HAM/1/20/77
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Stilton, 11th. March 1783.
My Dear Sister,
I am arrived here safe, but
not quite so rich as when I left London. To
make the matter as short as poʃsible, I was
stopped & robbed last Night about Seven O'Clock
by two Highwaymen who took my Watch, gold
Chain & Seals & my Servants Watch. Fortunately
we had only a few Shillings in our Pockets,
& they did not perceive (owing to the Dusk) my
strong Box at the bottom of the Chaise in
which was £47 in Cash -- They likewise took
a pair of Pistols out of the front pocket which
were unloaded, but had the pistols even been
loaded the attack was too sudden to take them
out of their Cases. My loʃs all together amounts
to very near £55 -- The good Old Lady la=
=mented my Misfortune, but did not administer
any solid Comfort. Your pocket Book was in
their hands but they returned it, taking it I
presume for a Bible. I left Tewin Water
this afternoon & hope to sleep at York tomorrow.
Adieu. Ever your sincere friend & Affectionate
Brother N——
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Stilton, 11th. March 1783.
My Dear Sister,
I am arrived here safe, but
not quite so rich as when I left London. To
make the matter as short as possible, I was
stopped & robbed last Night about Seven O'Clock
by two Highwaymen who took my Watch, gold
Chain & Seals & my Servants Watch. Fortunately
we had only a few Shillings in our Pockets,
& they did not perceive (owing to the Dusk) my
strong Box at the bottom of the Chaise in
which was £47 in Cash -- They likewise took
a pair of Pistols out of the front pocket which
were unloaded, but had the pistols even been
loaded the attack was too sudden to take them
out of their Cases. My loss all together amounts
to very near £55 -- The good Old Lady lamented
my Misfortune, but did not administer
any solid Comfort. Your pocket Book was in
their hands but they returned it, taking it I
presume for a Bible. I left Tewin Water
this afternoon & hope to sleep at York tomorrow.
Adieu. Ever your sincere friend & Affectionate
Brother Napier
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/1/20/77
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Stilton
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 11 March 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to a
highway robbery that Napier suffered. He writes that he has arrived safely
but not as rich as he was when he left London. He was stopped and robbed at
about 7 o'clock the previous night by two highway men who took his watch,
gold chain and seals and his servants watch. Luckily he and his servant only
had a few shillings in their pockets and has it was getting dark they did
not see his strong box, filled with £47 in cash, which was at the
bottom of then Chaise. They also took a pair of unloaded pistols but even
had they been loaded, Napier notes that the attack was so sudden that he
would not have had time to take them out of their case. In all he lost
almost £55. His grandmother ‘lamented’ his ‘misfortune but did not
administer any solid comfort’. He notes that the highwaymen initially took
Hamilton's pocket book but returned it, presumably as they thought it was a
Bible.
Dated at Stilton.
Length: 1 sheet, 186 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