Diplomatic Text
I am more vex'd than I can expreʃs
to hear that you have been here two or
three times without my seeing you, & I will
not trust to Mrs Hamiltons Memory to tell you
so, I never heard of your being here once, till
yesterday when I was not up -- & really began
to think that you had given me quite up --
a thought which was truly mortifying to me
-- I likewise never heard of yr being here the
day Ld Abercorn was but it seems you did
not ask for me -- or I am certain Every
one in the House is so certain that I always
am happy when you will call upon me
that they would never think of denying me
to you -- You Must excuse this Scrawl
but I am so hurt at these Mistakes that
I cannot be tolerably easy till you know
that I am not in fault whatever you might
think of me. I should think sadly of myself
if I was not (which I really am) My Dr Brother
your Most Affect. & Sincere Friend
C Hamilton
now Lad[y]y Hamilton[1]
about 1766.
To
The Honble. Chas. Hamilton[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The annotation must postdate William Hamilton's knighthood in 1772. NB. It appears that the y of Lady was added later in pencil by the second annotator.
2. These fragments appear on the back of the letter at the foot of the sheet. The addressee's name is split in four, with three different orientations, by unfolding.
Normalised Text
I am more vexed than I can express
to hear that you have been here two or
three times without my seeing you, & I will
not trust to Mrs Hamiltons Memory to tell you
so, I never heard of your being here once, till
yesterday when I was not up -- & really began
to think that you had given me quite up --
a thought which was truly mortifying to me
-- I likewise never heard of your being here the
day Lord Abercorn was but it seems you did
not ask for me -- or I am certain Every
one in the House is so certain that I always
am happy when you will call upon me
that they would never think of denying me
to you -- You Must excuse this Scrawl
but I am so hurt at these Mistakes that
I cannot be tolerably easy till you know
that I am not in fault whatever you might
think of me. I should think sadly of myself
if I was not (which I really am) My Dear Brother
your Most Affectionate & Sincere Friend
Catherine Hamilton
To
The Honourable Charles 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 Charles Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/7/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Charles Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: ?1766
when 1766 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton [wife of Sir William Hamilton] to Charles Hamilton [Mary Hamilton's father]. She writes of her sorrow at missing Charles Hamilton when he called. She continues that having called on her and missed her three times, he 'must have given me quite up', the thought of which she finds 'mortifying'. She assures him that she will be happy for him to visit.
Length: 1 sheet, 190 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: Rachael Cochrane, 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