Diplomatic Text
Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
You will no doubt have been surprised that we shou'd
have permitted you to remain so long in ignorance of
what has become of us since we left you; prepare now
for a still greater surprize we mean to set out for England
in a few days, for Geneva is now a place of all others the
most unfavourable for the residence of Strangers, torn to pieces
by internal divisions, which are not likely to subside, and
oppreʃs'd by crowds of Foreign Troops. The detail of all the e=
vents I have been witneʃs to wou'd lead me beyond the bounds
of a letter, I shall therefore defer entering upon the subject till
we have the pleasure of meeting. The objects I had in view cou'd
not be answerd at this time in Geneva I therefore judged it
more prudent to return without making further experiments.
I have objections to France, & still greater to Italy. I have
agreed to leave my Son at Geneva under the care of a Man
universally respected he is Professor of the Belles Lettres of the
Accademy[1] & has educated many Persons already eminent for
learning & abilities. I am aʃsured he is to be depended upon in every
respect; you may believe that nothing but the hopes of superior ad=
vantages cou'd persuade me to come away without my Son. Mrs. Hamilton
is more recover'd than I cou'd have expected & will I hope be soon
perfectly well she desires with my Daughter to be affectionately
remember'd to you I am
Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
Sécheron, near Geneva
July 24th. 1782.[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Author spells academy in HAM/1/4/1/28; cf. here Italian Accademia.
2. These two lines appear to the left of the closing salutation and signature.
Normalised Text
Dear Miss Hamilton,
You will no doubt have been surprised that we should
have permitted you to remain so long in ignorance of
what has become of us since we left you; prepare now
for a still greater surprise we mean to set out for England
in a few days, for Geneva is now a place of all others the
most unfavourable for the residence of Strangers, torn to pieces
by internal divisions, which are not likely to subside, and
oppressed by crowds of Foreign Troops. The detail of all the events
I have been witness to would lead me beyond the bounds
of a letter, I shall therefore defer entering upon the subject till
we have the pleasure of meeting. The objects I had in view could
not be answered at this time in Geneva I therefore judged it
more prudent to return without making further experiments.
I have objections to France, & still greater to Italy. I have
agreed to leave my Son at Geneva under the care of a Man
universally respected he is Professor of the Belles Lettres of the
Academy & has educated many Persons already eminent for
learning & abilities. I am assured he is to be depended upon in every
respect; you may believe that nothing but the hopes of superior advantages
could persuade me to come away without my Son. Mrs. Hamilton
is more recovered than I could have expected & will I hope be soon
perfectly well she desires with my Daughter to be affectionately
remembered to you I am
Dear Miss Hamilton,
Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
Frederick Hamilton
Sécheron, near Geneva
July 24th. 1782.
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/1/4/1/22
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Sécheron, near Geneva
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 24 July 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He writes that he will leave for England in a few days as he reports Geneva is 'being torn to pieces by internal divisions' and is no place for 'strangers' at the present time. His son, however, is to stay in Geneva under the care of a Professor of Belles Lettres at the Academy. He notes that this will be very beneficial to his son, else he would not have been persuaded to leave him there.
Dated at Secheron near Geneva [Switzerland].
Length: 1 sheet, 275 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: Emma Kelly, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Iago Valin-Lopez, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Olivia Skinner, 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