Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/19/58

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

Diplomatic Text


      36th-                                                   36th
                                                         play acting[1]
                             Edinburgh Decr. 17th- 1773
I am extremely concerned to find that I have
lost Miʃs Hamiltons confidence & more so to find
that she has done any thing she ʃeems to be asham'd
off tho I suʃpect she may be trying me but let
that be as it may I shall be extremely impati
ent till I am made acquainted with this
most terrible affair, a thing Miʃs Hamilton
cannot write me I am afraid is very, very,
bad indeed especially when she know how
very partial a Judge she would have of me
which notwithstanding I should most certainly
tell her very ʃincerely my opinion. A
bad, or a foolish thing, I cannot suspect her
off an imprudent thing the most ʃenʃible
people are ʃome times led into but they
are always triffles or things of little consequence
which may vex them for a day or two, but
this affair by the way you treat it must
be of more consequence I own I am
afraid of a Love affair as I have always


been of opinion that the more ʃecure people
are in their own minds abt these matters
they are the eaʃier taken in -- in short I
must give up conjecturing & anʃwering yrs-
till I am better informed of the affair
& shall see by the quickneʃs of an Anʃwer
whither or no I am for the future to
subscribe myself yr most affct Guardian
                                                         Napier

Lady Napier joins me in best wishes to Mrs-
Hamilton who I am afraid is not made
acquainted with terrible affair, However
I must tell you I think you acted like yr-
self in not ingaging to act Plays its not
an employment for Young Lady's of Honor
& Character let it be never so fashionabl[e]
& whatever is ʃaid abt, it let me aʃsure yo[u]
it is looked upon by the ʃenʃible part


of Gentlemen to be a qualification very
unfit for the Miʃstriʃs of a family --
      I am afraid my time of the News Papers onis
about this time out or near it -- [2]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. This pencil annotation is very faint and has possibly been erased.
 2. The rest of the page has been cut away.

Normalised Text


               
                                                        
                             Edinburgh December 17th- 1773
I am extremely concerned to find that I have
lost Miss Hamiltons confidence & more so to find
that she has done any thing she seems to be ashamed
of though I suspect she may be trying me but let
that be as it may I shall be extremely impatient
 till I am made acquainted with this
most terrible affair, a thing Miss Hamilton
cannot write me I am afraid is very, very,
bad indeed especially when she know how
very partial a Judge she would have of me
which notwithstanding I should most certainly
tell her very sincerely my opinion. A
bad, or a foolish thing, I cannot suspect her
of an imprudent thing the most sensible
people are some times led into but they
are always trifles or things of little consequence
which may vex them for a day or two, but
this affair by the way you treat it must
be of more consequence I own I am
afraid of a Love affair as I have always


been of opinion that the more secure people
are in their own minds about these matters
they are the easier taken in -- in short I
must give up conjecturing & answering yours
till I am better informed of the affair
& shall see by the quickness of an Answer
whether or no I am for the future to
subscribe myself your most affectionate Guardian
                                                         Napier

Lady Napier joins me in best wishes to Mrs-
Hamilton who I am afraid is not made
acquainted with terrible affair, However
I must tell you I think you acted like your
self in not engaging to act Plays it's not
an employment for Young Lady's of Honour
& Character let it be never so fashionable
& whatever is said about it let me assure you
it is looked upon by the sensible part


of Gentlemen to be a qualification very
unfit for the Mistress of a family --
      I am afraid my time of the News Papers is
about this time out or near it --

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. This pencil annotation is very faint and has possibly been erased.
 2. The rest of the page has been cut away.

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/1/19/58

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 17 December 1773

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. In reply to a letter that Hamilton had sent him, he expresses his concern that she ‘has done any thing she seems to be asham'd of’, and notes that ‘a thing Miss Hamilton cannot write me I am afraid is very, very bad indeed’. He is afraid that it is to do with a ‘love affair’. He requires more information before he is able to advise her. Lady Napier sends her best wishes to Hamilton’s mother ‘who I am afraid is not made acquainted with terrible affair’. It is not clear as to whether or not Napier is teasing Hamilton or if he has real concerns.
    Napier continues in the letter to acknowledge that Hamilton acted correctly by refusing to act in a play as he views such actions as improper for a young woman of honour.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 344 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 16 September 2020)

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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