HAM/1/20/39
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
I have often heard
that patience tho' a Virtue is never
found in a female -- Your letter
of the 7th- inst: is a strong proof of
the justice of this observation --
You accuse me of not chusing to answer
your letter of the 18th- of last Month, but
I have a much better right to abuse
you for not writing to me before
the 18th- of Septr as I wrote you of my
intention of leaving Quarters on the
20th- of Septr, & as I fulfilled that in=
=tention you have not the smallest
title to blame me. If you ask pardon
in a very submiʃsive manner & if
I happen to be in a very gracious mood when
I receive your apology perhaps I may
forgive you.
It is now time to tell
you that I received this Letter of the
18th. after my arrival here, & that I
not only answered it but likewise
wrote to Mr- Farhill in obedience
to your commands.
Tomorrow I go to
Holyroodhouse to vote for our
sixteen representatives, & am sorry
to tell you that there will be
no opposition. The Earls of Breadalbane
& Bute retire. The D. of Atholl & the
E. of Glencairn ------ succeed them, so that
I shall have no opportunity of dis=
=tinguishing myself as a Patriot.
After the Election the right honorables
dine together, & in the Evening those
who don't amuse themselves with
the Battle will make their appear=
=ance at an Aʃsembly. I go to the
Aʃsembly & take my Miʃs Harriot
with me. My adorable will not be
there, as she is aʃsisting her Cousin
Lady Margaret Carnegy to prepare for
her Nuptials which are to take place
next Thursday. Mr- Watson the intended
Husband of L. M. C. is a Cousin German
of my Fathers.
I congratulate you upon
Cornwallis's succeʃs.[1] A few such spirited
and soldierlike exertions would soon
give a turn to the American affairs.
The Parliament will probably meet
the K—— in good humour, a circumstance
which could not have been expected
had not this fortunate peice of
news arrived in such good time. Adieu
for the present. I shall attempt
to get a frank for you tomorrow &
give you an account of anything
extraordinary which may happen
at the Election.
18th: October 1780
The election yesterday was conducted
with leʃs confusion than I expected.
The D. of A. appeared perfectly insen=
=sible of the honor conferred upon him,
however he gave me some franks
this morning, which was more than
I expected -- Lord & Lady Cathcart
are expected here this day. They
arrived at Cork some little time ago
& wrote to Charles Brown that
they would be here instantly. Adieu.
Beleive me ever
Your very
Affect- Brother
N——
I had almost forgot to tell you
that I Danced all last Night
with Lady Eliz. Cunningham, Ld-
Glencairn's Sister. This peice of
intelligence you may think of
no importance, but it is an astonish=
=ing proof of my good humour, as there
is nothing I detest so much --
Walshingham
Walingham
Walsingham[2]
Lord N. 16th. Octbr. 1780[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Probably his victory at Camden, South Carolina on 16 August 1780.
2. This annotation is written upside down. Three different spellings are apparently tried out, with unclear markings around the l of the second attempt, which might suggest an emendation. It is unclear whether a place-name or a person's name or title is in question.
3. This annotation is written upside down.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 16th. October
1780
I have often heard
that patience though a Virtue is never
found in a female -- Your letter
of the 7th- instant is a strong proof of
the justice of this observation --
You accuse me of not choosing to answer
your letter of the 18th- of last Month, but
I have a much better right to abuse
you for not writing to me before
the 18th- of September as I wrote you of my
intention of leaving Quarters on the
20th- of September, & as I fulfilled that intention
you have not the smallest
title to blame me. If you ask pardon
in a very submissive manner & if
I happen to be in a very gracious mood when
I receive your apology perhaps I may
forgive you.
It is now time to tell
you that I received this Letter of the
18th. after my arrival here, & that I
not only answered it but likewise
wrote to Mr- Farhill in obedience
to your commands.
Tomorrow I go to
Holyroodhouse to vote for our
sixteen representatives, & am sorry
to tell you that there will be
no opposition. The Earls of Breadalbane
& Bute retire. The Duke of Atholl & the
Earl of Glencairn succeed them, so that
I shall have no opportunity of distinguishing
myself as a Patriot.
After the Election the right honourables
dine together, & in the Evening those
who don't amuse themselves with
the Battle will make their appearance
at an Assembly. I go to the
Assembly & take my Miss Harriot
with me. My adorable will not be
there, as she is assisting her Cousin
Lady Margaret Carnegy to prepare for
her Nuptials which are to take place
next Thursday. Mr- Watson the intended
Husband of Lady Margaret Carnegie is a Cousin German
of my Fathers.
I congratulate you upon
Cornwallis's success. A few such spirited
and soldierlike exertions would soon
give a turn to the American affairs.
The Parliament will probably meet
the King in good humour, a circumstance
which could not have been expected
had not this fortunate piece of
news arrived in such good time. Adieu
for the present. I shall attempt
to get a frank for you tomorrow &
give you an account of anything
extraordinary which may happen
at the Election.
18th: October 1780
The election yesterday was conducted
with less confusion than I expected.
The Duke of Atholl appeared perfectly insensible
of the honour conferred upon him,
however he gave me some franks
this morning, which was more than
I expected -- Lord & Lady Cathcart
are expected here this day. They
arrived at Cork some little time ago
& wrote to Charles Brown that
they would be here instantly. Adieu.
Believe me ever
Your very
Affectionate Brother
Napier
I had almost forgotten to tell you
that I Danced all last Night
with Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, Lord
Glencairn's Sister. This piece of
intelligence you may think of
no importance, but it is an astonishing
proof of my good humour, as there
is nothing I detest so much --
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
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/1/20/39
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 16 October 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
the election, General Charles Cornwallis and general news of family and
friends. Napier begins the letter by writing that he has often heard the
expression that patience is a virtue but it is never found in a woman and
Hamilton's last letter to him is proof of this. Hamilton has accused him of
not answering a letter and Napier accuses her of the same and objects to her
asking him to beg her pardon. He writes that if he 'happens to be in a
gracious mood when' he receives her apology then he may decide to forgive
her.
Napier is to go to Holyrood house to vote 'for our sixteen representatives'
and he is sorry to inform her that there is to be no opposition and hence he
will not have the opportunity of showing himself to be a patriot. Napier
writes that after the election 'the right honourables dine together, &
in the evening those who don't amuse themselves with the Battle will make
their appearance at an assembly'. Napier is to attend the assembly but his
'adorable' will not be there as she will be assisting her cousin prepare for
her wedding.
Napier also writes of the success of General Charles Cornwallis in America
[possibly refers to his capture of Charles Town in America. First Marquess of
Cornwallis, Governor-General of India (1738-1805)] and notes if there were a
few more soldiers such as him then there 'would soon give a turn to American
affairs'. He continues that now 'parliament will probably meet the K[ing] in
good humour, a circumstance which could not have been expected had this fortunate piece of news
not arrived in such good time'.
Napier ends the letter by informing Hamilton that he danced the previous
evening with Lord Glencairn's sister. Hamilton may not find this news
important but Napier writes that it is 'astonishing proof of [...] [his]
good humour, as there is nothing [...] [he] detests so much'.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 510 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 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