Diplomatic Text
7
June 19th 1785
Dear Mrs Dickenson
I am so truly charmed at the deligh[t]
-ful priviledge of addreʃsing you by the pleasing name
of Sister, that I am afraid you will think me very
giddy, & incoherent in my congratulations -- I aʃsure
you my Dear Madam, I look upon this Event as the
most fortunate of my life, as it will be the means
of introducing me to a person whose superior merit will be
my cheifest ambition to imitate -- My Brother will
expect me to be infinitely thankful to him for having
given me an opportunity of knowing you, indeed, I am
persuaded I shall never have it in my power to repay
the obligation, but you may, if you please, tell him
I think it an honor to be related to a man, who has had
the fortune to engage the affections of the most amiable
of her sex. Elizabeth intended to have written to
you, had not her ill state of health prevented her.
She desires I will present her most affectionate regard
and flatters herself you will pardon an ------ Omiʃsion
which nothing but Indisposition coud have prevail'd upon
her to be guilty of. --
I am Dear Madam
with the most sincere Esteem
S Dickenson
I shoud be much obliged to you to mention to my Brother
that I had began of a Letter to him, but a violent haddack
has interruped my intentions. The weather is so hot that
it is almost insupportable -- I intend to write by Tuesday's
Post. --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
June 19th 1785
Dear Mrs Dickenson
I am so truly charmed at the delightful
privilege of addressing you by the pleasing name
of Sister, that I am afraid you will think me very
giddy, & incoherent in my congratulations -- I assure
you my Dear Madam, I look upon this Event as the
most fortunate of my life, as it will be the means
of introducing me to a person whose superior merit will be
my chiefest ambition to imitate -- My Brother will
expect me to be infinitely thankful to him for having
given me an opportunity of knowing you, indeed, I am
persuaded I shall never have it in my power to repay
the obligation, but you may, if you please, tell him
I think it an honour to be related to a man, who has had
the fortune to engage the affections of the most amiable
of her sex. Elizabeth intended to have written to
you, had not her ill state of health prevented her.
She desires I will present her most affectionate regard
and flatters herself you will pardon an Omission
which nothing but Indisposition could have prevailed upon
her to be guilty of. --
I am Dear Madam
with the most sincere Esteem
Sarah Dickenson
I should be much obliged to you to mention to my Brother
that I had begun of a Letter to him, but a violent headache
has interrupted my intentions. The weather is so hot that
it is almost insupportable -- I intend to write by Tuesday's
Post. --
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Sarah Dickenson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/3/2/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sarah Dickenson
Place sent: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 19 June 1785
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sarah Dickenson to Mary Hamilton. She congratulates her on her marriage to her brother John Dickenson and expresses her delight in being able to call her 'sister'. [Hamilton married John Dickenson on 13 June 1785.] Sarah Dickenson writes of Hamilton's 'superior merit', which it is her 'ambition to imitate'. She tells her that if she pleases she can tell her brother that 'I think it an honour to be related to a man, who has now the fortune to engage the affections of the most amiable of her sex'. She continues that her sister Elizabeth had meant to write but was prevented by her poor state of health, but sends her regards.
Original reference No. 7.
Length: 1 sheet, 254 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 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Sara Albán-Barcia, MA student, University of Vigo (submitted March 2016)
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