Single Letter

HAM/1/20/25

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

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Edinr- 1st. Novr- 1779





      I have this moment
received your Epistle, & being in
the most intolerable bad humour, owing
to a Sore throat & pain in my Breast,
I cannot resist a secret impulse
I feel, to tell you, that I imputed
your Silence to none of the three
Reasons you are pleased to
mention, & I can aʃsure you that
your Vanity has every reason to be
mortified --
      Distreʃses have been
multiplied upon me, even to the
length of not making me feel
them -- An Uncle, a young man I
doated upon Dead; disappointed in
a Company I had agreed for -- Lady
Northk-
so dreadfully burnt (by her
head dreʃs taking fire) that she has



been confined to her Bed these three
Weeks & unable to see any body --
Lady Hopetoun (my Other Counsellor)
is likewise ill, & invisible. If I contrive
to visit the South this Winter, I am
determined to finish the matter one
Way or other, by applying personally
to Ms- L.. She is of such a temper, that
should I make proposals & not be
accepted of, her mauvaise honte is
so great, that she would not be able
to be in Company with me; this be=
=sides
a thousand other Substantial
reasons, not proper to be trusted
upon paper, determines me to
postpone all further proceedings,
'till I am more certain of my
own Motions.
      If you will be giddy
& sprain your hands, all I can
say is, They are your own, & you may
treat them accordingly.



      I am not perfectly certain
whether I am obliged to your ------can give you credit, for
your introduction tocharacter of His H. R.[1] I agree
with you as to being born a Prince
That exceʃs of diʃsimulation with which
they are surrounded, & that Kingcraft
neceʃsary for them to know & to make
use of, must destroy the seeds of
many Virtues & amiable qualities
which I dare say many of them, are
born with -- I should make a
bad Courtier, being unable to flatter
the actions of a Prince, when
incompatible with the Virtues of a
Man. I hope the young Man you
speak of
, will be surrounded with
honest people; the chance is won=
=derfully
against him. Tho' a good
deal of an Anti-Courtier, I aʃsure you
I am a very loyal Subject, & would
with pleasure furnish the last
shilling of my fortune & last drop
of my blood to promote the welfare



of the most gracious Prince
that ever poʃseʃsed the throne of
this or any other Kingdom. The
P——t of Ireland are ungenerous,
not to say unjust. Their demand of a
free trade, at a time when We dare
not irritate them & when they know
that to be the case, puts me out
of all patience. God grant more
fortunate times, for I'm sure
we never had more need of them --
      I am pleased with
Ld- Stormonts promotion. He is a
Man of busineʃs & I really beleive
capable of filling the office with
Credit & Reputation,[2] Your intelligence
about Mrs- Graham I suspect to
be premature, as her departure
is quite unknown to me.
      I find you still have
------------------compaʃsion for poor J. H. his name
has not been mentioned in my hearing
since I came down. Adieu.
                             Your Affectionate Brother
                                                         N——
P.S.
Whether you are at
Windsor or Kew, you
have not thought proper to communicate[3]

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


Notes


 1. It is unclear whether this is an accidental blend of ‘His R.H.’ and ‘H.R.H.’ or whether Napier is being deliberately contrary.
 2. Lord Stormont was made Secretary of State for the Northern Department on 27 October 1779.
 3. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.

Normalised Text


                                                         Edinburgh 1st. November 1779





      I have this moment
received your Epistle, & being in
the most intolerable bad humour, owing
to a Sore throat & pain in my Breast,
I cannot resist a secret impulse
I feel, to tell you, that I imputed
your Silence to none of the three
Reasons you are pleased to
mention, & I can assure you that
your Vanity has every reason to be
mortified --
      Distresses have been
multiplied upon me, even to the
length of not making me feel
them -- An Uncle, a young man I
doted upon Dead; disappointed in
a Company I had agreed for -- Lady
Northesk so dreadfully burned (by her
head dress taking fire) that she has



been confined to her Bed these three
Weeks & unable to see any body --
Lady Hopetoun (my Other Counsellor)
is likewise ill, & invisible. If I contrive
to visit the South this Winter, I am
determined to finish the matter one
Way or other, by applying personally
to Ms- Leslie. She is of such a temper, that
should I make proposals & not be
accepted of, her mauvaise honte is
so great, that she would not be able
to be in Company with me; this besides
a thousand other Substantial
reasons, not proper to be trusted
upon paper, determines me to
postpone all further proceedings,
till I am more certain of my
own Motions.
      If you will be giddy
& sprain your hands, all I can
say is, They are your own, & you may
treat them accordingly.



      I am not perfectly certain
whether I can give you credit, for
your character of His Highness Royal I agree
with you as to being born a Prince
That excess of dissimulation with which
they are surrounded, & that Kingcraft
necessary for them to know & to make
use of, must destroy the seeds of
many Virtues & amiable qualities
which I dare say many of them, are
born with -- I should make a
bad Courtier, being unable to flatter
the actions of a Prince, when
incompatible with the Virtues of a
Man. I hope the young Man you
speak of, will be surrounded with
honest people; the chance is wonderfully
against him. Though a good
deal of an Anti-Courtier, I assure you
I am a very loyal Subject, & would
with pleasure furnish the last
shilling of my fortune & last drop
of my blood to promote the welfare



of the most gracious Prince
that ever possessed the throne of
this or any other Kingdom. The
Parliament of Ireland are ungenerous,
not to say unjust. Their demand of a
free trade, at a time when We dare
not irritate them & when they know
that to be the case, puts me out
of all patience. God grant more
fortunate times, for I'm sure
we never had more need of them --
      I am pleased with
Lord Stormonts promotion. He is a
Man of business & I really believe
capable of filling the office with
Credit & Reputation, Your intelligence
about Mrs- Graham I suspect to
be premature, as her departure
is quite unknown to me.
      I find you still have
compassion for poor John Hope his name
has not been mentioned in my hearing
since I came down. Adieu.
                             Your Affectionate Brother
                                                         Napier
P.S.
Whether you are at
Windsor or Kew, you
have not thought proper to communicate

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



 1. It is unclear whether this is an accidental blend of ‘His R.H.’ and ‘H.R.H.’ or whether Napier is being deliberately contrary.
 2. Lord Stormont was made Secretary of State for the Northern Department on 27 October 1779.
 3. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.

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/1/20/25

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 1 November 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to his attachment to Miss Leslie and also contains news of family and friends. Leslie's grandmother Lady Northesk, has suffered severe burns from her head-dress catching fire and is unable to see anybody.
    Napier also writes on the Royal family and notes that he would make a bad courtier as he will not ‘flatter the actions of a Prince, when incompatible with the Virtues of a Man’. He hopes that the Prince that Hamilton talks of will be surrounded by honest people though he doubts that this will be the case. Although a bad courtier, he assures Hamilton that he is a loyal subject and would give the last drop of his blood for their welfare.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 563 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 13 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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