Single Letter

HAM/1/19/48

Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      28th-

Buxton June 18th- 1773

It is My dearest Mary the greatest ʃign
imaginable of my most ʃincere regard
Love & friendship for you that I now
sit down to write you as for four
days past I have actually been so ill
with the Water that I have not been
myself and am at present so low that
absolutely nothing would keep me here
but the hopes of hearing from you be=
fore
I set off for Scotland, in short the
Waters do not agree with me this year
& I am reʃolved immediately upon getting
a letter from you to set off for home
but shall not till I hear from you abt-
Your motions to Kent & abt, both Mrs-
Hamilton
& your health as believe me
I have nothing more at heart than
that both should be as well as I wish
You. Col Litchfield is here but the
Kitten
and her Father are at his house
& he expects to to find them there when



he returns from what I understand, by
which time you'll be gone to Margate
so wont have much of her company
this ʃummer. You dont mention in yours
whither the News papers comes regularly
or not, nor do you mention whither
you have read Byrom's poems or not
which I wrote you[1] I was to send you
& would have done it before had I had
an oppertunity tho I do think them as
bad as any thing I have read to get so
great a Character, in short I dont think
they are worth ʃending unleʃs it be
for the first Pastoral which you'll
find in the 8th Vol. of the Spectator, but
such as they are, are at my dearest
Girl
's service had they been better
she wd have had them of course so
there is no fault of mine as it shall
always be my study to do every thing
in my Power to oblige so very amiable
a Ward
as I have, and wish most sincerely



every Guardian had the ʃame reaʃon to
be contented with his Ward as I have
than indeed it would be a pleaʃure &
not a Pain to be a proper Guardian
but My dearest Girl I flatter my self at
the ʃame time was every Guardian
to take the ʃame method & have the
same regard, Love, & affection, for their
Ward without any self interest, their
Wards would turn out better than
they com̄only do -- what Pleaʃure
would it give me to oblige you with ye
discription of our Babilonians was I
either in spirits or able at preʃent to
do it, in short I have not spirits to
put my hand in my pocket to take
out Yours to anʃwer otherwiʃe I would
say ʃome thing to Mrs- Rogers but as
I am reʃolved only to wait Your anʃwer &
drink no more water this year I hope
both she & Mrs Hamilton will believe me
most Sincerely theirs & I make no doubt



but my dearest dearest Mary will ex
cuse
the shortneʃs of this especially as
I give her my Honor that I know no
body I would so ʃoon write too & who
is likeways upon Honor my only female
correspondant
except Lady Napier and
My Sister that I have, nor do I love
any of them more than I do my Dearest
Ward
Remember me most affctly- to yr-
Mama
& I hope I need not ʃay My Dearest
Girl
how much I ever will & shall be
yours


I have got a dozen of franks from Sir P. Warrender
derected for you, one I now send

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Normalised Text


     

Buxton June 18th- 1773

It is My dearest Mary the greatest sign
imaginable of my most sincere regard
Love & friendship for you that I now
sit down to write you as for four
days past I have actually been so ill
with the Water that I have not been
myself and am at present so low that
absolutely nothing would keep me here
but the hopes of hearing from you before
I set off for Scotland, in short the
Waters do not agree with me this year
& I am resolved immediately upon getting
a letter from you to set off for home
but shall not till I hear from you about
Your motions to Kent & about both Mrs-
Hamilton & your health as believe me
I have nothing more at heart than
that both should be as well as I wish
You. Colonel Litchfield is here but the
Kitten and her Father are at his house
& he expects to find them there when



he returns from what I understand, by
which time you'll be gone to Margate
so won't have much of her company
this summer. You don't mention in yours
whether the News papers comes regularly
or not, nor do you mention whether
you have read Byrom's poems or not
which I wrote you I was to send you
& would have done it before had I had
an opportunity though I do think them as
bad as any thing I have read to get so
great a Character, in short I don't think
they are worth sending unless it be
for the first Pastoral which you'll
find in the 8th Volume of the Spectator, but
such as they are, are at my dearest
Girl's service had they been better
she would have had them of course so
there is no fault of mine as it shall
always be my study to do every thing
in my Power to oblige so very amiable
a Ward as I have, and wish most sincerely



every Guardian had the same reason to
be contented with his Ward as I have
then indeed it would be a pleasure &
not a Pain to be a proper Guardian
but My dearest Girl I flatter my self at
the same time was every Guardian
to take the same method & have the
same regard, Love, & affection, for their
Ward without any self interest, their
Wards would turn out better than
they commonly do -- what Pleasure
would it give me to oblige you with the
description of our Babylonians was I
either in spirits or able at present to
do it, in short I have not spirits to
put my hand in my pocket to take
out Yours to answer otherwise I would
say some thing to Mrs- Rogers but as
I am resolved only to wait Your answer &
drink no more water this year I hope
both she & Mrs Hamilton will believe me
most Sincerely theirs & I make no doubt



but my dearest dearest Mary will excuse
the shortness of this especially as
I give her my Honour that I know no
body I would so soon write to & who
is likeways upon Honour my only female
correspondent except Lady Napier and
My Sister that I have, nor do I love
any of them more than I do my Dearest
Ward Remember me most affectionately to your
Mama & I hope I need not say My Dearest
Girl how much I ever will & shall be
yours


I have got a dozen of franks from Sir P. Warrender
directed for you, one I now send

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Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/48

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Buxton

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 18 June 1773

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He writes from Buxton, where he is currently taking the waters, though he finds that they do not agree with him at present and he is resolved to drink no more water this year. He writes of his love for his ward, but admonishes her for not letting him know if she has read Byrom's Poems, which he had promised to send her (but had not) (see HAM/1/19/46).
    Dated at Buxton [Derbyshire].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 609 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: Liqun Shi, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 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

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