HAM/1/20/88
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Edinburgh 30th. May
1784
My Dear Sister,
Tho' you obstinately per=
=sisted in refusing to write first to me
when I was a Bachelor, yet I flattered
myself the respect due to my exalted
Station as a Benedict[1] would have in=
=duced You to throw away a few of your
leisure Minutes in writing to me.
Having been disappointed in this hope
& Providence having pleased to decree
that this should be a rainy Morning
I have taken up my Pen to aʃsure
You that You have frequently been
the subject of my thoughts and Con=
=versation since we parted. My Maria
loves & esteems You and regrets much
the distance which prevents her
cultivating an acquaintance and
friendship with You. You have
the sincere good wishes of both of Us --
Our journey we made
out easily, & as the Weather proved
favourable, pleasantly. I had the
satisfaction to find that all my friends
approved of My choice and I can safely
say tho' I have been married Seven
Weeks, I have never once experienced
an unpleasant Moment. Maria's temper
is calm and equal, accommodating to
all my whims which I can aʃsure You
are not few. She appears contented with
everything and studies to do everything
all in her power to make me happy
So much for myself & Wife.
Mrs. Hunter expects
to be confined every hour. At present
her circumference more resembles
St. Paul's Church than any other object
I can recollect. Harriot is the happies[t]
creature in the World and paʃses mos[t]
of her time with Us. Maria has
taken a particular Attachment to
her, which gives me the greatest
pleasure, for entre Nous I wish to take
her out of Mrs- Hunter's hands and to fix
her with Us. I shall not however mention
this Scheme to any of the Parties 'till
I am obliged to go to Ireland. The style
of Company She sees with the Hunter's
is not exactly what I approve of, and
not such as I should wish her to chuse
a Helpmate from. Adieu my Dear
Sister. Write to me soon & long. Tell
me everything about Yourself and
believe me ever Your very sincere
and a[ffecti]onate friend & brother[2]
[3]
[Miʃs Ham]ilton[4]
[Clarge]s Street
London
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘A newly married man; esp. an apparently confirmed bachelor who marries’ (OED s.v. Benedict n. B.1. Accessed 22-10-2022).
2. The rest of the sheet has been cut away.
3. Partial Bishop mark in red ink, dated 31 May.
4. Partial and illegible manuscript marks in red and brown ink, probably denoting postage due.
5. Remains of a seal in red wax.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 30th. May
1784
My Dear Sister,
Though you obstinately persisted
in refusing to write first to me
when I was a Bachelor, yet I flattered
myself the respect due to my exalted
Station as a Benedict would have induced
You to throw away a few of your
leisure Minutes in writing to me.
Having been disappointed in this hope
& Providence having pleased to decree
that this should be a rainy Morning
I have taken up my Pen to assure
You that You have frequently been
the subject of my thoughts and Conversation
since we parted. My Maria
loves & esteems You and regrets much
the distance which prevents her
cultivating an acquaintance and
friendship with You. You have
the sincere good wishes of both of Us --
Our journey we made
out easily, & as the Weather proved
favourable, pleasantly. I had the
satisfaction to find that all my friends
approved of My choice and I can safely
say though I have been married Seven
Weeks, I have never once experienced
an unpleasant Moment. Maria's temper
is calm and equal, accommodating to
all my whims which I can assure You
are not few. She appears contented with
everything and studies to do
all in her power to make me happy
So much for myself & Wife.
Mrs. Hunter expects
to be confined every hour. At present
her circumference more resembles
St. Paul's Church than any other object
I can recollect. Harriot is the happiest
creature in the World and passes most
of her time with Us. Maria has
taken a particular Attachment to
her, which gives me the greatest
pleasure, for entre Nous I wish to take
her out of Mrs- Hunter's hands and to fix
her with Us. I shall not however mention
this Scheme to any of the Parties till
I am obliged to go to Ireland. The style
of Company She sees with the Hunter's
is not exactly what I approve of, and
not such as I should wish her to choose
a Helpmate from. Adieu my Dear
Sister. Write to me soon & long. Tell
me everything about Yourself and
believe me ever Your very sincere
and affectionate friend & brother
Miss Hamilton
Clarges Street
London
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/1/20/88
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 30 May 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, concerning his marriage. He writes that although Hamilton had refused to write first to him when he was a bachelor, he thought that the respect due to his 'exalted station' would have encouraged her to write to him. He notes that his wife 'loves and esteems' her and 'regrets much the distance which prevents her cultivating an acquaintance and friendship with you'. He reports that his choice of a wife is approved of by his friends and that he has now been married for seven weeks and he has as yet not experienced 'an unpleasant Moment'. He writes on his wife's personality and on his sisters.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 371 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 21 October 2022)
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: 2 December 2022