Single Letter

HAM/1/14/47

Letter from Martha Carolina Goldsworthy to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


36

16th Sepr 1780


      I have my Dear so frequently experienced the
Sincerity of your Conduct towards me, that the
Contents of your very friendly Letter /which I
red. only yesterday, as the Person to whom it was inclosed
had been absent for a couple of days/ did not
at all surprise me; You judged perfectly
right in regard to my intentions, for I am
most fully determined & will persist, you
know how much I have suffered from that
Quarter, nothing shall ever make me rue
the wish of doing it again, & so I have told
her Mother, & her Father likewise.
From the beginning of my Employment in
this Family, I never had but one desire,
which was that of fulfilling my Duty
thoroughly & Sincerely, I have frequently



told you that from the Moment I found
myself useleʃs I would desist, in that
Quarter I have proved it very sufficiently,
& could her Heart be examined I believe
one should easily perceive, that she is
pleased to have got rid of me, tho' there
has hitherto been some mortifying ------Circumstances
attending it, but I believe the former
outweighs the latter, How it will be
settled I know not; I was quite sure
that our Friend would be very much
distreʃsed & provoked at me & had she
Years ago listened to the various complaints
that were made things, perhaps, might not
have come to the heigth they now are,
but that is past & can not be recalled,
You are convinced I am Sure that I
have ever wished to make your Life as
comfortable, as the nature of the Place
would allow it, & believe me I shall ever
do it, I know you too well to doubt



your Sincerity or to think you would ever
act countre me in any respect, & I hope
that my determination will not be productive
of any additional trouble or anxiety to you.
P R has declared her affection for you, &
wishes exceedingly for your early--- - return.
& I know her well enough to be sure that
she will do every thing in her power to
gain both of you -- A thousand thanks
for yr kind anxiety about my Health,
it is really better than I could expect, I c[an]
not say as much for my Spirits, for they
are by no means what they were, &
had I not taken the firm Resolution
I have done, I am sure they would have
been quite Sunk.God Bleʃs you my
dear Friend
believe that I shall Ever
most sincerely wish to promote your
Happineʃs, & that I shall recollect your
Friendship & openeʃs to me with Gratitude
                                                         Adieu --




Sepbr. 16th. 1780
Miʃs Goldsworthy

on the sad subject of Princeʃs Royal


Miʃs Hamilton
      Eastbourne
           Suʃsex[1]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. The address appears written vertically.

Normalised Text



16th September 1780


      I have my Dear so frequently experienced the
Sincerity of your Conduct towards me, that the
Contents of your very friendly Letter /which I
received only yesterday, as the Person to whom it was enclosed
had been absent for a couple of days/ did not
at all surprise me; You judged perfectly
right in regard to my intentions, for I am
most fully determined & will persist, you
know how much I have suffered from that
Quarter, nothing shall ever make me rue
the wish of doing it again, & so I have told
her Mother, & her Father likewise.
From the beginning of my Employment in
this Family, I never had but one desire,
which was that of fulfilling my Duty
thoroughly & Sincerely, I have frequently



told you that from the Moment I found
myself useless I would desist, in that
Quarter I have proved it very sufficiently,
& could her Heart be examined I believe
one should easily perceive, that she is
pleased to have got rid of me, though there
has hitherto been some mortifying Circumstances
attending it, but I believe the former
outweighs the latter, How it will be
settled I know not; I was quite sure
that our Friend would be very much
distressed & provoked at me & had she
Years ago listened to the various complaints
that were made things, perhaps, might not
have come to the height they now are,
but that is past & can not be recalled,
You are convinced I am Sure that I
have ever wished to make your Life as
comfortable, as the nature of the Place
would allow it, & believe me I shall ever
do it, I know you too well to doubt



your Sincerity or to think you would ever
act countre me in any respect, & I hope
that my determination will not be productive
of any additional trouble or anxiety to you.
Princess Royal has declared her affection for you, &
wishes exceedingly for your early--- - return.
& I know her well enough to be sure that
she will do every thing in her power to
gain both of you -- A thousand thanks
for your kind anxiety about my Health,
it is really better than I could expect, I can
not say as much for my Spirits, for they
are by no means what they were, &
had I not taken the firm Resolution
I have done, I am sure they would have
been quite Sunk.God Bless you my
dear Friend believe that I shall Ever
most sincerely wish to promote your
Happiness, & that I shall recollect your
Friendship & openness to me with Gratitude
                                                         Adieu --







Miss Hamilton
      Eastbourne
           Sussex

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



 1. The address appears written vertically.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Martha Carolina Goldsworthy to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/14/47

Correspondence Details

Sender: Martha Carolina Goldsworthy

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Eastbourne

Date sent: 16 September 1780

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Martha Carolina Goldsworthy to Mary Hamilton, concerning her position as governess in the royal household. She writes that she has had only one desire since 'the beginning of my Employment in this Family [the Royal family], which was that of fulfilling my Duty thoroughly & Sincerely'.
    Manuscript annotations by Hamilton on the sheet note that the letter is on the 'sad subject of Princess Royal'.
    Original reference No. 36.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 453 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Ellie Jarvis, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)

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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