Single Letter

HAM/1/20/65

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

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Tewin Water, 5th. Septr- 1782.




      My Dear Sister is in the right.
It will ever be gratefull for me to know
that She is well & that she forgets me
not. Long may your good health continue:
and undisturbed may our Friendship be. Your
situation must have been truly distreʃsing
during the young Prince's illneʃs. The news
papers found it convenient to kill Prince
William
-- I am glad, without foundation.
They have now broke the Scull of a certain
Heir Apparent. If it is cracked, I hope a
gleam of Common Sense will force its
way thro' the crevice, and show him the
impropriety of being connected with his
present Companions. I would not have him
haughty, but there is a dignity he ought
to support, which would reflect more lustre
upon his Character and would make him
more respected even by his riotous aʃsociates.
Every man owes something to himself. If he
forgets to respect himself, it cannot be sup=
=posed
that he will be respected.
      Since I wrote to You
last I have been in London toMy busineʃs



was to offer my Services at Gibraltar. General
Conway
advised me to give up the idea. His
reasons were, that I could not have a command
in the Garrison, consequently would be an idle
Spectator or a Spunger at the Governor's table.
And secondly that if Ld. Howe's fleet ever ar=
=rived
there, the Seige must of course be
raised. This he said was his opinion, but
if I insisted upon going, he would not oppose
me. I told him my intention was, to be
entirely guided by hims Advice. He then added
that he would advise me to return to my
Recruiting Quarters and endeavour to raise
Men for the Service which would be of
more real use than any I could poʃsibly be
of at Gibraltar from my personal exert[ions]
I mentioned to You before that he had never
answered the letter I wrote to him, applying
for Promotion. Upon my leaving him he
told me he had not answered my Letter be=
=cause
it had not been yet in his power
to do so effectually. I do not however build
upon this Speech. The Dowager is well
and lively. I hope to be so soon, as I have
at last got once more on Horseback. The
want of that exercise was attended with
an oppreʃsion on my Chest. The only chest



that now suffers is my money Chest. I grow
thin, which rather pleases me. Adieu. Beleive
me ever your very sincere friend and
affectionate Brother
                             N——

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Normalised Text


                                                         Tewin Water, 5th. September 1782.




      My Dear Sister is in the right.
It will ever be grateful for me to know
that She is well & that she forgets me
not. Long may your good health continue:
and undisturbed may our Friendship be. Your
situation must have been truly distressing
during the young Prince's illness. The news
papers found it convenient to kill Prince
William -- I am glad, without foundation.
They have now broken the Skull of a certain
Heir Apparent. If it is cracked, I hope a
gleam of Common Sense will force its
way through the crevice, and show him the
impropriety of being connected with his
present Companions. I would not have him
haughty, but there is a dignity he ought
to support, which would reflect more lustre
upon his Character and would make him
more respected even by his riotous associates.
Every man owes something to himself. If he
forgets to respect himself, it cannot be supposed
that he will be respected.
      Since I wrote to You
last I have been in London My business



was to offer my Services at Gibraltar. General
Conway advised me to give up the idea. His
reasons were, that I could not have a command
in the Garrison, consequently would be an idle
Spectator or a Sponger at the Governor's table.
And secondly that if Lord Howe's fleet ever arrived
there, the Siege must of course be
raised. This he said was his opinion, but
if I insisted upon going, he would not oppose
me. I told him my intention was, to be
entirely guided by his Advice. He then added
that he would advise me to return to my
Recruiting Quarters and endeavour to raise
Men for the Service which would be of
more real use than any I could possibly be
of at Gibraltar from personal exertions
I mentioned to You before that he had never
answered the letter I wrote to him, applying
for Promotion. Upon my leaving him he
told me he had not answered my Letter because
it had not been yet in his power
to do so effectually. I do not however build
upon this Speech. The Dowager is well
and lively. I hope to be so soon, as I have
at last got once more on Horseback. The
want of that exercise was attended with
an oppression on my Chest. The only chest



that now suffers is my money Chest. I grow
thin, which rather pleases me. Adieu. Believe
me ever your very sincere friend and
affectionate Brother
                             Napier

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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/1/20/65

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Welwyn

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 5 September 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to the Prince Regent and to Napier's service in the army. Napier writes of Hamilton's distress during the Prince's illness [Prince Alfred] and notes of newspaper reports on the princes. Napier writes that the newspapers ‘have now broke the scull [sic] of a certain heir apparent. If it is cracked, I hope a gleam of Common Sense will force its way thr[ough] the crevice and show him the impropriety of being connected with his present companions’. Napier writes that the Prince should not be ‘haughty’ but he should possess the dignity which would ‘reflect more lustre upon his Character’. If a man does not respect himself then he cannot be respected.
    Napier has offered his service at Gibraltar but was advised against it by General Conway as he would not have a command in the garrison and hence he would be ‘an idle spectator’. Conway would not oppose him if he still wished to go but he advised that he continue with his recruiting. Napier had previously written to Conway over the possibility of promotion and had received no reply. Conway told him that the reason was that he did not have the power at that time to aid him.
    Dated at Tewin Water [Hertfordshire].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 426 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 23 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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