Diplomatic Text
I sent you a letter to day with an account of my health & will begin
another to follow it soon, as I know you will not be quite easy --
26/ I went with the Major & Miʃs Davies to St. Michael's Church, when
“we praise thee O Lord” was chaunted delightfully -- as it was a Sacra-
ment day we had no Sermon -- I attended my party home, went
and drank a glaʃs a water, from thence to the abbey where I heard
a part of a good Sermon -- I walked half an hour & then called upon
Mrs. Rundell -- I found Mr. & Mrs., Randolf the famous preacher
there -- I perceived that She was pensive & low in the extreme &
when the priest took himself away I enquired the reason of it -- She
informed me that She was quite overcome with Mr. R's Sermon
I believe the length of it might contribute to make her languid
as he preached full three quarters of an hour -- & I observed last Sunday
that her Tears flowed plentifully -- to do Mr. R—— justice -- he certainly
is a good preacher -- the Sermon I heard was upon the Subject of
the prodigal which he laid before us in every poʃsible point of view
& drew a very fine Conclusion from it -- Dr. Fothergill called on
me before I returned home & staid half an hour with Mrs. Davies
in hopes of my returning -- I left my Name at Mrs. Holroyd's
in my way to the Isted's where I dined at 3 -- Mr. Lockwood
(eldest brother to Mr. & Miʃs Lockwood[1] who are so much at Mr.
Thursbys) who had his Eyes shot out when he was a School boy
at Westminʃter -- & Miʃs Jekil, to whom he is going to be mar-
ried, were of the party -- also Mrs. Mary -- This was a Turtle feast
I had a great deal of conversation with Mr. L. about the family
at Abindon[2] -- he told me that Mr. T. had given up the thought of mak
ing his second Son a Clergyman -- that he was treated as a fool by
Mr. T. & his eldest Daughter, which was a discouragement to ye young
man -- & must check all desire in him to do well -- one day Mr. Lockwood
made enquiries after ye young man of his Sister, who said “She knew
nothing about him, for she had not seen him for 3 days”, upon Enquiry
he found that he was in or about the house & paʃsed most of his time
in the stables -- he must be received for his Father seems to hate
him & as an instance of his odd behaviour I must mention one cir
cumstance -- that he wont permit him to ride one of his horses, tho
he keeps 6 hunters & half a hundred besides -- this young Man
is extremely ignorant Mr. L says -- but this Mode of treatment
is not likely to improve his head or his Heart -- his destiny
is for the army[3] -- How Horrid it must be -- to be hated by
that person who was the Cause of our Existence -- I hope
Mr. Thursby's Son has very little feeling -- Mr. L—— said he had
talked very seriously to Miss T. on her behaviour to her Brother
-- at 7 I left the social Board & went to Lady Huntingdon's
Chapel, I was rather too late for the Singing, which drew me there
and was obliged to wait till the Sermon was ended for a psalm
which was delightfully sung -- 27/ I called upon Dr. F.
he said he was just setting out to call upon me, as he wanted to
see me -- for he was going to Weymouth for a few days -- he said
he saw no neceʃsity for my staying here longer than 20 days
or a fortnight for if the Dog days[4] shd. be hot, it would not be
so well for me -- after my little Tour he said he shd. be a better
Judge & advised me to go on drinking at the Croʃs Bath &
taking his Medicine -- as soon as I came home your
dear Letter of the 22 was put into my hand -- I am sensi
ble my dearest Girl that it is empoʃsible for you, con-
sistent with your Love for me, to make me an unrea-
sonable request -- therefore if you were to expreʃs ever
a Wish that I shd. entirely lay aside my favorite
amusement -- your wishes shall be complied with
dont think my Love that my return to you could be
hastened by a desire to go a Shooting -- No such thing
I love you too ardently not to long exceʃsively to be
with you -- and if ever I shd. be so unhappy, a to leave
home again without being able to take my Wife &
Child with me, I must cast Lotts for one of them
Pray thank my dear father for his tenderneʃs for me
This is Wednesday 29th July -- and I have only a few minutes
to spare to tell you my dear Mary -- that I am in the
most perfect health & Spirits -- the Irritation is
almost totally gone -- I have good Appetite eat
& sleep well, which I have not done till lately -- no
person can be better -- I send you this Scrap
with my whole heart except as much as you
will allow for Louisa, dear Louisa's portion,
that you may have no Anxieties about me
Adieu Adieu
God bleʃs You
My best Friend Ever Yrs.
JD
Recd 1st.. August
[6]
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red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
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Notes
1. ‘Mr. Lockwood’ here refers to either Reverend John Cutts Lockwood, Vicar at Yoxford, Suffolk between 1793 and 1816 (d. 1830), or Edward Lockwood-Perceval (d. 6 July 1804). It is unclear when the latter adopted the name Perceval, but it seems likely to have been at some point after 23 February 1770, the day on which his father married Elizabeth Percival. ‘Miss Lockwood’ here refers to Frances Dorothy Lockwood, who married Charles Drummond on 26 July 1789, the day after this letter was written. William's other sister, Anne Lockwood, had married George Drake on 15 November 1778.
2. Abington Hall, Northampton was the home of the Thursby family.
3. William Spencer Thursby would eventually become a lieutenant-colonel in the army.
4. ‘The hottest part of the summer’ (OED s.v. dog day n., 1.a, in plural. Accessed 30-03-2023).
5. The address is overwritten with a ‘6’, indicating postage due. Postal stamp reading ‘BATH’.
6. Remains of a seal, in red wax, at the bottom of the page.
Normalised Text
Bath July 25 -- 1789
I sent you a letter to day with an account of my health & will begin
another to follow it soon, as I know you will not be quite easy --
26/ I went with the Major & Miss Davies to St. Michael's Church, when
“we praise thee O Lord” was chanted delightfully -- as it was a Sacrament
day we had no Sermon -- I attended my party home, went
and drank a glass a water, from thence to the abbey where I heard
a part of a good Sermon -- I walked half an hour & then called upon
Mrs. Rundell -- I found Mr. & Mrs., Randolf the famous preacher
there -- I perceived that She was pensive & low in the extreme &
when the priest took himself away I enquired the reason of it -- She
informed me that She was quite overcome with Mr. Randolf's Sermon
I believe the length of it might contribute to make her languid
as he preached full three quarters of an hour -- & I observed last Sunday
that her Tears flowed plentifully -- to do Mr. Randolf justice -- he certainly
is a good preacher -- the Sermon I heard was upon the Subject of
the prodigal which he laid before us in every possible point of view
& drew a very fine Conclusion from it -- Dr. Fothergill called on
me before I returned home & stayed half an hour with Mrs. Davies
in hopes of my returning -- I left my Name at Mrs. Holroyd's
in my way to the Isted's where I dined at 3 -- Mr. Lockwood
(eldest brother to Mr. & Miss Lockwood who are so much at Mr.
Thursbys) who had his Eyes shot out when he was a School boy
at Westminster -- & Miss Jekil, to whom he is going to be married
, were of the party -- also Mrs. Mary -- This was a Turtle feast
I had a great deal of conversation with Mr. Lockwood about the family
at Abindon -- he told me that Mr. Thursby had given up the thought of making
his second Son a Clergyman -- that he was treated as a fool by
Mr. Thursby & his eldest Daughter, which was a discouragement to the young
man -- & must check all desire in him to do well -- one day Mr. Lockwood
made enquiries after the young man of his Sister, who said “She knew
nothing about him, for she had not seen him for 3 days”, upon Enquiry
he found that he was in or about the house & passed most of his time
in the stables -- he must be received for his Father seems to hate
him & as an instance of his odd behaviour I must mention one circumstance
-- that he won't permit him to ride one of his horses, though
he keeps 6 hunters & half a hundred besides -- this young Man
is extremely ignorant Mr. Lockwood says -- but this Mode of treatment
is not likely to improve his head or his Heart -- his destiny
is for the army -- How Horrid it must be -- to be hated by
that person who was the Cause of our Existence -- I hope
Mr. Thursby's Son has very little feeling -- Mr. Lockwood said he had
talked very seriously to Miss Thursby on her behaviour to her Brother
-- at 7 I left the social Board & went to Lady Huntingdon's
Chapel, I was rather too late for the Singing, which drew me there
and was obliged to wait till the Sermon was ended for a psalm
which was delightfully sung -- 27/ I called upon Dr. Fothergill
he said he was just setting out to call upon me, as he wanted to
see me -- for he was going to Weymouth for a few days -- he said
he saw no necessity for my staying here longer than 20 days
or a fortnight for if the Dog days should be hot, it would not be
so well for me -- after my little Tour he said he should be a better
Judge & advised me to go on drinking at the Cross Bath &
taking his Medicine -- as soon as I came home your
dear Letter of the 22 was put into my hand -- I am sensible
my dearest Girl that it is impossible for you, consistent
with your Love for me, to make me an unreasonable
request -- therefore if you were to express ever
a Wish that I should entirely lay aside my favourite
amusement -- your wishes shall be complied with
don't think my Love that my return to you could be
hastened by a desire to go a Shooting -- No such thing
I love you too ardently not to long excessively to be
with you -- and if ever I should be so unhappy, a to leave
home again without being able to take my Wife &
Child with me, I must cast Lots for one of them
Pray thank my dear father for his tenderness for me
This is Wednesday 29th July -- and I have only a few minutes
to spare to tell you my dear Mary -- that I am in the
most perfect health & Spirits -- the Irritation is
almost totally gone -- I have good Appetite eat
& sleep well, which I have not done till lately -- no
person can be better -- I send you this Scrap
with my whole heart except as much as you
will allow for Louisa, dear Louisa's portion,
that you may have no Anxieties about me
Adieu Adieu
God bless You
My best Friend Ever Yours
John Dickenson
Mrs Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le frith
x post Derbyshire
Taxal
Chapel le frith
x post Derbyshire
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Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Journal-letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/2/24
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Dickenson
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 29 July 1789
Letter Description
Summary: Journal-letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton covering the period 25-29 July 1789. The letter relates to Dickenson's health.
Dated at Bath.
Original reference No. 10.
Length: 1 sheet, 931 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed July 2020)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021