HAM/1/20/67
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Tewin Water 3rd. October
1782.
I received my Dear Sister's Note
two days ago. I should have answered
it by return of Post, had I not been
prevented by being obliged to attend
to Col. Deakin (Groom of the B.Chamber to the
D. of Cumberland) an Old Friend of my
Grandmothers who has been with
us some days. Having contrived to
make them play Cards together, I
have made use of the leisure
moment to make an Apology for
my having answerd your last
rather pettishly.
Every Man has a
sore side. You have accidentally
more than once touched the tender
part. I have suspected that some
questions you have asked me, were
in consequence of hints dropped by
our Cousins. You have once or twice
asked me at Breakfast why I did not
employ myself more actively in my
Military Line? As you are perfectly
acquainted with the state of my
Finances, & likewise with the at=
=tempts I have made to push myself forward
in my Profeʃsion, I felt hurt that
you should suppose I had not done
every thing proper, to prevail upon
the Commander in Chief to remove
me from a Line of Duty by no means
agreable to my Disposition. Our Cousins
have frequently asked the same
Questions. I have been distreʃsed by
them, as I have considered them as
oblique hints that I might have a
want of Spirit. Upon this subject, I
have the consolation of knowing, that
I ever performed my Duty in the
Field to the satisfaction of my Superior
Officers and to the approbation of my
own Breast. Upon some occasions I
have been thanked for my Services.
Forgive me My Dear Sister, I feel I am again
getting into a scrape, instead of out
of one.
I beleive I shall not move
from ------ this Country till the latter end
of this or the beginning of next Month.
The Colonel of the 35th. wrote to me de=
=siring to know what part of Dorsetshire
I should wish to remove to. Not having
a choice, I left it entirely to him to
fix my Quarters & mentioned my
desire to remain here 'till next
Month. As I have received no answer,
he will probably let me stay where
I am & resolve on my future desti=
=nation at his leisure. I hope You
will make use of the Franks you
now have for me as fast as You
can. It is a pity they should be wasted.
When do your family remove to Town?
Adieu. Beleive me ever whether in
or out of a Pet[1] Your sincere friend
and Affectionate Brother
N——
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘Offence at being or feeling slighted; a fit of peevishness or ill humour from this cause’ (OED s.v. pet n. 3. Accessed 23-09-2021).
Normalised Text
Tewin Water 3rd. October
1782.
I received my Dear Sister's Note
two days ago. I should have answered
it by return of Post, had I not been
prevented by being obliged to attend
to Colonel Deakin (Groom of the Bed Chamber to the
Duke of Cumberland) an Old Friend of my
Grandmothers who has been with
us some days. Having contrived to
make them play Cards together, I
have made use of the leisure
moment to make an Apology for
my having answered your last
rather pettishly.
Every Man has a
sore side. You have accidentally
more than once touched the tender
part. I have suspected that some
questions you have asked me, were
in consequence of hints dropped by
our Cousins. You have once or twice
asked me at Breakfast why I did not
employ myself more actively in my
Military Line? As you are perfectly
acquainted with the state of my
Finances, & likewise with the attempts
I have made to push myself forward
in my Profession, I felt hurt that
you should suppose I had not done
every thing proper, to prevail upon
the Commander in Chief to remove
me from a Line of Duty by no means
agreeable to my Disposition. Our Cousins
have frequently asked the same
Questions. I have been distressed by
them, as I have considered them as
oblique hints that I might have a
want of Spirit. Upon this subject, I
have the consolation of knowing, that
I ever performed my Duty in the
Field to the satisfaction of my Superior
Officers and to the approbation of my
own Breast. Upon some occasions I
have been thanked for my Services.
Forgive me My Dear Sister, I feel I am again
getting into a scrape, instead of out
of one.
I believe I shall not move
from this Country till the latter end
of this or the beginning of next Month.
The Colonel of the 35th. wrote to me desiring
to know what part of Dorsetshire
I should wish to remove to. Not having
a choice, I left it entirely to him to
fix my Quarters & mentioned my
desire to remain here till next
Month. As I have received no answer,
he will probably let me stay where
I am & resolve on my future destination
at his leisure. I hope You
will make use of the Franks you
now have for me as fast as You
can. It is a pity they should be wasted.
When do your family remove to Town?
Adieu. Believe me ever whether in
or out of a Pet Your sincere friend
and Affectionate Brother
Napier
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/1/20/67
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Welwyn
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 3 October 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He has been
prevented from writing sooner as he has been attending an old friend of his
grandmother's, Colonel Deakin, groom to the Bedchamber of the Duke of
Cumberland. He has been with him some days and he has now contrived to make
the Colonel and his grandmother play cards together and now has the leisure
to write. Napier was hurt by Hamilton asking him why he did not apply
himself more to his military career. He writes that she knows the state of
his finances and of his attempts to gain promotion. He has done all that is
‘proper to prevail upon the Commander in Chief to remove me from a Line of
duty by no means agreeable to [...] [his] disposition’. He has nevertheless
performed his duty to the satisfaction of his superior officers. Napier
continues on the subject of quarters and on his removal to new quarters next
month.
Dated at Tewin Water [Hertfordshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 439 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