Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/6/2/10

Letter from Elizabeth Vesey to Caterina Jackson (née Clarke) and Anna Maria Clarke

Diplomatic Text


                             To Mrs Jackson      From Mrs Vesey   10
      My Dear Mrs Jackson & Miʃs Clark
in my last Letters to you both I believe
you saw it was Time for me to take
Leave of Pen & Ink[1] -- I acknowlege it
but I find my Heart will not take
leave of either of you -- & it is impoʃsible
to deny myself the asking how you are
do tho I have no other mode of
enquiry but this -- -- & I wou'd fain revive in
your memory those to whom you gave so
much pleasure at the beloved Cottage,
that malicious tT Thief Time is always
pilfering something & if I let you alone
any longer the idea of the Veseys who
wou'd soon fade & my GodDaughter wou'd


not be taught the Name of her Parent[2]
I suspect Lady Dartry did not to send a
Letter I wrote to you long ago if she did not
I hope to reproach you in Clarges Street
next Winter -- in the mean time I
will flatter myself with the expectation
of hearing from you or Miʃs Clark &
that you will also say something of
your charming Miranda -- you that
correspond with Her who gives the
Picture of Her Mind -- & the Scenery
of Place more agreeably than the Pencil
how can I look in her face with
my scratching Pen -- our Court are said
to be very sorry to take leave they


had a briliant Cortege to the Sea Side
& the every Aid du Camps cast many
a longing ln ling'ring look behind upon
the fair & young at the  ------ parting farewell
adieu -- I think I tired you with
such an ample map of Lucan[3] I
shall not resume the subject -- We have
lived all this Winter with only a few
Relations who alternatly made their Visits
but Winter is still in all its Grandeur
with us -- last Night such a Storm of Wind
& Rain the Body of a Man in boots was
seen harried[4] along by the Torrent under
our Window -- alas my Dear Mm we
must be satisfied with a Hall Table
Story -- you see what a Campagnard Diary I
shou'd send you -- whom I hope are


are now amused in the pleasant Societies I
left you in & in which I hope to find you happy
I am call'd to air with Mr Vesey adieu my Anna

▼
M- Vesey Ms Hand[5] & yours join in every wish for the
happines of you & Mr Jackson Miʃs Clark & the fair
Anna

      To
Mrs Jackson
Fludier Street[6] [7] [8]


                                                         Mrs. Vesey[9]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. Compare ‘Tho I have out lived the use of Pen & Ink ...’ in HAM/1/6/2/5, 15 August 1783.
 2. Caterina Jackson's three daughters were born on 20 April 1780, 19 September 1781 and 2 October 1783. The outer two, Katherine and Frances, have Mary Hamilton as godmother (which doesn't preclude Vesey being godmother as well). The middle girl, Mary, has the same name as Vesey's mother, which may be suggestive. Depending which one(s) have Vesey as godmother, we have a terminus post quem for the letter, the terminus ante quem being Caterina Jackson's death in 1786.
 3. Mrs Vesey described her villa in Lucan, near Dublin, to Mary Hamilton on 24 March 1784 (see HAM/2/9 p.15): ‘she has a warm imagination & her descriptions are lively & I may say, very pictoresque’.
 4. Possibly harry in its obsolete or dialectal sense ‘to drag’ (OED s.v. harry).
 5. Assumed to be Vesey's companion, Miss Handcock.
 6. Possibly the Fludyer Street formerly located between St James's Park and Whitehall (Fairburn map, 1802).
 7. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 8. Moved address here from centre of page, written vertically.
 9. This line is written vertically in the right margin of p.3.

Normalised Text


                               
      My Dear Mrs Jackson & Miss Clark
in my last Letters to you both I believe
you saw it was Time for me to take
Leave of Pen & Ink -- I acknowledge it
but I find my Heart will not take
leave of either of you -- & it is impossible
to deny myself asking how you
do though I have no other mode of
enquiry but this -- -- & I would fain revive in
your memory those to whom you gave so
much pleasure at the beloved Cottage,
that malicious Thief Time is always
pilfering something & if I let you alone
any longer the idea of the Veseys
would soon fade & my GodDaughter would


not be taught the Name of her Parent
I suspect Lady Dartrey did not send a
Letter I wrote to you long ago if she did
I hope to reproach you in Clarges Street
next Winter -- in the mean time I
will flatter myself with the expectation
of hearing from you or Miss Clark &
that you will also say something of
your charming Miranda -- you that
correspond with Her who gives the
Picture of Her Mind -- & the Scenery
of Place more agreeably than the Pencil
how can I look in her face with
my scratching Pen -- our Court are said
to be very sorry to take leave they


had a brilliant Cortege to the Sea Side
& the Aides-de-Camp cast many
a longing lingering look behind upon
the fair & young at the parting farewell
adieu -- I think I tired you with
such an ample map of Lucan I
shall not resume the subject -- We have
lived all this Winter with only a few
Relations who alternately made their Visits
but Winter is still in all its Grandeur
with us -- last Night such a Storm of Wind
& Rain the Body of a Man in boots was
seen harried along by the Torrent under
our Window -- alas my Dear Madam we
must be satisfied with a Hall Table
Story -- you see what a Campagnard Diary I
should send you -- whom I hope


are now amused in the pleasant Societies I
left you in & in which I hope to find you happy
I am called to air with Mr Vesey adieu my Anna

▼
M- Vesey Miss Hand & yours join in every wish for the
happiness of you & Mr Jackson Miss Clark & the fair
Anna

      To
Mrs Jackson
Fludier Street


                                                        

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quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Compare ‘Tho I have out lived the use of Pen & Ink ...’ in HAM/1/6/2/5, 15 August 1783.
 2. Caterina Jackson's three daughters were born on 20 April 1780, 19 September 1781 and 2 October 1783. The outer two, Katherine and Frances, have Mary Hamilton as godmother (which doesn't preclude Vesey being godmother as well). The middle girl, Mary, has the same name as Vesey's mother, which may be suggestive. Depending which one(s) have Vesey as godmother, we have a terminus post quem for the letter, the terminus ante quem being Caterina Jackson's death in 1786.
 3. Mrs Vesey described her villa in Lucan, near Dublin, to Mary Hamilton on 24 March 1784 (see HAM/2/9 p.15): ‘she has a warm imagination & her descriptions are lively & I may say, very pictoresque’.
 4. Possibly harry in its obsolete or dialectal sense ‘to drag’ (OED s.v. harry).
 5. Assumed to be Vesey's companion, Miss Handcock.
 6. Possibly the Fludyer Street formerly located between St James's Park and Whitehall (Fairburn map, 1802).
 7. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 8. Moved address here from centre of page, written vertically.
 9. This line is written vertically in the right margin of p.3.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Elizabeth Vesey to Caterina Jackson (née Clarke) and Anna Maria Clarke

Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/2/10

Correspondence Details

Sender: Elizabeth Vesey (née Vesey, later Handcock)

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Caterina Jackson (née Clarke) and Anna Maria Clarke

Place received: London

Date sent: between 1780 and 1786
notBefore 1780 (precision: medium)
notAfter 1786 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Vesey to Mrs Jackson and Miss Clarke [friends of Hamilton who lived with her for a time in Clarges Street]. The letter relates to general news. Vesey wishes to awaken in both Jackson's and Clarke's memory 'those to whom you gave so much pleasure at the beloved Cottage', and notes that 'that malicious Thief Time is always pilfering something & if I let you alone any longer the idea of the Veseys wou[l]d soon fade'. Vesey looks forward to hearing from them and asks them to write something about their 'charming Miranda'. She notes that the night before there was a storm with strong winds and that a man's body was 'seen harried along by the Torrent under our Window'.
    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 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.

Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo

Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)

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: 4 September 2023

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