Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/2/6

Letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


X 11

Kersley 19. Octr. 1785


      Were I ever to commit a Crime
against the State, the greatest
punishment that could be inflicted
upon me, would be a Separation from
the woman I adore -- your affectt
D—— is very unhappy to be at so
great a distance from you -- but
I hope we shall meet again very soon
and the pleasing Idea of seeing you
my dearest Love supports my
Spirits -- indeed your Image is ever
before me; and your goodneʃs to
me fills my Heart with gratitude
and Admiration -- how I shd. have
valued your picture in the midst
of all my perplexities -- and how
often shd. I have kiʃs'd it, as it smild


upon me -- the original I shall
for ever love as she deserves to be
loved --      I hope the post will be
kind enough to forward this scrawl,
as I want my Love to know that
her Husband is very well --
How soon I shall have the happin[eʃs]
of seeing you is impoʃsible for
me to tell -- my Concern is very
like Penelope's web[1] -- I had made
a resolution to make you a visi[t]
tomorrow -- but I find no busineʃs
is done in my Absence -- and I am
very solicitous to see this Matter
compleated -- if that is ever to be --
      I was roused from my gravity
yesterday, by a Man asking me
in a serious manner if I had been
very wicked in my younger days -- for


if I had -- he should suppose that the
disasters I met with were intended
as a punishment for my Sins -- he
thought an evil Genius certainly
presided over the Colliery --
 ------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------[2]
 ------  Father doats on you --
I have not time to say
every thing to you that I could
wish as the post is expected every
Moment -- and I only thought of
writg to you this Evg. a few minutes
ago -- as I think it not probable
that I can leave this place as soon
as I cd. wish -- With the great truth
and Sincerity I am ever Yours. J. Dickenson


My Love to every Body --

Mrs. Dick[enson][3]
Taxal
Chape[l le Frith]
Der[byshire]

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


Notes


 1. A task without end, though in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope prolongs the weaving deliberately.
 2. A large section has been lost and appears to have been cut away.
 3. Part of the address has been cut away, and text from p.2 is visible on this page as a result.

Normalised Text



Kersley 19. October 1785


      Were I ever to commit a Crime
against the State, the greatest
punishment that could be inflicted
upon me, would be a Separation from
the woman I adore -- your affectionate
Dickenson is very unhappy to be at so
great a distance from you -- but
I hope we shall meet again very soon
and the pleasing Idea of seeing you
my dearest Love supports my
Spirits -- indeed your Image is ever
before me; and your goodness to
me fills my Heart with gratitude
and Admiration -- how I should have
valued your picture in the midst
of all my perplexities -- and how
often should I have kissed it, as it smiled


upon me -- the original I shall
for ever love as she deserves to be
loved --      I hope the post will be
kind enough to forward this scrawl,
as I want my Love to know that
her Husband is very well --
How soon I shall have the happiness
of seeing you is impossible for
me to tell -- my Concern is very
like Penelope's web -- I had made
a resolution to make you a visit
tomorrow -- but I find no business
is done in my Absence -- and I am
very solicitous to see this Matter
completed -- if that is ever to be --
      I was roused from my gravity
yesterday, by a Man asking me
in a serious manner if I had been
very wicked in my younger days -- for


if I had -- he should suppose that the
disasters I met with were intended
as a punishment for my Sins -- he
thought an evil Genius certainly
presided over the Colliery --
 ------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
 ------  Father dotes on you --
I have not time to say
every thing to you that I could
wish as the post is expected every
Moment -- and I only thought of
writing to you this Evening a few minutes
ago -- as I think it not probable
that I can leave this place as soon
as I could wish -- With the great truth
and Sincerity I am ever Yours. John Dickenson


My Love to every Body --

Mrs. Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire

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



 1. A task without end, though in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope prolongs the weaving deliberately.
 2. A large section has been lost and appears to have been cut away.
 3. Part of the address has been cut away, and text from p.2 is visible on this page as a result.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/2/6

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Dickenson

Place sent: Kearsley

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith

Date sent: 19 October 1785

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton. He is in Kearsley on business and the letter relates to his feelings for Hamilton. He writes that if he were ever 'to commit a Crime against the State, the greatest punishment that could be inflicted upon me, would be a Separation from the woman I adore'.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 351 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: Sarah Connor, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Chi Wang, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2017)

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

Document Image (pdf)