Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers

At last our special issue, JECS 48.4, is out, all 200+ pages of it! We're very proud of it. Thanks are due to many colleagues, but especially Nuria Yáñez-Bouza for proof-correcting heroics, and the general editor, Emrys Jones, for brilliant support throughout. #18thC #langsky

When Elizabeth Carter wittily attacks 'La metaphysique', is she commenting on a specific work or on a whole strand of French scholarship in general? Does anyone happen to know? (Editor out of his comfort zone here.) See www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/EX-HOUG... #18thC

Elizabeth Carter's 'turn Chartreuse' suggests the idea of leaving the bustle of Court for the quiet life of a nun (MS Eng 1778 9, www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/EX-HOUG..., transcription not yet published). Are reading and interpretation correct? Is this a one-off? #18thC #langsky

The Mary Hamilton Papers links: blog (www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/refreshment-...), project website (www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk), letter HAM/1/9/116 (www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-...) #18thC #langsky

The Mary Hamilton Papers is much refreshed: full details & blog on our project website. New transcriptions, improved personography, more x-refs, many corrections. A striking example is the letter HAM/1/9/116, whose interpretation, authors, recipients and places have all been revised! #18thC #langsky

The online edition of the Mary Hamilton Papers is finally getting its long-expected major refresh on 5 June: numerous corrections to transcriptions and mark-up, revisions to person identifications and improved tooltips, plus about 100 items newly transcribed. Watch for announcement! #18thC #langsky

Please help us spread awareness of these free resources far & wide. Re-skeet, share with teacher contacts, re-post to other forms of social media - we'd really appreciate it. On behalf of whole @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social, thank you! (/end)

Want to hear from an A-level student who has direct experience of these materials (f/ Uni of York summer school 'taster' session used to pilot them)? "Absolutely wonderful, kept me so engaged throughout the entire session... I was captivated. It made me excited for university-style teaching!"

Calling A-level English teachers! Do you teach Austen, Brontë, or other 18thc stuff? Could you use a set of free research-informed teaching materials, which support students' historical, literary, & linguistic understanding, & foster debate about misogyny, consent, & healthy relationships? (1/?)

(in reply to Genny G) Indeed: at least 3 errors, at least one of which no human would make. (In fact this letter was transcribed for us by a student as long ago as 2012.) That's why we won't post AI transcriptions without first correcting them, quite apart from our need to add TEI mark-up.

119 new transcriptions in the Mary Hamilton Papers, many AI-generated, all corrected and marked up by two human editors. David and Nuria are now checking the much-delayed refresh. See 'Converting Conversations' from the MHP, Pete Morris's blogpost(aiiamanchester.com/2025/10/09/c...). #18thC #langsky

Closing up this v interdisciplinary special issue is Yoko Iyeiri, with an analysis of how Hamilton's enormous archive shows linguistic change, specifically in relation to the development of the adverb. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Now Anne-Christine Gardner w/ 'Self-Corrections as Indexes of Social Relationships: Observations From Mary Hamilton's Correspondence With Frances Burney (1783–1789)'. Anne & I take complementary approaches to the same material: IMHO it's a fun conversation! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Then, we have @voloshkova.bsky.social with 'Mary Hamilton, Manuscript Poetry, and the Bluestocking Network: Promoting Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter', investigating Hamilton as promoter of poetry. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Next, it's Mascha Hansen with 'The Literary Court: Reading Queen Charlotte'. This article investigates the literary cultures revolving around Queen Charlotte, in some of which Mary Hamilton took part. It's our last gold OPEN ACCESS contribution! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

(Sadly 'A generous Rival' is not published in gold OA format, BUT after an embargo period a pre-print will be available on my institutional respository. And if you want to read it before then but don't have access to JECS, just message me - we can sort something out.)

Then, er, it's me again! In 'A ‘generous Rival’? Mary Hamilton and Frances Burney', I use archival & digital approaches to solve the mystery of why Hamilton loved Burney but Burney loathed Hamilton. The answer is one to which many novelists may relate. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

In '‘I was so ill, and so low…’: Women, Mental Health, & Strategies of Care in The Mary Hamilton Papers', @annafranjam.bsky.social explores how space, sociability & letter-writing were understood as strategies of self care by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Another OPEN ACCESS baby!

Next up is 'Franks & Friendship: Eighteenth-Century Postal Practices in The Mary Hamilton Papers' by Christine Wallis, who uses evidence from TMHP to explore how postage and franking aided correspondents' politeness and identity work. It is also OPEN ACCESS! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

(Sadly 'The Tip of the Iceberg' is not published in gold OA format, BUT after an embargo period a pre-print will be available on my institutional respository. And if you want to read it before then but don't have access to JECS, just message me - we can sort something out.)

Next is 'The Tip of the Iceberg: Reading Practices in Mary Hamilton's Archive, 1783–1784', by @crulph.bsky.social & I. A data-driven dive into what, how, where, when & with whom Mary Hamilton read, & reflection on DH methodologies applied to ms life writing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

ALSO OPEN ACCESS is our 1st article, 'Reconstructing Mary Hamilton's Social Networks', by David Denison & Tino Oudesluijs, who present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks from ms letters-connecting not just correspondents but mentionees too onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Also OPEN ACCESS is the Introduction, co-authored by @nuriyabo.bsky.social, David Denison, and myself. Here we situate @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social in context of other 18thc digital initiatives, & highlight key findings of the contributions to the vol. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The OPEN ACCESS Foreword, by Hannah Barker & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, is a great place to start. It introduces Hamilton, her archive, & previous relevant scholarship. It also acknowledges the crucial contributions of many other folk, esp @thejohnrylands.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Queen Charlotte! William Hamilton! Francis Napier! George III! Charlotte Gunning! Richard Glover! Mary Delany! Frances Boscawen! William Weller Pepys! The Duchess of Portland! The whole gang and more. If you're interested in any of these figures, there'll be something for you in the collection.

Observe, if you will, the cover illustration(repro'd at closer scale below). A network diagram featuring many (though far from all) of Mary Hamilton's close contacts. Elizabeth Carter! Frances Burney! Hannah More! Elizabeth Montagu! Joshua Reynolds! Eva Maria Garrick! Horace Walpole! George IV!

Right then. Buckle up, knuckleheads, as they say. This is a special issue of JECS that I co-edited with my esteemed colleagues David Denison (Manchester) and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza (Vigo). It is a "major research output", as they say, from our AHRC-funded research project @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social

Mystery female: 'Mme Busche' is mentioned 8 times 1781-86 in the Mary Hamilton Papers. Possibly connected with Court, she apparently leaves England in 1781. We have a provisional identification (see new Personography entry below). Can anyone help with (dis)confirmation or further info? #18thC

I read 'Swordy' (in diary revision). Mary Hamilton encounters him twice in the street in 1784. Could it be a nickname for the royal fencing-master, one of the Angelo family, perhaps? See HAM/2/7 p.9 (www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-00002-00007/9), HAM/2/11 p.10. #18thC #langsky

Two imminent developments from the Mary Hamilton Papers team: a special issue in JECS, and a major refresh of the edition (transcriptions, mark-up, personography), both probably live online in November. Watch this space! #18thC #langsky

Can anyone clarify this diary entry by Mary Hamilton in a period of sweltering late May weather? Even if her barometer had a thermometer built in, 52°F (11°C) is cool, whereas Mrs Delany reports that day that ‘the Weather is so _hot_ that I can not send my usual messenger to you’. #18thC #langsky

Is there a name for an 18C parlour game in which a participant is given 4 or 5 words and challenged to include them all in an impromptu pair of rhyming couplets? #18thC #langsky

Hamilton reports a horrific lightning strike close to some of the royal children, which (we learn elsewhere) killed a coachman and a footman. So that chestnut of absurd phrasebooks (tracked in Wikipedia) actually happened, if not on a coach journey: 'My postillion has been struck by lightning'!

Mary Hamilton and her networks: Gender, sociability, manuscript. Important (we would think so, wouldn't we?) special issue of JECS, now in copy-editing. Intro + 4 research papers by the team (see www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/further-read...) + 5 outside contributions. #18thC #langsky

_Notable_ adj. once had meanings to do with household management. Mary Hamilton often applies it to her (needle)work, slightly antedating OED, while Lady Dartrey mentions 'a good notable woman', i.e. competent in household matters. News to me, but not (I bet) to some of you. #18thC #langsky

More for the OED: bas bleu, indigo (in humorous reference to Bluestocking views), dissertation 'debate', haut ton. Chaperon and dirty (as verbs), moonshine (adjective), a bundle of nerves, jargonic, lucet, parliamenteering, spa toilet, strongle, tarot. #Linguistics #18thC #c18th

Among 100+ newer/older/unknown words for the OED in the Hamilton Papers are jerry 'hen-pecked husband', jerryism, Benedict 'newly married', hub. Derogatory frump, quiz 'eccentric person'. Playful astoundation, terrificability. Specialised casaquin, clavicello, quipu. #Linguistics #18thC #c18th

We've been revising www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/personography/ . Thanks to Angela Byrne for correcting our info on 'Mrs Morgan' in HAM/2/1. Further corrections to person identification or details would be most welcome; there's still time to incorporate them in this year's refresh.

Christine, Nuria, Sophie and David have all given Hamilton-related talks (www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/conference-s...) in the last few months, and revision of the edition continues in the background. September will bring some major developments.

Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers has won a York Open Research Award for 2025! (and uoy.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/... gives 3 good reasons why 😀)