Diplomatic Text
[De]ar A Maria goes with me, Mrs. Devaynes gave
[m]e the tickets, it is Mr. Smiths benefit. On Wednes-
[d]ay we go to Sunning hill for a few days.
[As] you like anecdotes I will tell you one of two
[gen]tlemen of the City, the one is a Mr. Skinner, the
[othe]r a Mr. Dunford, who is a very busy meddling man,
[&] is always finding fault with his neighbour --
The late Lord Mayor; Mr Clarke (who is a very worthy man)
as soon as his Mayoralty was out, was call'd to account
by Mr.. Dunford who charged him with not allowing the
prisoners in Newgate what was their due, & he
brought as a proof a number of Butchers &
Bakers, who by their account, so far from Mr..
Clarke defrauding them, that he gave them more
than is usual & chiefly at his own expence; the court
which amounted to about 180 citizens, wish'd to rebuke
Mr. Dunford very severely, Mr. Skinner got up and said
Gentlemen, give me leave to tell you what rebuke I
would wish you to paʃs upon Mr. D...... When I was a boy
of thirteen my Mother was left a widow, she put me
an apprentice in Newgate, but before I went, she said
Tom, their are three things which I wish you always
to bear in your mind, the first is to remember that
whatsoever money paʃses through your hands is sacred
& let yr. diʃstreʃses be what they will must never be touch'd
by you, secondly speak not ill nor do no mischief to thy
neighbour, but if you can speak well of him or can help him
do it, & thirdly try to make yourself as happy as people
in general try to make themselves Miserable, & you
will be a very happy man, it Affected Mr. Dunford
so much that he burst into tears, the court were
so much pleased with it, that he really went an ---
without being further rebuked.
Mrs. L.. desires her Affectionate compts. to you & my
Brother. & I remain your ever obliged & affectionate
M: G——r
▼
Let me have an answer about Sally
as I feel quite interested for her. -- [2]
[4]
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The original sheet (consisting of 4 pages) has been torn in half, removing the first half of the letter along with paper from the left-hand margin of this sheet. As a result, a number of characters are missing at the beginning of subsequent lines.
2. This postscript is written upside down at the bottom of the sheet. It has been moved from its original position to its logical place in the text.
3. A number 4 has been written across the address in ink, indicating postage due.
4. Bishop mark dated 15 March, in black ink.
5. Seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
Dear Anna Maria goes with me, Mrs. Devaynes gave
me the tickets, it is Mr. Smiths benefit. On Wednesday
we go to Sunning hill for a few days.
As you like anecdotes I will tell you one of two
gentlemen of the City, the one is a Mr. Skinner, the
other a Mr. Dunford, who is a very busy meddling man,
& is always finding fault with his neighbour --
The late Lord Mayor; Mr Clarke (who is a very worthy man)
as soon as his Mayoralty was out, was called to account
by Mr.. Dunford who charged him with not allowing the
prisoners in Newgate what was their due, & he
brought as a proof a number of Butchers &
Bakers who by their account, so far from Mr..
Clarke defrauding them, that he gave them more
than is usual & chiefly at his own expense; the court
which amounted to about 180 citizens, wished to rebuke
Mr. Dunford very severely, Mr. Skinner got up and said
Gentlemen, give me leave to tell you what rebuke I
would wish you to pass upon Mr. Dunford When I was a boy
of thirteen my Mother was left a widow, she put me
an apprentice in Newgate, but before I went, she said
Tom, there are three things which I wish you always
to bear in your mind, the first is to remember that
whatsoever money passes through your hands is sacred
& let your distresses be what they will must never be touched
by you, secondly speak not ill nor do no mischief to thy
neighbour, but if you can speak well of him or can help him
do it, & thirdly try to make yourself as happy as people
in general try to make themselves Miserable, & you
will be a very happy man, it Affected Mr. Dunford
so much that he burst into tears, the court were
so much pleased with it, that he really went an ---
without being further rebuked.
Mrs. Lenton desires her Affectionate compliments to you & my
Brother. & I remain your ever obliged & affectionate
Mary Glover
▼
Let me have an answer about Sally
as I feel quite interested for her. --
at Sir William Wakes
Courteen Hall
Northampton
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 Glover to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/36
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Glover
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northamptonshire
Date sent: 15 March 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Glover to Mary Hamilton, relating to an anecdote of a Mr Dunford who was accused of not allowing prisoners in Newgate what was their due.
The letter has been placed here although undated as Glover makes reference in it to a servant named ‘Sally’ that she has recommended to Hamilton (see following letter HAM/1/13/37).
Original reference No. 26.
Length: 1 sheet, 376 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 29 June 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: 21 October 2023