HAM/1/20/34
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Tewin Water 17th: May
1780.
If my Dear Sister imagines
my Silence to proceed from a want
of brotherly affection, she mistakes
the cause exceedingly. Your letter
(29th. April) says, “I send some letters, read
them as they are numbered -- I will send
the last next Post.” How far you have
fulfilled your promise, I now leave
to yourself to determine.
You have desired me
to give my Opinion fairly, and fairly
you shall have it, at least as far as
you have pu - t it in my power.
Unaquainted as I am with Mr- D.s Character
I find the task of deciding upon his
Merit or Demerit, the most difficult
undertaking I ever engaged in. You have
thought proper to withhold some of
his Letters from me, particularly that
of August 1779, and the whole of the
correspondence on your part, so that
my inferences must all be drawn
from such hints as his Letters
have furnished me with.
In one of his Letters
he seems to talk of having discovered
your partiality for him some Years
ago. It does not appear that you
have ever denied the truth of this
aʃsertion, and indeed from several other
Paragraphs of his letters, from your
enquiries into his political principles,
and from the state of his Affairs which
he sent you, I am inclined to beleive
that your partiality for him is too
deeply - rooted to be easily eradicated.
Forgive me when I say that your de=
=taining his last letter confirms me
in this opinion and consequently leads
me to imagine that you have already
given him an Answer favourable
to his Wishes. While this idea prevails
with me, it must be highly improper
in me to offend you by disapproving
of what I am convinced is your own
choice. Before I conclude I cannot
help taking notice of the last paragraph
in No- 7. He there tells you that his
father now enjoys £ ------ a year. Supposing the
father gives up half his income, I
cannot help considering £ ------ pr- Ann. as
too scanty an allowance for you to
begin Housekeeping with. This is
the utmost I can prudently say. I
hope I have not offended you. If I
have I must trust to your Generosity
to pardon me.
I ever am
Your Affet- Friend
and Brother
N——
P.S.
Lady Cathcart returns you her
best thanks for the news, and begs
you will send her some more in
your next letter. Her Ladyship tho'
in her 89th. Year was engaged abroad
at a whist Party on Monday last
and did not return home 'till near
Ten at Night. Yesterday she thought
proper to play Cribbage in the
Garden, in the Evening & beat all
the Gentlemen in the house, not
excepting even your humble
Servant. This Postscript is put in
by her expreʃs command.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Tewin Water 17th: May
1780.
If my Dear Sister imagines
my Silence to proceed from a want
of brotherly affection, she mistakes
the cause exceedingly. Your letter
(29th. April) says, “I send some letters, read
them as they are numbered -- I will send
the last next Post.” How far you have
fulfilled your promise, I now leave
to yourself to determine.
You have desired me
to give my Opinion fairly, and fairly
you shall have it, at least as far as
you have put it in my power.
Unacquainted as I am with Mr- Dickensons Character
I find the task of deciding upon his
Merit or Demerit, the most difficult
undertaking I ever engaged in. You have
thought proper to withhold some of
his Letters from me, particularly that
of August 1779, and the whole of the
correspondence on your part, so that
my inferences must all be drawn
from such hints as his Letters
have furnished me with.
In one of his Letters
he seems to talk of having discovered
your partiality for him some Years
ago. It does not appear that you
have ever denied the truth of this
assertion, and indeed from several other
Paragraphs of his letters, from your
enquiries into his political principles,
and from the state of his Affairs which
he sent you, I am inclined to believe
that your partiality for him is too
deeply rooted to be easily eradicated.
Forgive me when I say that your detaining
his last letter confirms me
in this opinion and consequently leads
me to imagine that you have already
given him an Answer favourable
to his Wishes. While this idea prevails
with me, it must be highly improper
to offend you by disapproving
of what I am convinced is your own
choice. Before I conclude I cannot
help taking notice of the last paragraph
in No- 7. He there tells you that his
father now enjoys £ a year. Supposing the
father gives up half his income, I
cannot help considering £ per Annum as
too scanty an allowance for you to
begin Housekeeping with. This is
the utmost I can prudently say. I
hope I have not offended you. If I
have I must trust to your Generosity
to pardon me.
I ever am
Your Affectionate Friend
and Brother
Napier
P.S.
Lady Cathcart returns you her
best thanks for the news, and begs
you will send her some more in
your next letter. Her Ladyship though
in her 89th. Year was engaged abroad
at a whist Party on Monday last
and did not return home till near
Ten at Night. Yesterday she thought
proper to play Cribbage in the
Garden, in the Evening & beat all
the Gentlemen in the house, not
excepting even your humble
Servant. This Postscript is put in
by her express command.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/20/34
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Welwyn
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 17 May 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, offering his
advice on John Dickensons' proposal of marriage to Hamilton. Hamilton had
asked Napier to give his opinion 'fairly' on Mr D. and Napier finds such a
task difficult as he is unacquainted with him. He charges Hamilton of
withholding some of Dickenson's letters to her and the whole of Hamilton's
correspondence to him. This means that the inferences that he is to make
'must all be drawn from such hints as his Letters have furnished' him with.
In one of the letters Dickenson suggests that he has been aware of
Hamilton's 'partiality' for him for some time and that it appears that she
has not denied this. Indeed, he notes that from a number of the letters that
answer enquiries that she has made to Dickenson into his 'political
principles and from the state of his affairs [...] I am inclined to believe
that Hamilton's 'partiality [...] is too deeply rooted to be easily
eradicated'. The fact that Hamilton has not forwarded Napier the last letter
that Dickenson had written to her leads him to assume that Hamilton had
already given him a positive answer. If this is the case it would be
improper for him to offend Hamilton by going against her own choice. His
only advice concerns Dickenson's letter no. 7 which provides details of the
income of his father. If John Dickenson's father were to give them half of
such a sum he feels it would not be adequate for her to set up housekeeping
with. He hopes that he has not offended Hamilton by this.
Napier also writes that although Lady Cathcart is 89 years old, she was out
at a Whist Party on Monday and did not return home until almost 10 o'clock.
She played Cribbage yesterday and beat all the gentlemen in the house.
Dated at Tewin Water [Hertfordshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 471 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 14 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