iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

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

MS Eng 1778 12, transcription in prep., not yet published in The Mary Hamilton Papers

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

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

MS Eng 1778 9 p.2 from The Mary Hamilton Papers

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

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

Harriet Bandinel's humorous report of Anna Maria Clarke's behaviour in HAM/1/9/116

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

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

Example of tooltip for 'Miss Boyle' in HAM/1/15/1/20

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

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)

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

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!"

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

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/?)

Screenshot of a website with text that reads as follows, and an image of a manuscript letter:

Teaching and learning materials
We have produced a set of resources for A-level English teachers. They focus on an extraordinary sequence of letters written between Mary Hamilton - then a governess to the daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte - and the young Prince of Wales, the future George IV.

Using the supporting resources, these letters can be studied as a powerful narrative with modern-day #MeToo echoes, as contextualising support for Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte;'s novels, or as examples of eighteenth-century English.

To access the free resources, please register below (you will only be asked to provide your name, school and email address). You will then be directed to a download page.

Handwritten note from Mary Hamilton Papers
Access teaching and learning materials
To access the free teaching and learning resources for 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' please register here.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

(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.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

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

Sample page with AI-generated transcription

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article explores adverbs in The Mary Hamilton Papers, examining the factors which may influence correspondents' decisions as to whether or not to use the -ly suffix (e.g. exceedingly/exceeding). While the use of -ly forms is generally well established in the dataset, tendencies differ depending on the specific adverb. This study investigates some factors determining the choice of forms — e.g. the nature of the word that the adverb modifies — arguing that linguistic factors are more influential than extra-linguistic factors in the data examined. Mary Hamilton's own writings exhibit a slightly delayed adoption of -ly compared to the overall trend in the entire dataset, suggesting possible linguistic conservatism that warrants further research.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article explores how social relationships are developed and conveyed through correspondence, with a particular focus on self-corrections in the surviving letters from Mary Hamilton (1756–1816) to Frances Burney (1752–1840). The findings show that the more closely connected the writer feels with the recipient, the more self-corrections are deemed socially acceptable. Engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue with Coulombeau's (this issue) assessment of Hamilton and Burney's complex and evolving relationship, this essay underlines the importance of self-corrections for the study of handwritten documents as well as social relationships and networks in the past.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article considers Mary Hamilton's agency and influence in promoting poetry within and beyond Bluestocking circles during the 1780s. Drawing on evidence from Hamilton's diaries, correspondence, and manuscript books, it reconstructs Hamilton's relationships with Hannah More, Ann Yearsley, and Anne Hunter, demonstrating how these poets benefited in terms of prestige from their well-connected friend's proactive stance. Hamilton's varied activities enhanced the visibility of female poets in society, helped to establish a positive perception of their works, and made a significant contribution to the cumulative influence of the Bluestockings on late eighteenth-century literary culture.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article investigates the literary culture revolving around Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) between 1761 and 1818. The Queen's library, sold after her death in 1818, contained more than 4500 volumes, and the sales catalogue (1819) offers a fascinating glimpse into her collecting habits and reading interests. This article uses the catalogue, as well as manuscript letters recently digitized by the Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers project and The Georgian Papers Programme, to show how she connected with other readers both in and out of Court via a shared love of reading.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

(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.)

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article combines close reading of manuscript correspondence with digital analysis of reading practices to trace literary and sociable interactions between the Bluestocking writers Frances Burney and Mary Hamilton between 1782 and 1796. I argue that Burney's well-established dislike of Hamilton was motivated by the (accurate) perception that Hamilton was a shallow and disingenuous reader of her novels, more interested in capitalizing on Burney's celebrity than appreciating her work. Hamilton and Burney's differing characters as readers and writers sat uneasily together, compromising their friendship's potential — a conclusion that can only be reached by combining traditional archival research with digital scholarship.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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!

Abstract
This article examines how space, sociability, and letter-writing are conceptualised as self-care strategies by female correspondents in the Hamilton archive. Building on a recent proliferation of interest in histories of mental health and emotions, it explores familiar correspondence written to Mary Hamilton between 1776 and 1809 by Louisa Murray (Lady Stormont), Jane Hamilton Holman, and Lady Mary Webb, which addresses low spirits, nervousness, melancholy, depression, and agitation of mind. It finds that three distinct yet interrelated strategies of care — change of scene, intimate sociability, and therapeutic epistolary practice — gave these correspondents important ways to manage and maintain mental health.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

(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.)

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Abstract
This article evaluates the benefits and drawbacks of using quantitative digital analysis to reconstruct eighteenth-century reading practices using manuscript life writing. Our corpus is over a thousand pages of Mary Hamilton's letters and diary entries covering one year of her life. We report significant findings concerning the space, time, nature, and mode of Hamilton's reading, and the media, genre, authorship, and provenance of her material. Her reading diet is more dominated by female-authored manuscript prose, inflected by personal acquaintance, and reliant on a private loan economy than we anticipated — conclusions that we would not have reached using qualitative analysis alone.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

Mary Hamilton's relationships and networking practices are central to this special issue. In this article, we present an innovative method for reconstructing social networks around Hamilton during five key periods of her life, connecting not just correspondents but also persons frequently mentioned in The Mary Hamilton Papers. We explain our methodology and present visualizations of the networks. By tabulating Hamilton's strongest relationships in each phase of her life, we can trace a selection of relationships over time. We reflect on the benefits and limitations of our approach, inviting expert judgement on its results and its potential for wider use.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

This article offers an overview of the research project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2023) — the impetus for this special issue — and positions it within the field of eighteenth-century studies. After outlining the project's genesis, we describe one of its core outputs, the digital edition of Mary Hamilton's archive, providing key technical information which is referenced in the articles that follow. We then summarize the contents of the special issue, reflect on answers to the project's original research questions that the authors provide, and highlight key synergies and themes.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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/...

This foreword provides core biographical information about Mary Hamilton and tells the story of the archive she left behind. It presents a brief overview of the scholarship addressing Mary Hamilton before the research project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2023), and shows how the resulting digital edition has stimulated a new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary wave of research that is able to exploit the archive holistically. The academic contributions to the project are contextualized by acknowledging the immensely important labour of curators, archivists, photographers, and digital specialists, among others.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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.

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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!

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Sophie Coulombeau @sophiecoulombeau.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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

Cover of JECS special issue 48.4 (December 2025), with ToC and network diagram. DOI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17540208/2025/48/4

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

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

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

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

Letter in DDX 274/7 p.163. Provisional entry at https://www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/personography/#MmeBu

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

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

From HAM/2/11 p.10 (https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-00002-00011/10). Zooming image © John Rylands Research Institute and Library, all rights reserved.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

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

Abbreviated Table of Contents for special issue of JECS

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

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

HAM/2/10 p.75 (https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-00002-00010/75)

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Thank you, Natasha Simonova! Not sure they can count as bouts-rimés if the targets aren't rhyme words, which many are not: see pp.116-120 in this ms book (www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/EX-LANC...). And does Mary Hamilton call them 'conglomerations' (p.121), I wonder?

DDX 274/7 p.119, in The Mary Hamilton Papers. This manuscript book is held at Lancashire Archives, Preston.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

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

Main them of Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1921605

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

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'!

Text of HAM/1/15/2/31 p.16, reporting a lightning strike in Eastbourne.

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

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

Reconstruction of Mary Hamilton's social network Dec 1782 – July 1785. See https://www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/networks/

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

_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

British Pillow, late 17th–early 18th century, silk on linen, Metropolitan Museum of Art, wikidata:Q160236
https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-00002-00013/39

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

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

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Breaking Up of the Blue Stocking Club. Etching, hand-colored (London: Thomas Tegg, 1815. NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle)

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

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

Quipu in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

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.

maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk

Personography - Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

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.

maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk

Conference/Seminar Talks - Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

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Unlocking The Mary Hamilton Papers @maryhamiltonpapers.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

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 😀)

uoy.atlassian.net

York Open Research Awards 2025 - Open Research at York - York Wiki Service

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