Diplomatic Text
Dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your very obliging letter of the 19th. of this Inst. is now
before me and as you have desired my opinion upon
a step that you think advisable to take with regard
to drawing Two Hundred Pounds from the 3 pr.Ct. stock for
the uses you mention, I take this first opportunity of
aʃsuring you that I perfectly agree with you upon the
propriety of it, and moreover think that this diminu=
tion of your little capital will be of no consequence,
& tho' Mrs. Hamilton requires no further proofs of your
tenderdeʃs & affection for her yet you will undoubtedly
feel a secret satisfaction in the reflection of having
doubled your attentions at this critical time. I have
no opinion of German Doctors, their prescriptions are
commonly too rough. I have often heard of Dr. Burton
and think you cannot consult a better Person.
Mr. Fetherston call'd here a few days ago & seem'd
much pleased that he had been able to remit the remain=
der of Mrs Hamilton's half years Rent, which I hope will
be come to hand before the receipt of this. The distreʃses of
this Country are so uncommonly great, that I really know
not what we are to expect, it is impossible that Rents shou'd
be paid as formerly, there being little money left in the
Country & no trade to bring a return of it.
I cannot say that I am much flatter'd by his M——y's re=
collection of me attended with trivial enquiries, having
receiv'd receiv'd repeated promises of a more substantial
remembrance, which has been deferr'd so long that it wou'd
be folley to ground any hopes upon it. When arrived to the
age of fifty, it is time to be discouraged from the pursuit
of favors that I had good reason to expect for these twenty years
past. It is matter of real consolation to me to be able to aʃsert
with confidence that tho' I have fail'd in my expectations of
royal favor so often promised, my conduct has ever been such
as wou'd not discredit a man of honor. From the number of
low & mean Persons in general that fill the bench of Bishops in
this Country it wou'd seem that our Governors thought the
interests of Religion safer in the hands of Schoolmasters and
Tutors than in those men of birth & property, but I am
sensible this is a digreʃsion I shou'd have avoided, however
it shall introduce a piece of advice to you, that you shou'd
remain with a firm & constant persuasion that r——l favor
is hardly earned, and too frequently blown away by the slightest
blast.
I beg you will accept of our best wishes & remember us
affectionately to Mrs. Hamilton of whom we hope soon to receive
better accounts, I am
Dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
December 1st 1778
Latour, Clontarf
near Dublin[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dear Miss Hamilton
Your very obliging letter of the 19th. of this Instant is now
before me and as you have desired my opinion upon
a step that you think advisable to take with regard
to drawing Two Hundred Pounds from the 3 percent stock for
the uses you mention, I take this first opportunity of
assuring you that I perfectly agree with you upon the
propriety of it, and moreover think that this diminution
of your little capital will be of no consequence,
& though Mrs. Hamilton requires no further proofs of your
tenderness & affection for her yet you will undoubtedly
feel a secret satisfaction in the reflection of having
doubled your attentions at this critical time. I have
no opinion of German Doctors, their prescriptions are
commonly too rough. I have often heard of Dr. Burton
and think you cannot consult a better Person.
Mr. Fetherston called here a few days ago & seemed
much pleased that he had been able to remit the remainder
of Mrs Hamilton's half years Rent, which I hope will
be come to hand before the receipt of this. The distresses of
this Country are so uncommonly great, that I really know
not what we are to expect, it is impossible that Rents should
be paid as formerly, there being little money left in the
Country & no trade to bring a return of it.
I cannot say that I am much flattered by his Majesty's recollection
of me attended with trivial enquiries, having
received repeated promises of a more substantial
remembrance, which has been deferred so long that it would
be folly to ground any hopes upon it. When arrived to the
age of fifty, it is time to be discouraged from the pursuit
of favours that I had good reason to expect for these twenty years
past. It is matter of real consolation to me to be able to assert
with confidence that though I have failed in my expectations of
royal favour so often promised, my conduct has ever been such
as would not discredit a man of honour. From the number of
low & mean Persons in general that fill the bench of Bishops in
this Country it would seem that our Governors thought the
interests of Religion safer in the hands of Schoolmasters and
Tutors than in those men of birth & property, but I am
sensible this is a digression I should have avoided, however
it shall introduce a piece of advice to you, that you should
remain with a firm & constant persuasion that royal favour
is hardly earned, and too frequently blown away by the slightest
blast.
I beg you will accept of our best wishes & remember us
affectionately to Mrs. Hamilton of whom we hope soon to receive
better accounts, I am
Dear Miss Hamilton
Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
December 1st 1778
Latour, Clontarf
near Dublin
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/1/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Clontarf
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 1 December 1778
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton relating to finance, the economic distress of the country and returns from rent. Commenting on the King's recollection of him, he writes that he is not flattered at such 'trivial enquiries' when he has been waiting for so long for 'a more substantial remembrance' in terms of preferment in the Church, and writes that when one has reached the age of fifty it is 'time to be discouraged from the pursuit of favo[u]rs that I had good reason to expect for these twenty years past'. It is some consolation for him that he has acted as a man of honour despite all the broken promises. 'From the number of low & mean Persons in general that fill the bench of Bishops in this Country it wou[l]d seem that our Governors thought the interests of Religion safer in the hands of Schoolmasters and Tutors than in those men of birth & property'. He continues to advise his niece that 'favo[u]r is hardly earned and too frequently thrown away'.
Length: 1 sheet, 487 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: Research Assistant funding in 2013/14 provided by G.L. Brook bequest, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: George Bailey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: George Rowlands, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Ella Dix-Nagra, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
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