends in the late Conflict: but one is naturally most
interested, for those one knows: & Sir James Pulteney is
of so amiable a disposition, that all who are acquainted
with him, must feel concerned in his Preservation.
I beg to be kindly remembered to
Mr Dickenson & my young Friend Louisa, & am
My dear Mrs dickenson
Your obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
PS. I have as you desired,
burnt your Letter
deal September 14. 1799
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 99
Correspondence Details
Author(s): Elizabeth Carter
Date of creation: 14 September 1799
Date sent: 14 September 1799
Place sent: Deal
Recipient(s): Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter is very concerned by what she has learnt from Hamilton about the Clarke sisters: that Miss A[nna] Clarke shows ‘a strange want of Judgment’, and that Miss Isabella Clarke ‘either from Weakness or derangement of Understanding seems to be scarcely an accountable Being’, and should perhaps be put to board with a sober couple who might ‘prevent her squandering away
her Fortune in glass Coaches &c’. She confirms that she has burnt Hamilton's letter. Her other topic is the local bustle of troops being embarked for the expedition [against Holland], and her relief that Sir James Pulteney's wound was not dangerous.
The letter was evidently enclosed to Mrs Blosset, and the direction to Hamilton carries a note, ‘With Mrs. Blosset's love, received to day’.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1799 September 14.
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: 31 October 2026
