HAM/1/4/5/11
Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Jany. 5th. 1779
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton ▼
I cannot omit taking the
very first opportunity of telling you how sincerely
I condole with you upon the melancholy
news I receiv'd last Post from Lady Dartrey,
I regret being at too great a distance to prove
more eʃsentially to you the very sincere &
tender affection I feel for you. I most sincerely
regret poor Mrs. Hamilton, I had a real esteem
& regard for her, & so (I believe) had every one who
had so great a knowledge of her good qua=
=litys as I had, but by Lady Dartreys account
she had suffer'd so long that her departure
must have been a real release to herself,
& thank God she had the comfort of seeing
you in so happy a situation that it must
have taken a considerable weight off her
mind, & that I am sure must be a most
pleasing reflection, & a balm to your tender
Affectionate Heart, mine overflows with
with kindneʃs to you, & I embrace you with
the most cordial Affection. I have thank'd
your amicable, respectable friend Ly Dartrey
for her kindneʃs to you, but not half as
much as I would do, her friendship I
look upon to be one of the most eʃsential
Bleʃsings you poʃseʃs, for I fear there are
not many hearts like hers. -- We have
lately been witneʃses to a sad scene here,
I was were among the small number in
the Country at the time of the Hereditary
Prince of Naples Death, & had melancholy
proofs that the Diadem cannot shield from
Shokes like these, nor from the Grief wch.
must ensue the poor Queen just ready to
lie in has severely felt the loʃs of her
favourite Child. I have been obliged to write
several disagreeable letters of bus'neʃs by this
Post which has quite worn me out, therefore
will not add more for the present than
to tell you I will write you a longer letter
in a Post or two, Sr Wm. is gone out shooting
with The King, but he charg'd me before
he went to aʃsure you of his sincere regard
& Affection, & that he join'd with me in
condoling with you upon your loʃs. Adieu
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton, be aʃsured that
neither distance of time or place can ever
alter the true regard with wch. I am
Yr Most Affectionate Aunt
& faithfull friend
C Hamilton
Naples
Janry. 5th 1779
Sotch
Shotch
Scotland
Scotch
Scotch
Sotch[1]
To
Miʃs Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton ▼
I cannot omit taking the
very first opportunity of telling you how sincerely
I condole with you upon the melancholy
news I received last Post from Lady Dartrey,
I regret being at too great a distance to prove
more essentially to you the very sincere &
tender affection I feel for you. I most sincerely
regret poor Mrs. Hamilton, I had a real esteem
& regard for her, & so (I believe) had every one who
had so great a knowledge of her good qualities
as I had, but by Lady Dartreys account
she had suffered so long that her departure
must have been a real release to herself,
& thank God she had the comfort of seeing
you in so happy a situation that it must
have taken a considerable weight off her
mind, & that I am sure must be a most
pleasing reflection, & a balm to your tender
Affectionate Heart, mine overflows
with kindness to you, & I embrace you with
the most cordial Affection. I have thanked
your amicable, respectable friend Lady Dartrey
for her kindness to you, but not half as
much as I would do, her friendship I
look upon to be one of the most essential
Blessings you possess, for I fear there are
not many hearts like hers. -- We have
lately been witnesses to a sad scene here,
were among the small number in
the Country at the time of the Hereditary
Prince of Naples Death, & had melancholy
proofs that the Diadem cannot shield from
Shocks like these, nor from the Grief which
must ensue the poor Queen just ready to
lie in has severely felt the loss of her
favourite Child. I have been obliged to write
several disagreeable letters of business by this
Post which has quite worn me out, therefore
will not add more for the present than
to tell you I will write you a longer letter
in a Post or two, Sir William is gone out shooting
with The King, but he charged me before
he went to assure you of his sincere regard
& Affection, & that he joined with me in
condoling with you upon your loss. Adieu
My Dear Miss Hamilton, be assured that
neither distance of time or place can ever
alter the true regard with which I am
Your Most Affectionate Aunt
& faithful friend
Catherine Hamilton
Naples
January 5th 1779
Sotch
To
Miss Hamilton
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 Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/5/11
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow)
Place sent: Naples
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 5 January 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to the death of Mary Hamilton's mother and also to the death of the 'hereditary Prince' of Naples. Lady Catherine offers her condolences to Mary, 'but by Lady Dartreys account she had suffer'd so long that her departure must have been a real release to herself'. Sir William has gone shooting with the King, but he has asked her to send his affection and condolences to Mary.
Dated at Naples.
Original reference No. 10.
Length: 1 sheet, 409 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: Sarah Conlon, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)
Transliterator: Xiaoxin Ou, 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: 13 August 2023