HAM/1/11/37
Letter from Lady Cremorne (formerly Dartrey) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Stan. St:
Novr: 30.
1787
Although my Eyes are still weak, I must
indulge myself in writing a few Lines to
you, my Dear Friend, in ansr: to the most
kind & tendre Letter I received from you
some time ago. Lady Louisa Clayton indeed
wrote for me, which Letter I hope you
have received, but yet I long to tell you
with my own Hand how grateful it
was to My poor sad Heart to receive
your sympathy, & that of your
Dear Husband, & his Worthy
Father & Sisters: pray thank them
for me, & for my poor dr: afflicted
Husband; for he is sensible as I am
of their kind - Compaʃsion. You
will bleʃs God with me, my Dear
Friend, that he has in his great Mercy
wonderfully supported us under these
trying & tender Afflictions -- such as at
a Distance I should have thought
must have sunk us to the Dust;
but God Almighty has given us
resignedgnation to his all wise Dispensa
=tions -- & tho' He cause Trouble, we
do not Sorrow as those without
hope: Our sweet Angels[1] are I humbly
trust in Peace & Happineʃs, where
the “Wicked cease from Troubling,
“& the Weary be at rest;” -- had They
lived some years, The Wicked might
have sullied their sweet Souls, & then
their poor dr: Father & I sd.- have
have been wretched, at present we
are only sorrowful -- & tho' we now
“sow in Tears”, I humbly trust
if we bear Fruit in our hour of
Calamity Affliction, do our duty as
long as God sees good to give us Life,
we shall, through his Mercy, “reap
in Joy”. I have been some Mornings
at Chelsea, & bore it better than I expected
tho' it iswas sadly sweet to me.
my poor Husband has walked ther[e]
once. I will now say no more
myself than that I am sadly grieved
Dr.- Ly: Wake does not spend this Winter
in Town -- it wd: have been a very great
Comfort to me; but I hope to see her for
a few Days soon, that will be a great
gratification. to me poor Sr: Wm: is greatly
afflicted with the Headach -- I fear it is Gout.
Mr: Antrobus when he was in Town gave me
a very good Account of Sr: Wm:'s Behaviour,
at College, which I rejoiced to hear. Poor young Man!
-- I mean Mr. Antrobus The sad Scene he kindly went through here (for he staid
by my Dear Child's Bedside 'till the last momen[t]
of his precious Life) has sadly shaken his Nerves &
Spirits -- but I hope when he gets Pupils at Cambridge
he will be better. I hope very sincerely that you
yr worthy Husband, & yr: sweet little Child are
well -- & the rest of the Family. I shall be
▼ ▼
very happy to see yr: little Dear -- may She
be a Bleʃsing to you & reward yr: anxious
Cares. Ld.- C: begs his kind Love to you & Joins me
in kind wishes & best Comps: to Mr: Dickinson. believe
me Ever yrs: most Affly: PCremorne
[4]
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Lord and Lady Cremorne had lost both their children within six months: their daughter, Juliana, had died on 7 June 1787, and their son Thomas on 9 October 1787 (Lodge The Peerage of Ireland, 1799).
2. This postscript is written vertically on the right-hand side of the page.
3. Large manuscript figure ‘6’, written 2 lines deep over the address, denotes postage due.
4. Postmark; a Bishop mark dated 30 November.
5. Seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
Stanhope Street
November 30.
Although my Eyes are still weak, I must
indulge myself in writing a few Lines to
you, my Dear Friend, in answer to the most
kind & tender Letter I received from you
some time ago. Lady Louisa Clayton indeed
wrote for me, which Letter I hope you
have received, but yet I long to tell you
with my own Hand how grateful it
was to My poor sad Heart to receive
your sympathy, & that of your
Dear Husband, & his Worthy
Father & Sisters: pray thank them
for me, & for my poor dear afflicted
Husband; for he is sensible as I am
of their kind Compassion. You
will bless God with me, my Dear
Friend, that he has in his great Mercy
wonderfully supported us under these
trying & tender Afflictions -- such as at
a Distance I should have thought
must have sunk us to the Dust;
but God Almighty has given us
resignation to his all wise Dispensations
-- & though He cause Trouble, we
do not Sorrow as those without
hope: Our sweet Angels are I humbly
trust in Peace & Happiness, where
the “Wicked cease from Troubling,
“& the Weary be at rest;” -- had They
lived some years, The Wicked might
have sullied their sweet Souls, & then
their poor dear Father & I should have
been wretched, at present we
are only sorrowful -- & though we now
“sow in Tears”, I humbly trust
if we bear Fruit in our hour of
Affliction, do our duty as
long as God sees good to give us Life,
we shall, through his Mercy, “reap
in Joy”. I have been some Mornings
at Chelsea, & bore it better than I expected
though it was sadly sweet to me.
my poor Husband has walked there
once. I will now say no more
myself than that I am sadly grieved
Dear Lady Wake does not spend this Winter
in Town -- it would have been a very great
Comfort to me; but I hope to see her for
a few Days soon, that will be a great
gratification. poor Sir William is greatly
afflicted with the Headache -- I fear it is Gout.
Mr: Antrobus when he was in Town gave me
a very good Account of Sir William's Behaviour,
at College, which I rejoiced to hear. Poor young Man!
-- I mean Mr. Antrobus The sad Scene he kindly went through here (for he stayed
by my Dear Child's Bedside till the last moment
of his precious Life) has sadly shaken his Nerves &
Spirits -- but I hope when he gets Pupils at Cambridge
he will be better. I hope very sincerely that you
your worthy Husband, & your sweet little Child are
well -- & the rest of the Family. I shall be
▼ ▼
very happy to see your little Dear -- may She
be a Blessing to you & reward your anxious
Cares. Lord Cremorne begs his kind Love to you & Joins me
in kind wishes & best Compliments to Mr: Dickinson. believe
me Ever yours most Affectionately Philadelphia Cremorne
are recovered. but don't
use them too much.
Mrs: Dickinson
at Taxal
near Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire
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 Cremorne (formerly Dartrey) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/11/37
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 30 November 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Cremorne (formerly Dartrey) to Mary Hamilton, on the death of her son [Thomas] and on the kindness of her friends.
Dated at Stanhope Street [London].
Original reference No. 31.
Length: 1 sheet, 537 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 March 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: 3 October 2023