The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Hamilton, Frederick

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Rev. Frederick Hamilton to Mary Hamilton relating to finance, the economic distress of the country and returns from rent. Commenting on the King's recollection of him, he writes that he is not flattered at such 'trivial enquiries' when he has been waiting for so long for 'a more substantial remembrance' in terms of preferment in the Church, and writes that when one has reached the age of fifty it is 'time to be discouraged from the pursuit of favo[u]rs that I had good reason to expect for these twenty years past'. It is some consolation for him that he has acted as a man of honour despite all the broken promises. 'From the number of low & mean Persons in general that fill the bench of Bishops in this Country it wou[l]d seem that our Governors thought the interests of Religion safer in the hands of Schoolmasters and Tutors than in those men of birth & property'. He continues to advise his niece that 'favo[u]r is hardly earned and too frequently thrown away'.</p>