Diplomatic Text
My dear Sir,
There now remains but little to complete your work of friend=
ship & compaʃsion, it has indeed been bestowd upon one that I valued
more than all other human beings; & saying this the weight of my
obligations is acknowledged. From regard to the memory of my dearest daugh=
ter I have endeavord if poʃsible to tranquillize my mind respecting
Mr. Holman & to banish every rancorous sentiment, I have therefore
written to him, & in answer to my letter, I expect him here tomorrow.
I can not be wrong in my desire to forgive. Shou'd he see what
I have to propose in the light that I do, he will be much bene=
fitted, & I shall be extremely gratified in being no longer at en=
mity with my daughters husband. The result of this meeting shall
be communicated to you in my next. Mrs. Mann, in consequence of
Mrs. Holman's request, has proposed to me to come to Bath to deliver
into my hands certain papers, & to communicate the sentiments &
wishes of a dying friend. Knowing what Mrs. Mann has sufferd
from extreme affliction & bodily fatigue & that she is at this time
in a critical situation, I cou'd not take upon myself to expose her
to the chance of an untoward event, I have therefore written to
her
her this day desiring her to defer her visit till it might be safely undertaken,
in the meantime she will consult with you upon the arrangement of Mrs. Holman's
affairs; you can not have a more able aʃsistant nor one in whom I have greater
confidence; she is poʃseʃs'd of what were Mrs. Holman's ideas & of mine which
are the same. Shou'd an agreement take place between me & Mr. Holman
there will be no contest upon inferior objects. I have no view but his inte=
rest, preserving myself at the same time from dupery, but as he is ex=
tremely haughty & acts too much through the influence of paʃsion, there
is no knowing what turn things may take. After this experiment I
shall consider myself in all respects acquitted. I have received a dear
letter from Lady Frances Harpur, & one no leʃs so from the enchanting Ly.
Eliza Halliday, they are both still unanswerd. Mr. Robt Greville
has notified to me his surprize & concern as well as Lady Mansfield's
that they had receiv'd no information of my daughter's illneʃs previous
to my daughter's death. I approve of the answer that was given ad
ding that my daughter after having experienced a total neglect for
so many years wou'd have betray'd an abject mind by attempting
to attract the notice of her relations in her last hours. She might
excuse them for not giving her their patronge, but I aʃsert that so
excellent a mind cou'd never merit contempt With my best
regards to Mrs. & Miʃs Dickenson I remain
My dear Sir
Your grateful Humble Servt.
Frederick Hamilton
No. 1 Brock St. Bath
June 18th. 1810[1]
PS. Pray inform me in your next
how to direct to Dr. Whalley to whom
I have been very negligent, grief &
anxiety having absorbed my whole mind
[4]
Mr. Hamilton[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This dateline appears to the left of the closing salutation and signature.
2. Postmarks 'E 19JU19 1810' (indicating that the letter went through the post on 19 June 1810) and 'BATH' above address when unfolded.
3. This appears to the left of the last line in the signature.
4. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
5. This annotation appears in the right margin of the page.
Normalised Text
My dear Sir,
There now remains but little to complete your work of friendship
& compassion, it has indeed been bestowed upon one that I valued
more than all other human beings; & saying this the weight of my
obligations is acknowledged. From regard to the memory of my dearest daughter
I have endeavoured if possible to tranquillize my mind respecting
Mr. Holman & to banish every rancorous sentiment, I have therefore
written to him, & in answer to my letter, I expect him here tomorrow.
I can not be wrong in my desire to forgive. Should he see what
I have to propose in the light that I do, he will be much benefitted
, & I shall be extremely gratified in being no longer at enmity
with my daughters husband. The result of this meeting shall
be communicated to you in my next. Mrs. Mann, in consequence of
Mrs. Holman's request, has proposed to me to come to Bath to deliver
into my hands certain papers, & to communicate the sentiments &
wishes of a dying friend. Knowing what Mrs. Mann has suffered
from extreme affliction & bodily fatigue & that she is at this time
in a critical situation, I could not take upon myself to expose her
to the chance of an untoward event, I have therefore written to
her this day desiring her to defer her visit till it might be safely undertaken,
in the meantime she will consult with you upon the arrangement of Mrs. Holman's
affairs; you can not have a more able assistant nor one in whom I have greater
confidence; she is possessed of what were Mrs. Holman's ideas & of mine which
are the same. Should an agreement take place between me & Mr. Holman
there will be no contest upon inferior objects. I have no view but his interest
, preserving myself at the same time from dupery, but as he is extremely
haughty & acts too much through the influence of passion, there
is no knowing what turn things may take. After this experiment I
shall consider myself in all respects acquitted. I have received a dear
letter from Lady Frances Harpur, & one no less so from the enchanting Lady
Eliza Halliday, they are both still unanswered. Mr. Robt Greville
has notified to me his surprise & concern as well as Lady Mansfield's
that they had received no information of my daughter's illness previous
to my daughter's death. I approve of the answer that was given adding
that my daughter after having experienced a total neglect for
so many years would have betrayed an abject mind by attempting
to attract the notice of her relations in her last hours. She might
excuse them for not giving her their patronage, but I assert that so
excellent a mind could never merit contempt With my best
regards to Mrs. & Miss Dickenson I remain
My dear Sir
Your grateful Humble Servant
Frederick Hamilton
No. 1 Brock Street Bath
June 18th. 1810
PS. Pray inform me in your next
how to direct to Dr. Whalley to whom
I have been very negligent, grief &
anxiety having absorbed my whole mind
No 49 Welbeck Street
London
single
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 John Dickenson
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/2/28
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: London
Date sent: 19 June 1810
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to John Dickenson. He thanks Dickenson for his support and friendship and notes that he is attempting to remove all thoughts of Mr Holman from his mind. He has written to him and proposes to forgive him, after which 'experiment', Hamilton will consider himself acquitted.
Dated at Bath.
Length: 1 sheet, 537 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: Katy Lorimer, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Yangzi Zhou, 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