Diplomatic Text
Orchard St. No. 22.
Portman Sqe-
May 4th 1791
My dear Madam
After having paʃsed four
months at Stanton and five at Bath we are
come to Town to see our friends and partake a
little of the various Amusements which this
Season of the year affords in London. Our
movements have I fear made us all extremely
reprehensible in our neglect, I must call it,
altho far from being intended, of you, althoyet
Jane endeavors when we speak upon the subject
to exculpate herself by observing that in your
last to Mr Hamilton you acknowledged
yourself in her debt, which, by the bye, has
not been paid, however be that as it may
we really feel the little Intercourse that has
subsisted between us of late with very great regret;
and we do hope in future not to be so long with-
-out hearing of your own health Mr Dickensons
and your dear little Girl. You, no doubt, will
mind for yourself your being Engaged in
Building and in neceʃsary Employments which
I know by experience Engroʃses a great deal
of ones time; So indeed does continual moving
and change of situation, which is we think
neither profitable nor amusing, and which in
short we all agree is very tiresome, therefore that
plan is to have an End, but what will be finally
determined upon as yet I do not know; but to
have but one House seems to be Mr Hamiltons
wish, whether that will be Bath or London I
know not but shall not long be ignorant as
I expect Mr Hamilton home from Stanton the
End of this week, where he has been for a fortnight
aʃsisting in taking care of his Flock at Easter, and
letting his Parsonage. This Step I know will surprise you
untill I tell you in a few words that were the Emolument
of the Parish as much more as it is, it woud only
keep it self and defray the Expenses of moving
a family twice a year, living there for five months
and keeping up a Dining Neighborhood in a
very thickly inhabitted Country, Entertaing Servts-
and Horses, and with all, no pleasure in that
sort of work to compensate. Therefore we all
agreed that the family shou'd go no more, Mr H.
and his Man can go at any time and be his
Curates Guest without inconvenience. If our
future settlement shoud be London which seems
to be Mr H.s wish I am determined to have a
very very moderate House upon a Rent no purcha
sing for we will not break Bulk and then if
any thing shoud offer for Jane that was worthy
of I must say so charming so valuable a creature
there will then be a pretty little sum to accom-
-pany her, but of this there is at present no prospect.
She is not impatient, nor I am sure are we. When
Mr Hamilton left Town he charged me to say for
him to Mr Dickenson, that he hoped His Banker
Mr Hammersley had been called upon to discharge
the Interest due to him and that it was his intention
to discharge the Principal next period: But I
am confident that Mr Hamilton will not be long
returned before he has the pleasure of writing
either to you or Mr Dickenson more fully upon this
point. All your friends here are perfectly well.
Sir Wm. Hamilton is expected the 20th. Inst. Our
Son is more grown and improved than you
can imagine, often enquires after you and Mr D.
He is quite happy in his Military Situation
and is most lucky in being already Eldest
Cornet. I feel that I have scrawled a great
deal and to very little purpose being so taken
up with our own detail which one is too apt
to fall into, but I think however to you it may
be leʃs uninteresting than to many others
=as I flatter my self you take a kind concern
in every thing that relates to us: Pray pray
write soon and say you are in Charity with us.
With Janes best love I remain Yrs. R Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Orchard Street No. 22.
Portman Square
May 4th 1791
My dear Madam
After having passed four
months at Stanton and five at Bath we are
come to Town to see our friends and partake a
little of the various Amusements which this
Season of the year affords in London. Our
movements have I fear made us all extremely
reprehensible in our neglect, I must call it,
although far from being intended, of you, yet
Jane endeavours when we speak upon the subject
to exculpate herself by observing that in your
last to Mr Hamilton you acknowledged
yourself in her debt, which, by the bye, has
not been paid, however be that as it may
we really feel the little Intercourse that has
subsisted between us of late with very great regret;
and we do hope in future not to be so long without
hearing of your own health Mr Dickensons
and your dear little Girl. You, no doubt, will
mind for yourself your being Engaged in
Building and in necessary Employments which
I know by experience Engrosses a great deal
of ones time; So indeed does continual moving
and change of situation, which is we think
neither profitable nor amusing, and which in
short we all agree is very tiresome, therefore that
plan is to have an End, but what will be finally
determined upon as yet I do not know; but to
have but one House seems to be Mr Hamiltons
wish, whether that will be Bath or London I
know not but shall not long be ignorant as
I expect Mr Hamilton home from Stanton the
End of this week, where he has been for a fortnight
assisting in taking care of his Flock at Easter, and
letting his Parsonage. This Step I know will surprise you
until I tell you in a few words that were the Emolument
of the Parish as much more as it is, it would only
keep it self and defray the Expenses of moving
a family twice a year, living there for five months
and keeping up a Dining Neighbourhood in a
very thickly inhabited Country, Entertaining Servants
and Horses, and with all, no pleasure in that
sort of work to compensate. Therefore we all
agreed that the family should go no more, Mr Hamilton
and his Man can go at any time and be his
Curates Guest without inconvenience. If our
future settlement should be London which seems
to be Mr Hamiltons wish I am determined to have a
very very moderate House upon a Rent no purchasing
for we will not break Bulk and then if
any thing should offer for Jane that was worthy
of I must say so charming so valuable a creature
there will then be a pretty little sum to accompany
her, but of this there is at present no prospect.
She is not impatient, nor I am sure are we. When
Mr Hamilton left Town he charged me to say for
him to Mr Dickenson, that he hoped His Banker
Mr Hammersley had been called upon to discharge
the Interest due to him and that it was his intention
to discharge the Principal next period: But I
am confident that Mr Hamilton will not be long
returned before he has the pleasure of writing
either to you or Mr Dickenson more fully upon this
point. All your friends here are perfectly well.
Sir William Hamilton is expected the 20th. Instant Our
Son is more grown and improved than you
can imagine, often enquires after you and Mr Dickenson
He is quite happy in his Military Situation
and is most lucky in being already Eldest
Cornet. I feel that I have scrawled a great
deal and to very little purpose being so taken
up with our own detail which one is too apt
to fall into, but I think however to you it may
be less uninteresting than to many others
=as I flatter my self you take a kind concern
in every thing that relates to us: Pray pray
write soon and say you are in Charity with us.
With Janes best love I remain Yours Rachel Hamilton
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Rachel Hamilton (née Daniel) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/1/33
Correspondence Details
Sender: Rachel Hamilton (née Daniel)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 4 May 1791
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from R. Hamilton [Rachel Hamilton, wife of Rev. Frederick Hamilton] to Mary Hamilton. The letter is concerned with general family news. After spending four months at Stanton and five in Bath, they have come up to Town 'to see our friends and partake a little of the various Amusements which this Season of the year affords in London'. She says that 'continual moving and change of situation [...] is we think neither profitable nor amusing', and Mr Hamilton intends to have just one house in future, either in Bath or London, and to let the parsonage at Stanton.
She discusses other family matters, including the expected arrival of Sir William Hamilton on a visit from his post in Naples on 20 May. Her son Robert has grown and improved, and is happy in his military situation; he 'is most lucky in being already Eldest Cornet'.
Length: 1 sheet, 693 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: Oliver Nesbitt, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Lauren Brooks, 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