Single Letter

HAM/1/1/3/4

Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


My dear Hammy
      This mourning in am to put on my
jacet and Moumou[1] her gown she has taken of her mus-
ling
and she has put on the border[2] you ded get her
and so she tels me that we shall have a ---uniform.
Thank god gouly is better I will be very good to
please Mama and to make every Body happy
and do my Lesons quit well give my love
to all my Brothers and sisters and to plan[ny]
and to Neve[3] and to CheChe[4]
                                                         I am ever yours
                                                              Elizabeth

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


Notes


 1. Probably Mlle Suzanne Moula, a Swiss appointed as French teacher in 1779. (Less likely: her sister Marianne, or the governess who taught needlework, Mlle Charlotte-Salomé de Montmollin.) Also mentioned by Martha Carolina Goldsworthy in HAM/1/14/36 and other letters.
 2. ‘A piece of ornamental work round the edge of a garment, cap, etc.’ (OED s.v. border n. 5b).
 3. Miss Nevin, Dresser to the Princesses (Burney, Journals II.94). See also HAM/1/1/3/7, HAM/1/7/2/10, HAM/1/14/105.
 4. Also spelt Chi-Chi or Chi Chi, apparently the pet-name of Mrs Louisa Cheveley, nurse to Princess Amelia (Stuart 1939, citing Burney). See HAM/1/7/2.

Normalised Text


My dear Hammy
      This morning i am to put on my
jacket and Moumou her gown she has taken off her muslin
and she has put on the border you did get her
and so she tells me that we shall have a uniform.
Thank god gouly is better I will be very good to
please Mama and to make every Body happy
and do my Lessons quite well give my love
to all my Brothers and sisters and to planny
and to Neve and to CheChe
                                                         I am ever yours
                                                              Elizabeth

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



 1. Probably Mlle Suzanne Moula, a Swiss appointed as French teacher in 1779. (Less likely: her sister Marianne, or the governess who taught needlework, Mlle Charlotte-Salomé de Montmollin.) Also mentioned by Martha Carolina Goldsworthy in HAM/1/14/36 and other letters.
 2. ‘A piece of ornamental work round the edge of a garment, cap, etc.’ (OED s.v. border n. 5b).
 3. Miss Nevin, Dresser to the Princesses (Burney, Journals II.94). See also HAM/1/1/3/7, HAM/1/7/2/10, HAM/1/14/105.
 4. Also spelt Chi-Chi or Chi Chi, apparently the pet-name of Mrs Louisa Cheveley, nurse to Princess Amelia (Stuart 1939, citing Burney). See HAM/1/7/2.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/1/3/4

Correspondence Details

Sender: Princess Elizabeth

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: between 1779 and 1782
notBefore 1779 (precision: high)
notAfter 1782 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Mary Hamilton. She addresses her letter to 'My dear Hammy' and writes that she continues with her lessons quite well and asks that her love be sent to all her brothers and sisters. She is thankful that 'gouly' [Martha Carolina Goldsworthy (1777-1811) sub-governess to the Princesses] is better and asserts that she will be good to please the Queen and to make everybody happy.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 92 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 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.

Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)

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: 31 August 2023

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