Diplomatic Text
1801
My dear Mrs Dickenson
I have taken the opportunity of
Mr Grenville's returning to Leighton of sending
you a few lines, to inform you of two very great events, which
I trust will give you pleasure as you & Mr d.
have ever interested yourselves ------------
so kindly on our Accounts, one is that my
Sister Katherine is to be married in a few months
to Mr Warren whom you have seen, it is entirely
with the consent of My Aunts & Mr & Mrs Kind-
derley & at present no other of our friends
know of it, the disparity of their ages is certainly
very great, but he has acted so generous a
part (situated as our affairs are at present
as you I believe are well aʃsured of) that he cannot
expect any fortune with her therefore his
motive must be real affection. I hope they will
be happy I really think she has very good pros=
pect of being perfectly so, the distance she
will be from us is very great and that I believe
is her only objection to it, he says she shall never
be without one of us with her and if she wishes
it he would both of us to live with them but that
we should not like nor do I think it would be pleasant
to them -- Katherine is just gone to spend a few
days with Mrs Kinderley and Mrs Keen and
she is then going to Sunning Hill to Mrs Glover
and from thence to Mrs Froggatt at Fulmer
she would have written to you on this subject
herself and had indeed had began a letter
but was so much hurryed that she could
not go on with it she will very shortly send
you a long letter, and will I hope be very com=
municative -- The other last Tuesday we
she was invited to tea alone at my Aunt's for
the expreʃs purpose of seeing my Aunt Bell
who was seated in great form in the parlor
to receive her she was not in the least agita-
ted but talked of indifferent subjects and told
she hoped very soon to see us -- we d --- spent that
at the Bishops, and such an evening as I never
desire to spend again, we all were setting
off to take a gdrive in the sociable[1] Mr Horsley
& Miʃs Bourke his intended Lady[2] on horseback
& we had not got out of their ownn Park
before she was thrown, and carried into the
House covered with blood and perfectly loʃʃ sense=
leʃs, she did not recover in the least for full 3 quartz
of an hour afterwards, she is now quite
out of danger, and will I hope be well enough
to be married very shortly -- she has cut her
head & [ne]ck, hand and, knee, but has no[t]
broke or dislocated and limbs, and such a scene of confusion
I never was in every one in fits &c. pray tell Louisa
to be Careful how she figures away on horseback
I hope you will excuse this short hasty written
letter, when I can catch the Bishop in good
humour I will get a frank and write a very
long one with one united kind love to yourself
Mr D & Louisa
Believe me ever My dear Mrs Dickenson
Yrs sincerely obled & afftly
M J Jackson
Dont let Louisa quiz[3] this writing as I do aʃʃure
I can write much better
[4]
Mrs Dickenson
Leighton house
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘An open, four-wheeled carriage with two double seats facing each other and a box seat for the driver’ (OED s.v. sociable n. 3a. Accessed 23-09-2020).
2. Frances Emma Bourke (d. 1821) married the Rev. Heanage Horsley, son of Bishop Samuel Horsley, on 25 June 1801 (two weeks after this letter was written).
3. The sense of quiz here is ‘satirize’, or perhaps better, ‘make fun of’ (OED s.v., 1. Accessed 26-06-2022).
4. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
5. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
1801
My dear Mrs Dickenson
I have taken the opportunity of
Mr Grenville's returning to Leighton of sending
you a few lines, to inform you of two very great events, which
I trust will give you pleasure as you & Mr Dickenson
have ever interested yourselves
so kindly on our Accounts, one is that my
Sister Katherine is to be married in a few months
to Mr Warren whom you have seen, it is entirely
with the consent of My Aunts & Mr & Mrs Kinderley
& at present no other of our friends
know of it, the disparity of their ages is certainly
very great, but he has acted so generous a
part (situated as our affairs are at present
as you I believe are well assured of) that he cannot
expect any fortune with her therefore his
motive must be real affection. I hope they will
be happy I really think she has very good prospect
of being perfectly so, the distance she
will be from us is very great and that I believe
is her only objection to it, he says she shall never
be without one of us with her and if she wishes
it he would both of us live with them but that
we should not like nor do I think it would be pleasant
to them -- Katherine is just gone to spend a few
days with Mrs Kinderley and Mrs Keen and
she is then going to Sunning Hill to Mrs Glover
and from thence to Mrs Froggatt at Fulmer
she would have written to you on this subject
herself and had indeed had began a letter
but was so much hurried that she could
not go on with it she will very shortly send
you a long letter, and will I hope be very communicative
-- last Tuesday
she was invited to tea alone at my Aunt's for
the express purpose of seeing my Aunt Bell
who was seated in great form in the parlour
to receive her she was not in the least agitated
but talked of indifferent subjects and told
she hoped very soon to see us -- we spent that
at the Bishops, and such an evening as I never
desire to spend again, we all were setting
off to take a drive in the sociable Mr Horsley
& Miss Bourke his intended Lady on horseback
& we had not got out of their own Park
before she was thrown, and carried into the
House covered with blood and perfectly senseless
, she did not recover in the least for full 3 quarters
of an hour afterwards, she is now quite
out of danger, and will I hope be well enough
to be married very shortly -- she has cut her
head & neck, hand and, knee, but has not
broke or dislocated and limbs, such a scene of confusion
I never was in every one in fits &c. pray tell Louisa
to be Careful how she figures away on horseback
I hope you will excuse this short hasty written
letter, when I can catch the Bishop in good
humour I will get a frank and write a very
long one with one united kind love to yourself
Mr Dickenson & Louisa
Believe me ever My dear Mrs Dickenson
yours sincerely obliged & affectionately
Mary Johanna Jackson
Don't let Louisa quiz this writing as I do assure
I can write much better
Mrs Dickenson
Leighton house
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 Mary Jackson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/10/2/9
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Johanna Jackson
Place sent: Bromley
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 11 June 1801
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary J. Jackson to Mary Hamilton. She writes to inform Hamilton
that her sister Katherine is to be married to Mr Warren and that she has
the consent to do so from her aunts and that at the present time only a
few of their friends know of the engagement. She notes that there is a
great difference in their ages and that he cannot expect any fortune from
her and hence there is real affection. She will not live too far away and
Mr Warren has said that she will never be far from them and that 'if she
wishes it we would both of us live with them'. Although she will not.
Jackson continues noting that there had been an accident whereby one of
her acquaintances had been thrown from her horse.
Dated at Bromley.
Original reference No. 10.
Length: 1 sheet, 577 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 23 September 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: 12 March 2024