Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton
The Difference of my Account of dear Little
Prince Alfred from that I wrote Miʃs Goldsworthy yesterday is
rather in his favour, as he has had a better Night, & his Fever
is leʃs, but his unwillingneʃs to walk is the same, & he has a
wan, drooping, look. Mrs Cheveley has by my desire been writing
an Account of him to day to Mr Hawkins, from whom she
receiv'd a Letter this Morning, expreʃsing a wish that he might
be drawn about in a little Chaise, as the begingerbeing so constantly
in Arms, as he cannot walk, must be bad for him. She has in
consequence wrote by my desire to the Queen's Houʃe for the
best of the little Chaises there to be sent down, as there is none
to be had at Deal, & if we were to find any body that could
make one, it would be much longer before we cd. have it, than
by sending it for it from London. Mrs Cheveley thought it would
be safest to write to Mrs Stainforth[1] for it, as Mr Compton might
poʃsibly be at Windsor, & so time might be lost in getting it. I
long for him to be free enough of Fever, to begin the Sea bathing.
I was vastly concern'd to hear by a Letter from London yesterday
of the Accident Prince William has had, I hope he will have
had good Aʃsistance at New York, where they must be in such
Practice for Fractures or any Accidents of that kind; my
Account mention'd to my great Satisfaction that no ill Conse-
quences were apprehended from it. The Distreʃs of the
Asgill family I pity from my Heart[2] & shall think poor
Sr Charles[3] happy if as the Papers say is likely he dies without it having
come to his knowledge.
We are every hour in expectation of the Ganges (Mr Feildings
Ship)[4] coming into the Downs, & by the end of this Week I shall
have the happineʃs of Lady Juliana Penn & her family in my
Neighbourhood, Lord North having obliged both her & Me much,
by lending her Walmer Castle, Sea bathing being advised her
after her same illneʃs, as the most likely method to restore her
Strength Adieu my dear Miʃs Hamilton, I long to be able to write
as prosperous Accounts of my little Prince as I did at first.
I beg you will present my humble Duty to their Majesties
as well as to the Princes & Princeʃses, & my Com̄ps to all my
Friends from
Yr. ever sincerely Affcte.
Charlotte Finch
Mrs Feilding & Mrs Carter beg to be remember'd to you
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Elizabeth Stainforth was the housekeeper at the Royal Palace until her death in May 1785, after which point Elizabeth Stainforth (possibly her sister-in-law or daughter) took over the post until her death in 1803.
2. Charles Asgill (1762-1823), a British Captain in the American Revolutionary War, was under threat of execution in Pennsylvania at this time, as retaliation for the death of American officer James Huddy. He was ultimately spared thanks to the intervention of the French monarchy, at his mother's request, and returned to England in December 1782 (DNB).
3. Sir Charles Asgill (d. 1788), father of Charles Asgill (1762-1823).
4. Charles Fielding (1738–1783) fought in the battle of Cape Spartel in 1783 and commanded the HMS Ganges. He had married Lady Charlotte Finch's daughter, Sophia, in 1772.
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton
The Difference of my Account of dear Little
Prince Alfred from that I wrote Miss Goldsworthy yesterday is
rather in his favour, as he has had a better Night, & his Fever
is less, but his unwillingness to walk is the same, & he has a
wan, drooping, look. Mrs Cheveley has by my desire been writing
an Account of him to day to Mr Hawkins, from whom she
received a Letter this Morning, expressing a wish that he might
be drawn about in a little Chaise, as the being so constantly
in Arms, as he cannot walk, must be bad for him. She has in
consequence written by my desire to the Queen's House for the
best of the little Chaises there to be sent down, as there is none
to be had at Deal, & if we were to find any body that could
make one, it would be much longer before we could have it, than
by sending for it from London. Mrs Cheveley thought it would
be safest to write to Mrs Stainforth for it, as Mr Compton might
possibly be at Windsor, & so time might be lost in getting it. I
long for him to be free enough of Fever, to begin the Sea bathing.
I was vastly concerned to hear by a Letter from London yesterday
of the Accident Prince William has had, I hope he will have
had good Assistance at New York, where they must be in such
Practice for Fractures or any Accidents of that kind; my
Account mentioned to my great Satisfaction that no ill Consequences
were apprehended from it. The Distress of the
Asgill family I pity from my Heart & shall think poor
Sir Charles happy if as the Papers say is likely he dies without it having
come to his knowledge.
We are every hour in expectation of the Ganges (Mr Feildings
Ship) coming into the Downs, & by the end of this Week I shall
have the happiness of Lady Juliana Penn & her family in my
Neighbourhood, Lord North having obliged both her & Me much,
by lending her Walmer Castle, Sea bathing being advised her
after her same illness, as the most likely method to restore her
Strength Adieu my dear Miss Hamilton, I long to be able to write
as prosperous Accounts of my little Prince as I did at first.
I beg you will present my humble Duty to their Majesties
as well as to the Princes & Princesses, & my Compliments to all my
Friends from
Your ever sincerely Affectionate
Charlotte Finch
Mrs Feilding & Mrs Carter beg to be remembered to you
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 Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/44
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 17 July 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton, relating to the health of Prince Alfred. Finch writes that the differences of the account she gave of Prince Alfred to Miss Goldsworthy yesterday than she gives today are in his favour. He has had a better night and his fever has improved. He is still unwilling to walk and he has a ‘drooping look’. The letter continues on his health.
She continues her letter with news of her family and on her concern of learning that Prince William has had an accident and of her hopes that his medical treatment will be good in New York 'where they must be in such Practice to Fractures'.
Length: 1 sheet, 452 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 14 May 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