Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/7/4/11

Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      Dear Madam

      In obedience to her Majesty's
commands, I have taken the Liberty of
conveying to her, thro you, the enclos'd Comments
on the ten Commandments. My partiality for
the Author has perhaps led me to mention
this little Publication, which I fear may
be deemd unworthy of royal Notice.
      The Author is a truly pious, parochial
Clergyman: He dedicates his time in a
particular manner to the Instruction of
The lower Orders of Mankind, whom he
considers principally to stand in need
of his aʃsistance. In his Parish
he has instituted a School, which he
presides over, and to which all the


infant Poor are admitted. The present Work
is intended for the Benefit of these little
Ones. I think it by no means perfect
of its kind, but Gilpin has given no
Comments specifically on the Commandments,[1]
and Secker,[2] for a thousand reasons, is
ill-calculated for an infant. It was on
this account I presum'd to mention the
present Performance: I shall find myself
happy if it answers the expectation her
Majesty may have formd from my
description of it. I have the honor
to be
      Dear Madam
                             yr sincere Friend
                             and obt servt
                                                         John Farhill
17th. Novbr. 1782
Kew[3]

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red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. William Gilpin's Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England (1779) was based on his teaching at Cheam School for Boys.
 2. Probably Thomas Secker (1769) Lectures on the Church Catechism.
 3. This dateline appears to the left of the salutation.

Normalised Text


      Dear Madam

      In obedience to her Majesty's
commands, I have taken the Liberty of
conveying to her, through you, the enclosed Comments
on the ten Commandments. My partiality for
the Author has perhaps led me to mention
this little Publication, which I fear may
be deemed unworthy of royal Notice.
      The Author is a truly pious, parochial
Clergyman: He dedicates his time in a
particular manner to the Instruction of
The lower Orders of Mankind, whom he
considers principally to stand in need
of his assistance. In his Parish
he has instituted a School, which he
presides over, and to which all the


infant Poor are admitted. The present Work
is intended for the Benefit of these little
Ones. I think it by no means perfect
of its kind, but Gilpin has given no
Comments specifically on the Commandments,
and Secker, for a thousand reasons, is
ill-calculated for an infant. It was on
this account I presumed to mention the
present Performance: I shall find myself
happy if it answers the expectation her
Majesty may have formed from my
description of it. I have the honour
to be
      Dear Madam
                             your sincere Friend
                             and obedient servant
                                                         John Farhill
17th. November 1782
Kew

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. William Gilpin's Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England (1779) was based on his teaching at Cheam School for Boys.
 2. Probably Thomas Secker (1769) Lectures on the Church Catechism.
 3. This dateline appears to the left of the salutation.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/4/11

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Farhill

Place sent: Kew

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 17 November 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to a publication on the subject of the Ten Commandments, written by William Walker. Farhill writes that in 'obedience to her Majesty's commands', he has taken the Liberty to send via Hamilton, the 'enclosed comments on 'The Ten Commandments'. They were written by a clergyman who 'dedicates his time [...] to the Instruction of The lower orders of mankind'. He has set up a school in his Parish which he heads and the publication is written for the school children's benefit.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 202 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 28 October 2020)

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

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