‘I was so ill, and so low…’: Women, Mental Health, and Strategies of Care in <i>The Mary Hamilton Papers</i>

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.