Single Letter

HAM/1/4/1/13

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


March 14, 1780

Dear Miʃs Hamilton,

      You really do me no more than justice in supposing
that you had gain'd ground upon my affection; I now aʃsure
you that your very kind behavior and unreserved confidence
have completely rivetted my regard and love for you. I
was always above the idea of leaning upon your interest
whatever it may be, nor will you ever receive from me the
smallest hint that I can have any views from that quarter.
I love you for your noble sentiments alone, and for your heart
that poʃseʃses so much sensibility and so thorough a contempt
for all sordid considerations; if my own will not bear this
test, I am not a friend for your purpose, however I am proud
enough to say it will.
      I am very sorry for the indisposition of your excellent friend
Lady Charlotte Finch, and Miʃs Goldsworthy; your undergoing
so much fatigue on their accounts, will no doubt, be esteem'd
by them as the best return you can make for their affection
for you; and you will at the same time be laying up
                                                         a



a further stock of merit where I really believe it will be pro=
perly
estimated. If your constitution does not suffer, I shall
not pity you for these fatigues; independency obtained by your
your own labor and merit will be vastly more satisfactory
than a philosophical contentment in too contracted a
situation, in which it wou'd be neceʃsary for you to check
that sensibility from which you feel so much pleasure.
You have already surmounted many difficulties, you are
surrounded by respectable Friends of your own acquiring, they
are convinced of the goodneʃs of your mind, it will be an
additional satisfaction to them to perceive that it is not
an inactive one and such as will easily lose sight of
prospects pointed out by an honorable ambition. It is
a true tho' a trite observation, that every one is the
architect of his own fortune; your plan is good and
your foundations judiciously laid we insist upon your
not disappointing us in the superstructure; but I quit
this stile of authority, you have given me good advice,
I have now repaid you with the best in my power and
unask'd; this is the privilege of a friend, you no sooner
call me so, than I avail myself of that privilege.



Captain Cathcart has been with us in Dublin near three
weeks, he is raising men for a new Regiment, of which he
is to be Major; eighty men are his proportion which will
cost a considerable sum, he has been already tolerably
succeʃsful. Lord Stormont supplies the means, his friend Mr.
Fullerton
is to be the Col. Commandant. Captain Cathcart
is a very sensible unaffected young man with fine dis=
positions
-- we make no comparisons, I was equally disposed
to be sensible of the merit of other Persons, but they gave me
no opportunities. I forgot to mention in my last, that I spoke
to Robt. Greville to beg that he wou'd introduce Lord Warwick to
you, he told me that Ld. W.k had expreʃs'd a great desire
of being acquainted with you, I am sure you will like him.
      Mrs. Hamilton begs to be affectionately remember'd to you
I am
                                                         Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
                                                         Your faithful & Affection-te Uncle
                                                                   Frederick Hamilton
Sackville Street[1]
      March 14th. 1780.

till the 20th May next when I
return to Latour.

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


Notes


 1. Address appears to the left of the signature.

Normalised Text



Dear Miss Hamilton,

      You really do me no more than justice in supposing
that you had gained ground upon my affection; I now assure
you that your very kind behaviour and unreserved confidence
have completely rivetted my regard and love for you. I
was always above the idea of leaning upon your interest
whatever it may be, nor will you ever receive from me the
smallest hint that I can have any views from that quarter.
I love you for your noble sentiments alone, and for your heart
that possesses so much sensibility and so thorough a contempt
for all sordid considerations; if my own will not bear this
test, I am not a friend for your purpose, however I am proud
enough to say it will.
      I am very sorry for the indisposition of your excellent friend
Lady Charlotte Finch, and Miss Goldsworthy; your undergoing
so much fatigue on their accounts, will no doubt, be esteemed
by them as the best return you can make for their affection
for you; and you will at the same time be laying up
                                                        



a further stock of merit where I really believe it will be properly
estimated. If your constitution does not suffer, I shall
not pity you for these fatigues; independency obtained by your
own labor and merit will be vastly more satisfactory
than a philosophical contentment in too contracted a
situation, in which it would be necessary for you to check
that sensibility from which you feel so much pleasure.
You have already surmounted many difficulties, you are
surrounded by respectable Friends of your own acquiring, they
are convinced of the goodness of your mind, it will be an
additional satisfaction to them to perceive that it is not
an inactive one and such as will easily lose sight of
prospects pointed out by an honourable ambition. It is
a true though a trite observation, that every one is the
architect of his own fortune; your plan is good and
your foundations judiciously laid we insist upon your
not disappointing us in the superstructure; but I quit
this style of authority, you have given me good advice,
I have now repaid you with the best in my power and
unasked; this is the privilege of a friend, you no sooner
call me so, than I avail myself of that privilege.



Captain Cathcart has been with us in Dublin near three
weeks, he is raising men for a new Regiment, of which he
is to be Major; eighty men are his proportion which will
cost a considerable sum, he has been already tolerably
successful. Lord Stormont supplies the means, his friend Mr.
Fullerton is to be the Colonel Commandant. Captain Cathcart
is a very sensible unaffected young man with fine dispositions
-- we make no comparisons, I was equally disposed
to be sensible of the merit of other Persons, but they gave me
no opportunities. I forgot to mention in my last, that I spoke
to Robert Greville to beg that he would introduce Lord Warwick to
you, he told me that Lord Warwick had expressed a great desire
of being acquainted with you, I am sure you will like him.
      Mrs. Hamilton begs to be affectionately remembered to you
I am
                                                         Dear Miss Hamilton,
                                                         Your faithful & Affectionate Uncle
                                                                   Frederick Hamilton
Sackville Street
      March 14th. 1780.

till the 20th May next when I
return to Latour.

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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Address appears to the left of the signature.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/1/13

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: Dublin

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 14 March 1780

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He is sorry to hear about Lady Charlotte Finch's and Miss Goldsworthy's [Mary Hamilton's friends from Court] indisposition and writes that he is sure that they appreciate her efforts on their behalf, as long as she does not suffer any fatigue from such actions. Frederick speaks of her goodness and being surrounded by respectable friends.
    Frederick notes a visit from his relation Captain Cathcart, who is in the process of raising men for a new Regiment of which he is to be Major. This will be of considerable expense and Lord Stormont is to help fund it. Frederick has spoken to another relation, Robert Greville (HAM/1/5/3), to ask him to introduce Lord Warwick to Mary Hamilton. He reports that Greville had informed him that Lord Warwick had already expressed his interest in meeting Mary Hamilton.
    Dated at Sackville Street [Dublin].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 565 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 2013/14 provided by G.L. Brook bequest, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: George Bailey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Hannah Phillips, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)

Transliterator: Kristian Coombes, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)

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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