Single Letter

HAM/1/19/64

Letter from Mainie-Schaw Napier to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      42d
                                                         Shaw Park[1] 28th of July 1774





      T'is alas but too true, my Dear Miʃs
Hamilton
, that we have lost one of the best & worthie[st]
of Parents
-- an irreparable loʃs to us all, but more
particularly so to my two little Sisters, who, poor inno=
=cents
, have lost a mother almost before they know what
a bleʃsing she was to them. --
      Our distreʃs my dear Miʃs Hamilton, is the
greater as it was so unexpected a stroke, it being only
the tenth day of our dear mamma's illneʃs, we did not, ti[l]
that day, apprehend the smallest danger, but far, ve[ry]
far from our thoughts was her death removed; He tha[t]
givith affliction, is both able & willing to support them tha[t]
call on him & put their trust in him .... Papa's health
for some time has not been very good, but thank
God he is better then I expected tho' far from being
what I could wish. We are much obliged to Mrs.
Hamilton
& you for your kind wishes, Ithow happy woul[d]
I have been if I could have contradicted the new paper



but God's will, be done. I hope you will forgive
my not proceeding with this malencholy subject as it
is too much for me to bear. & believe me to be my
                             Dear Miʃs Hamilton your affectionat[e]
                                                         Friend & Cousin
                                                         M-S Napier

P.S. Papa desired me to tell
you he has received your long
letter Adieu

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


Notes


 1. Shaw Park was the home of Lord Cathcart, brother of Mary Napier (née Cathcart).

Normalised Text


     
                                                         Shaw Park 28th of July 1774





      'Tis alas but too true, my Dear Miss
Hamilton, that we have lost one of the best & worthiest
of Parents -- an irreparable loss to us all, but more
particularly to my two little Sisters, who, poor innocents
, have lost a mother almost before they know what
a blessing she was to them. --
      Our distress my dear Miss Hamilton, is the
greater as it was so unexpected a stroke, it being only
the tenth day of our dear mamma's illness, we did not, til
that day, apprehend the smallest danger, but far, very
far from our thoughts was her death removed; He that
giveth affliction, is both able & willing to support them that
call on him & put their trust in him .... Papa's health
for some time has not been very good, but thank
God he is better then I expected though far from being
what I could wish. We are much obliged to Mrs.
Hamilton & you for your kind wishes, how happy would
I have been if I could have contradicted the news paper



but God's will, be done. I hope you will forgive
my not proceeding with this melancholy subject as it
is too much for me to bear. & believe me to be my
                             Dear Miss Hamilton your affectionate
                                                         Friend & Cousin
                                                         Mainie-Schaw Napier

P.S. Papa desired me to tell
you he has received your long
letter Adieu

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



 1. Shaw Park was the home of Lord Cathcart, brother of Mary Napier (née Cathcart).

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Mainie-Schaw Napier to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/64

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mainie-Schaw Hunter (née Napier)

Place sent: Clackmannanshire

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 28 July 1774

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Miss M. S. Napier [Mainie-Schaw Napier (1756-1806)] to her ‘cousin’ Mary Hamilton, informing her of the sudden death of her mother, Lady Mary Anne Napier. She writes that she has ‘lost one of the best & worthiest of Parents’. Her death was unexpected: she had been ill for ten days and her family did not believe that her life was in danger. She thanks Hamilton and her mother for their good wishes and wishes that she could ‘contradict the new[s] paper but God’s will, be done’. Her father asks her to say he has received her long letter.
    Dated at Shaw Park.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 239 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 18 December 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

Document Image (pdf)