HAM/1/6/8/3
Letter from John Hope to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Diplomatic Text
Dear Madam,
I ʃtaid after Mrs: ------ laʃt night, expect=
=ing you would have resumed the Subject of Mrs:
Rogers[1] tho' I was unwilling to do it myself, in
the humour you then seem'd to be against me. As
there is no body's good opinion I value much
in this Town, but your's & Miʃs Hamilton's, I
muʃt tell you, that my Suspicion of having loʃt
That, provoked me againʃt the Tattlers of the place.
I long supposed you could not be blind to my Affection
for Miʃs Hamilton, but I imagined, that as a ʃensible
Woman you wink'd at it; as, from your paʃt kindneʃs to me,
it was alʃo natural to imagine, you could have no
other Objection than my want of fortune, which
might hereafter be accidentally removed. A remarkable
Change, however, in your & Miʃs H:'s behaviour to
me of late, put me on gueʃsing at the Cause; -- and
I found that Mrs: R had told you, you did wrong
to truʃt Miʃs H: in my Company. -- This, & the idle
Stories of other people, may have occaʃion'd a pre=
[judice] [aga]inʃt me, which I will not attempt
------------------------ the contrary, I confeʃs to you, that
------------------------ if I was certain Miʃs H had had any Affection for me, & there was
------------ a probability [ probabi]lity of my making her happier than
------------------------ she appears to me to be at home, I ʃhould not think I behaved
------------ either ungratefully [ ung]ratefully or injuriously to you, in marrying
------------ [yo]ur without Your conʃent; for it has always been the
doctrine taught me by my own father, & which
I ʃtill profeʃs; that Children are, by the Law of
God & Nature, entitled to the Dispoʃal of their
own Perʃons, when arrived at the Years of Discretion,
altho their Parents ought ever to offer them their
beʃt Aʃsiʃtance & Advice. -- Should this declaration
of my ʃentiments, my dear Madam, give you any
Concern, I ʃh (which, from Miʃs H:'s behaviour to
me, I think it never ought,) I ʃhall not take
amiʃs your giving me no more invitations to your
Houʃe; & I promise you, (to make you entirely easy,)
that before Miʃs H:'s Return from London, ------
I ʃhall have found out ʃome Other Retreat. --
I am, with conʃtant regard,
Dear Madam, Your much obliged &
affecte: hum --- : Servt:
John Hope
Sunday, 13 Decemr: 1774[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Possibly the Hamiltons' neighbour, Mrs Rogers (see HAM/1/19/26ff).
2. The annotation ‘1774’ is incompatible with Hope's dateline, as 13 December fell on a Sunday only in 1772 and 1778, implying that Hope and/or the annotator have made an error. December 1772 seems implausibly early for such a declaration, and Mary Hamilton would have been only 16 years old then. If Hope made a slip with the dateline, however, then other dates are possible, such as Sunday 13 November 1774 or, very plausibly, Sunday 12 December 1773. This is consonant with a planned trip by Hamilton to London without her mother (see HAM/1/19/56 of 11 October 1773). It also fits with letters expressing regret at having ‘imprudently [...] debarr'd himself’ from their company (HAM/1/6/8/7) and having forfeited Mrs Hamilton's friendship (HAM/1/6/8/2). It may also be relevant that Hamilton has apparently told William Napier in early 1774 that Mrs Rogers and another neighbour were not to be trusted (HAM/1/19/62). The date of 12 December 1783 has therefore been tentatively assumed for the present letter.
Normalised Text
Dear Madam,
I stayed after Mrs: ------ last night, expecting
you would have resumed the Subject of Mrs:
Rogers though I was unwilling to do it myself, in
the humour you then seemed to be against me. As
there is no body's good opinion I value much
in this Town, but your's & Miss Hamilton's, I
must tell you, that my Suspicion of having lost
That, provoked me against the Tattlers of the place.
I long supposed you could not be blind to my Affection
for Miss Hamilton, but I imagined, that as a sensible
Woman you winked at it; as, from your past kindness to me,
it was also natural to imagine, you could have no
other Objection than my want of fortune, which
might hereafter be accidentally removed. A remarkable
Change, however, in your & Miss Hamilton's behaviour to
me of late, put me on guessing at the Cause; -- and
I found that Mrs: Rogers had told you, you did wrong
to trust Miss Hamilton in my Company. -- This, & the idle
Stories of other people, may have occasioned a prejudice
against me, which I will not attempt
------------------------ the contrary, I confess to you, that
------------------------ had any Affection for me, & there was
------------ probability of my making her happier than
------------------------ to be at home, I should not think I behaved
------------ ungratefully or injuriously to you, in marrying
------------ your consent; for it has always been the
doctrine taught me by my own father, & which
I still profess; that Children are, by the Law of
God & Nature, entitled to the Disposal of their
own Persons, when arrived at the Years of Discretion,
although their Parents ought ever to offer them their
best Assistance & Advice. -- Should this declaration
of my sentiments, my dear Madam, give you any
Concern, (which, from Miss Hamilton's behaviour to
me, I think it never ought,) I shall not take
amiss your giving me no more invitations to your
House; & I promise you, (to make you entirely easy,)
that before Miss Hamilton's Return from London,
I shall have found out some Other Retreat. --
I am, with constant regard,
Dear Madam, Your much obliged &
affectionate humble Servant
John Hope
Sunday, 13 December
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from John Hope to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Hope
Place sent: Northampton (certainty: low)
Addressee: Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Place received: Northampton (certainty: low)
Date sent: 12 December 1773
when 12 December 1773 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton's mother, relating to Hope's intentions towards Mary. He notes his affection for Mary, explaining that he imagined Mrs Hamilton could have no objection other than his lack of fortune. He notes that both Mary's and her mother's behaviour has changed towards him, and he wonders why. He believes that Mrs [name censored] had told Mrs Hamilton that she was acting wrongly in trusting Hamilton in his company. The letter continues on Hope's intentions towards Mary, assuring Mrs Hamilton that if she has any concerns, he will understand if he receives no further invitations to her home.
Length: 1 sheet, 368 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 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Katie Grime, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
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: 24 December 2021