Diplomatic Text
Account of the Royal
children
pt 9 Sunday Night
My Dst Friend,
Actions & not words are what I judge
by, & sorry am I to say by adopting that
method, there are few who can stand
the Test you my Dst could I have
ever doubted before would have
convinced me of your Affection & real
Friendly anxiety by the method you
took this Afternoon, it really
overpowered me, & I did not dare
trust myself to ask William many
questions or say so much as I wished
for I felt I was not equal, & I
know he had your orders so strongly
to examine my Countenance, that if
the Tears had fallen that I felt were
coming he would have reported
them, & you would have imagined
I was low, and indeed I am not, but
I daresay you can feel that an
act of tenderneʃs will over power, when
the reverse will rouse, that I felt
strongly, & it ever will be deeply
imprinted in my memory, I thank
God I go on with more courage
& calmneʃs then I dared flatter
myself, & I trust I shall be supported
through the whole, the Dear Angels
are now asleep, their Spirits beyond
what you can imagine, I have
not a moment during the Twelve
hours that they are awake to
do any thing, I have attempted during
but I now give it up. I begged Willm
would tell you how impossible it
was for me to attempt writing.
I heard from the Queen you had
a Cough, pray take care of
yr self, why not spare yr self
an hour after dinner I am sure
Miʃs Planta would willingly
do it, & every body is not so tough
as I am. I am vastly delighted
with yr Journal pray continue
it, for I am interested in all
you do, & think of you perpetualy.
The Dear Children do not forget
you, P Adolphus I manage
most delightfully, & we are
exceedingly fond of each other,
little dear Prʃs Mary is more
Angelic then ever, I really wish I
was not so doatingly fond of her --
the play things that you intend
them pray do not send till they
are recovering, for then those they
have must be condemned & yours
will be quite a joy to them --
God Bleʃs you my Dst be
aʃsured I am not ungrateful
& be convinced that it Ever
has been & Ever will be the
wish of my Heart to make
your life (that part at least
that I can) as happy as
the nature of this World will
allow. Say what I feel to the
Princeʃs & to yourself that I
am Your most Affte
& faithful
MCG --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
past 9 Sunday Night
My Dearest Friend,
Actions & not words are what I judge
by, & sorry am I to say by adopting that
method, there are few who can stand
the Test you my Dearest could I have
ever doubted before would have
convinced me of your Affection & real
Friendly anxiety by the method you
took this Afternoon, it really
overpowered me, & I did not dare
trust myself to ask William many
questions or say so much as I wished
for I felt I was not equal, & I
know he had your orders so strongly
to examine my Countenance, that if
the Tears had fallen that I felt were
coming he would have reported
them, & you would have imagined
I was low, indeed I am not, but
I daresay you can feel that an
act of tenderness will over power, when
the reverse will rouse, that I felt
strongly, & it ever will be deeply
imprinted in my memory, I thank
God I go on with more courage
& calmness than I dared flatter
myself, & I trust I shall be supported
through the whole, the Dear Angels
are now asleep, their Spirits beyond
what you can imagine, I have
not a moment during the Twelve
hours that they are awake to
do any thing, I have attempted during
but I now give it up. I begged William
would tell you how impossible it
was for me to attempt writing.
I heard from the Queen you had
a Cough, pray take care of
your self, why not spare your self
an hour after dinner I am sure
Miss Planta would willingly
do it, & every body is not so tough
as I am. I am vastly delighted
with your Journal pray continue
it, for I am interested in all
you do, & think of you perpetually.
The Dear Children do not forget
you, Prince Adolphus I manage
most delightfully, & we are
exceedingly fond of each other,
little dear Princess Mary is more
Angelic than ever, I really wish I
was not so dotingly fond of her --
the play things that you intend
them pray do not send till they
are recovering, for then those they
have must be condemned & yours
will be quite a joy to them --
God Bless you my Dearest be
assured I am not ungrateful
& be convinced that it Ever
has been & Ever will be the
wish of my Heart to make
your life (that part at least
that I can) as happy as
the nature of this World will
allow. Say what I feel to the
Princess & to yourself that I
am Your most Affectionate
& faithful
Martha Carolina Goldsworthy --
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 Martha Carolina Goldsworthy to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/14/82
Correspondence Details
Sender: Martha Carolina Goldsworthy
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: between 1782 and 1783
notBefore 1782 (precision: low)
notAfter 1783 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Martha Carolina Goldsworthy to Mary Hamilton, providing an account of the royal children. Goldsworthy writes that she has not a moment to herself during the twelve hours that the children are awake. She begged William to tell Hamilton 'how impossible it was for me to attempt writing'. Goldsworthy has heard from the Queen that Hamilton had a cough and asks her to take care of herself. She is sure that Miss [Margaret] Planta would cover her for an hour off after dinner and adds that not everyone is as 'tough as I am'. The children do not forget Hamilton. Princess Mary is more angelic than ever and Goldsworthy wishes she was not as fond of her as she is. She tells Hamilton to put off giving the children the playthings that she intends for them, so that they will not be destroyed with the contents of the sick room.
Original reference No. 94.
Length: 1 sheet, 455 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: Frida Kardell, MA student, Uppsala University (submitted June 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: 2 November 2021