Single Letter

HAM/1/4/1/26

Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


May 1783

Dear Miʃs Hamilton,

      The reason of your leaving Town so suddenly makes
all apologies unneceʃsary. We are all rejoiced to hear of
Lady Wake's recovery, but not quite so much so at the plan you
have mention'd of being separated from your Friends here,
for the greatest part of the summer. I conclude Miʃs Clark has
informed you of the death of poor Lady Ann Greville; she was
seiz'd with an inflammation of the lungs, which put an end
to her existence last Monday after an illneʃs of 7 or 8 days.
I was with Lady Warwick at the time of the fatal event, she
thought her better that day than on Sunday. &she had been speaking
of me with great sensibility for my attention to her, as I had
visited her three or four times during her illneʃs at her desire; she
behaved with great fortitude for tho' perfectly sensible of her
approaching diʃsolution, she conversed with ease, as far as
her faultering voice woud permit, & frequently joked; she
cou'd not bear the sight of grave faces, or the expreʃsion of
any kind of anxiety on her account; for which reason
Lady Warwick's company was leʃs agreeable to her than any other
Persons; when I left her Room on Sunday, Gen. Clerk succeed=
ed
me with Pope's Homer which she made him read &



& she listned to it with the greatest earnestneʃs; trivial conversations
she said did not keep up her attention, but that she was highly in=
terested
in the heroic exploits of Achilles. She left a very singular
Will, very spirited & quite in character. I shall mention but one
particular at present which is a legacy of £500. & all her cloaths
& many other things to her maid, who has been with her near ten
years. She is to be interr'd at Warwick to which place her corpse
was sent this morning.
      My Son arrived from Geneva ten days ago, improved in
stature, but in no other respect. I had concluded every thing
with Mr. Burrows for his taking him under his care, but on
further consideration have thought it advisable to lay a=
side
that plan, which I am sure wou'd not have answer'd
well for either party. I am as yet undecided how I shall dis=
pose
of him. I have made my Apologies to Mr. Burrows, giving
some of my reasons for my change of sentiment; in such a case
where the judgement must be satisfied, there is no room
for Compts. This is the third day of inceʃsant rain & I per=
ceive
the wind is now completely settled in the west, so that
we may soon expect warm weather. I might have mention'd
to you that Ly. Ann Greville's death is attended with a circums=
tance
of consolation to poor Lord Warwick for he gains
£500 pr. An by it, & all demands upon him on her account
are now completely cancell'd; he had a saving of £100, five



months ago by the death of Mr. Patoun You give me an
example of punctuality. Our account stands thus I have re=
ceiv'd
of the £600 for which you have my Bond the Sums
in the order following -- if I shou'd have forgot any other
sum receiv'd it shall be rectified
                                                     £190. -- . --
                                                       350. -- . --
      Interest due by me . . . .           25.
By a Bill on Meʃsrs.. Gosling            15.12
                                                    £580.12

      Mrs. Hamilton desires to be rememberd to you Jane says
she will speak for herself I am Dear Miʃs Hamilton
                             Your very faithful & Affectionate
                                                         Humble Servant
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
St. James's Street
May 29th. 1783.



      My Uncle Frederick
      May 29th. 1783


[1]
[2]

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


Notes


 1. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 2. The lower half of the sheet has been cut away.

Normalised Text



Dear Miss Hamilton,

      The reason of your leaving Town so suddenly makes
all apologies unnecessary. We are all rejoiced to hear of
Lady Wake's recovery, but not quite so much so at the plan you
have mentioned of being separated from your Friends here,
for the greatest part of the summer. I conclude Miss Clark has
informed you of the death of poor Lady Ann Greville; she was
seized with an inflammation of the lungs, which put an end
to her existence last Monday after an illness of 7 or 8 days.
I was with Lady Warwick at the time of the fatal event, she
thought her better that day than on Sunday. she had been speaking
of me with great sensibility for my attention to her, as I had
visited her three or four times during her illness at her desire; she
behaved with great fortitude for though perfectly sensible of her
approaching dissolution, she conversed with ease, as far as
her faltering voice would permit, & frequently joked; she
could not bear the sight of grave faces, or the expression of
any kind of anxiety on her account; for which reason
Lady Warwick's company was less agreeable to her than any other
Persons; when I left her Room on Sunday, Gen. Clerk succeeded
me with Pope's Homer which she made him read



& she listened to it with the greatest earnestness; trivial conversations
she said did not keep up her attention, but that she was highly interested
in the heroic exploits of Achilles. She left a very singular
Will, very spirited & quite in character. I shall mention but one
particular at present which is a legacy of £500. & all her clothes
& many other things to her maid, who has been with her near ten
years. She is to be interred at Warwick to which place her corpse
was sent this morning.
      My Son arrived from Geneva ten days ago, improved in
stature, but in no other respect. I had concluded every thing
with Mr. Burrows for his taking him under his care, but on
further consideration have thought it advisable to lay aside
that plan, which I am sure would not have answered
well for either party. I am as yet undecided how I shall dispose
of him. I have made my Apologies to Mr. Burrows, giving
some of my reasons for my change of sentiment; in such a case
where the judgement must be satisfied, there is no room
for Compliments This is the third day of incessant rain & I perceive
the wind is now completely settled in the west, so that
we may soon expect warm weather. I might have mentioned
to you that Lady Ann Greville's death is attended with a circumstance
of consolation to poor Lord Warwick for he gains
£500 per Annum by it, & all demands upon him on her account
are now completely cancelled; he had a saving of £100, five



months ago by the death of Mr. Patoun You give me an
example of punctuality. Our account stands thus I have received
of the £600 for which you have my Bond the Sums
in the order following -- if I should have forgotten any other
sum received it shall be rectified
               £190. -- . --
               350. -- . --
      Interest due by me . . . .           25.
By a Bill on Messrs.. Gosling            15.12
               £580.12

      Mrs. Hamilton desires to be remembered to you Jane says
she will speak for herself I am Dear Miss Hamilton
                             Your very faithful & Affectionate
                                                         Humble Servant
                                                              Frederick Hamilton
St. James's Street
May 29th. 1783.



     


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 1. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
 2. The lower half of the sheet has been cut away.

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/1/4/1/26

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frederick Hamilton

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 29 May 1783

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He writes of the death of Lady Ann Greville, who had been 'siez[e]d by an inflammation of the lungs'. She leaves a will befitting her 'spirited' character. The will leaves a sum of £500 and all her clothes to her maid, who has been with her almost ten years. Lord Warwick is to gain £500 per annum by Lady Ann's death, and 'all the demands upon him on her account are now cancell[e]d'. Lady Ann is to be buried at Warwick Castle. The letter also updates Mary Hamilton on their accounts, specifically a bond, and on his son, who has now returned from Geneva.
    Dated at St James's Street [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 594 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

Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo

Transliterator: Laura Smith, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted December 2013)

Transliterator: Jennifer Fitton, 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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