Single Letter

HAM/1/20/15

Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
                                                         Edinr- 25th: March 1779



                             A Caution to Miʃses.

Young Lady's having Franks laying by
them, ought to enquire whether the
Member who directed them has a Seat
in this Parliament or not, to save
their Correspondents the Expence of
double Postage. Jas- Dundas has never had
a Seat in the present Parliament.[2]

My Dear Madam,
      From your long silence
I was so thoroughly convinced of your nonexistence
that I had ordered all my old Blacks[3] to be
well brushed up. A Letter by last Nights Post
soon convinced me of my Error. I must
[begi]n[4] by begging you may write no
more joint Letters as Miʃs N. is upon the
point of changing her Name, & I go to
Hopetoun House this day with the heads
of the Contract of Marriage. The Gentleman
is a Dr- Hunter, a Clergyman & the person I
mentioned to you as talked of for her when
I last saw you. His fortune is easy tho'
not affluent, & as my Sister has contracted
her acquaintance to so narrow a sphere as
that of the Godly, I think he is by far the



best match she can expect. He is a worthy,
religious, good man, rather enthusiastic a little
in his Ideas, but that suits with her temper.
I have before regretted to you the Line of Life
Mainie pursued and I own I did not expect
she would have made so proper a choice.
Tho' he is not exactly the man I could have
wished to have had for my Brother in law, yet I am
satisfied that She could not have done better. You
may beleive we are all in a tolerable
bustle upon this occasion.
      I am glad the Picture
pleased. I think I was rather lucky in
leaving London so soon after the beginning
of my acquaintance with Sir Wm- W. The good
man seems to have a tolerable opinion
of me at present, God knows how long
it might have lasted. Poor Mr [Stanhope]
Well, I really pity you for the loʃs you
must have sustained by his Absence. That
Wit, that Spirit, that inexpreʃsible humour
of his, was irresistable. I am ready to
undergo any punishment you think
sufficient to expiate & atone for my Offence.
C. Cathcart is in good health. I'm glad you
like him, he was always a favourite of mine,
Her Grace of Atholl is at present at
Caroline Park. Affable, pleasing, dignified



yet condescending, in short a perfect re=
formation
. His Grace expected daily. You
are the first who have mentioned the
Stormont's
to me since my arrival in
this Country. Adieu. God bleʃs you and let
me hear from you soon. I am this instant
obliged to go to Caroline Park (Sir A. Oughtons)
with the Contract &c
                                                         Yours sincerely & Affecly-
                                                         N——
I hope Miʃs K. C.
will be happy
in her matrimonial
schemes -- You don't
tell me who it is to.

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


Notes


 1. The image of p.2 in MDC differs from that in the University of Manchester LUNA catalogue and on the project website, where the two columns are broken into separate pages.
 2. A privilege held by sitting members of parliament, free postage was frequently abused through the practice of MPs providing covers for friends and family. There are several references to this practice throughout Hamilton's correspondence, and the rules were periodically tightened by the authorities in a bid to stamp out the abuse. James Dundas had not been an MP since 1774 and was therefore not entitled to the privilege; correspondence contravening the rules was subject to a double postage charge.
 3. ‘Black clothing, esp. that worn as a sign of mourning. Also in plural (now Scottish) and occasionally with the sense “black or dress trousers”,’ or perhaps ‘Hangings of black cloth used in churches, etc., at funerals; funereal drapery’ (OED s.v. black n. 2a, 2b. Accessed 10-09-2021).
 4. The page has been cut here, possibly to censor a personal name on the reverse.

Normalised Text


                                                         Edinburgh 25th: March 1779



                            

Young Lady's having Franks laying by
them, ought to enquire whether the
Member who directed them has a Seat
in this Parliament or not, to save
their Correspondents the Expense of
double Postage. James Dundas has never had
a Seat in the present Parliament.

My Dear Madam,
      From your long silence
I was so thoroughly convinced of your nonexistence
that I had ordered all my old Blacks to be
well brushed up. A Letter by last Nights Post
soon convinced me of my Error. I must
begin by begging you may write no
more joint Letters as Miss Napier is upon the
point of changing her Name, & I go to
Hopetoun House this day with the heads
of the Contract of Marriage. The Gentleman
is a Dr- Hunter, a Clergyman & the person I
mentioned to you as talked of for her when
I last saw you. His fortune is easy though
not affluent, & as my Sister has contracted
her acquaintance to so narrow a sphere as
that of the Godly, I think he is by far the



best match she can expect. He is a worthy,
religious, good man, rather enthusiastic a little
in his Ideas, but that suits with her temper.
I have before regretted to you the Line of Life
Mainie pursued and I own I did not expect
she would have made so proper a choice.
Though he is not exactly the man I could have
wished to have had for my Brother in law, yet I am
satisfied that She could not have done better. You
may believe we are all in a tolerable
bustle upon this occasion.
      I am glad the Picture
pleased. I think I was rather lucky in
leaving London so soon after the beginning
of my acquaintance with Sir William Wake. The good
man seems to have a tolerable opinion
of me at present, God knows how long
it might have lasted. Poor Mr Stanhope
Well, I really pity you for the loss you
must have sustained by his Absence. That
Wit, that Spirit, that inexpressible humour
of his, was irresistible. I am ready to
undergo any punishment you think
sufficient to expiate & atone for my Offence.
Charles Cathcart is in good health. I'm glad you
like him, he was always a favourite of mine,
Her Grace of Atholl is at present at
Caroline Park. Affable, pleasing, dignified



yet condescending, in short a perfect reformation
. His Grace expected daily. You
are the first who have mentioned the
Stormont's to me since my arrival in
this Country. Adieu. God bless you and let
me hear from you soon. I am this instant
obliged to go to Caroline Park (Sir Adolphus Oughtons)
with the Contract &c
                                                         Yours sincerely & Affectionately
                                                         Napier
I hope Miss Katerina Clarke
will be happy
in her matrimonial
schemes -- You don't
tell me who it is to.

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



 1. The image of p.2 in MDC differs from that in the University of Manchester LUNA catalogue and on the project website, where the two columns are broken into separate pages.
 2. A privilege held by sitting members of parliament, free postage was frequently abused through the practice of MPs providing covers for friends and family. There are several references to this practice throughout Hamilton's correspondence, and the rules were periodically tightened by the authorities in a bid to stamp out the abuse. James Dundas had not been an MP since 1774 and was therefore not entitled to the privilege; correspondence contravening the rules was subject to a double postage charge.
 3. ‘Black clothing, esp. that worn as a sign of mourning. Also in plural (now Scottish) and occasionally with the sense “black or dress trousers”,’ or perhaps ‘Hangings of black cloth used in churches, etc., at funerals; funereal drapery’ (OED s.v. black n. 2a, 2b. Accessed 10-09-2021).
 4. The page has been cut here, possibly to censor a personal name on the reverse.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/15

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 25 March 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He writes of his sister's [Mainie-Schaw Napier] engagement to Dr [Andrew] Hunter, a clergyman who possesses some fortune although he is not affluent. He thinks that Hunter is the best match that his sister can expect and that he suits her ‘temper’. Hunter is not precisely what he himself wanted in a brother-in-law, but he realises that he will be good for his sister.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 485 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 9 September 2021)

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: 3 December 2021

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