HAM/1/20/95
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
My Dear Sister,
As you are now no longer
a Miʃs about St. James's, but have risen
into the far more respectable situation
of a Country Housewife, I presume you
are now employed superintending & aʃsisting
Lady Wake's housekeeper in the fabrication
of Mince Pyes, & of course expect that my
letter should begin by Wishing you the
Compliments of the Season.[1] To be serious, I
hope Lady Wake is resigned to her situation.
Her loʃs is (I beleive) irreparable), but Sir Wm-s
bad health must have long given her
reason to fear what you write me word
has happened.[2] She is a Young Woman, her
family, I suppose not large, as I never
heard you talk of any child but the
present Sir William. Mr. Glover's death
I was ignorant of, till I received your
letter. Whatever Airs I may have given
myself relative to his writings, be aʃsured
I ever respected him, from knowing his
disinterested Attachment to You. I myself
have lately experienced Alarms, which thank
God are now all over. My vexatious Legacy
had obliged me to go to Dublin. I left my
little Mary in the small Pox from
which she has been for some time perfectly
well. On my leaving Cork, a spotted Fever
was very prevalent there. I had not been
many days in Dublin when I received a
Letter from Maria telling me that she
was confined to her bed with a Scarlet Fever.
You may beleive I immediately returned home,
where I found her out of danger from that
disorder but in a few days she was seized
with a complaint in her bowells attended
with very alarming circumstances, which
for two days made me apprehend the most
fatal consequences -- But that Providence,
who gave me my Maria was equally benefi=
=cent in preserving her to Me. I trust I
shall ever remain thankfull for the Gift.
I hope your swindling bu=
=sineʃs no longer exists. I cannot conceive
how they came to single You out, for playing
their Pranks on. You had neighbours in that
Square at St. James's much more likely to
have got into such a Scrape! As soon as I
received your Letter, I wrote to Mrs- Hunter.
I fear she may not have been able to shew
that attention to Mr. Wm. Dickenson that I am
confident she would have wished to do. She
has unfortunately inherited the Gout from
my Father, & has lately had a violent attack
of it in her Stomack. This is the second time
of its visiting her. At any time of Life that
disorder must be alarming & in her situation
her family have every thing to fear. My
Letter absolutely puts me in mind of the Bills
of Mortality. I could burn it, only that I write
to Yo[u] just as I feel --
The newspaper accounts
were not perfectly exact, relative to
The Dutcheʃs of Rutland & Maria. It is
true that She went out an airing
& dined with her Grace in private
two or three times, but she had not suffici=
=ently recovered the birth of her Daughter to
be able to exhibit herself in public. The
Dutcheʃs had no companion with her, conse=
=quently was reduced to the neceʃsity of
feeling herself obliged to Maria for being
with her at all. She is a silly Woman,
not comfortable in her matrimonial connection
▼
▼
and of course more an object of Pity, than Envy. I be=
leive her to be naturally good humoured, but fond of
universal Admiration. The Duke attached to his
Bottle makes her Grace a secondary object of his
esteem. Such a System will not do. Maria
unites with me in every kind and affectionate
wish to Yourself and Mr. Dickenson, & we hope[3]
some time or other to aʃsure you personally
that we esteem you both. The lives of Soldiers are
uncertain. We (like true philosophers) make the
best of whatever situation my Duty throws Us
into. I remain ever, My Dear Sister, Your faithfull
friend & affectionate Brother, Napier.[4]
[5]
[6]
Mrs. Dickenson
Courteen Hall
Northampton
by London[7] [8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Compliments and Season are written larger than their surroundings.
2. Lady Wake's husband, Sir William Wake, died on 29 October 1785.
3. This section, which continues on from p.2, is written below the address panel.
4. Moved this section here from the top of the page.
5.
6.
7. The address is crossed by a cancelled manuscript fgures ‘4/2’, denoting revisions of the postage due.
8. Moved address here from the middle of the page, written vertically.
9.
10.
11.
Normalised Text
Cork, 8 January 1786.
My Dear Sister,
As you are now no longer
a Miss about St. James's, but have risen
into the far more respectable situation
of a Country Housewife, I presume you
are now employed superintending & assisting
Lady Wake's housekeeper in the fabrication
of Mince Pies, & of course expect that my
letter should begin by Wishing you the
Compliments of the Season. To be serious, I
hope Lady Wake is resigned to her situation.
Her loss is (I believe) irreparable, but Sir Williams
bad health must have long given her
reason to fear what you write me word
has happened. She is a Young Woman, her
family, I suppose not large, as I never
heard you talk of any child but the
present Sir William. Mr. Glover's death
I was ignorant of, till I received your
letter. Whatever Airs I may have given
myself relative to his writings, be assured
I ever respected him, from knowing his
disinterested Attachment to You. I myself
have lately experienced Alarms, which thank
God are now all over. My vexatious Legacy
had obliged me to go to Dublin. I left my
little Mary in the small Pox from
which she has been for some time perfectly
well. On my leaving Cork, a spotted Fever
was very prevalent there. I had not been
many days in Dublin when I received a
Letter from Maria telling me that she
was confined to her bed with a Scarlet Fever.
You may believe I immediately returned home,
where I found her out of danger from that
disorder but in a few days she was seized
with a complaint in her bowels attended
with very alarming circumstances, which
for two days made me apprehend the most
fatal consequences -- But that Providence,
who gave me my Maria was equally beneficent
in preserving her to Me. I trust I
shall ever remain thankful for the Gift.
I hope your swindling business
no longer exists. I cannot conceive
how they came to single You out, for playing
their Pranks on. You had neighbours in that
Square at St. James's much more likely to
have got into such a Scrape! As soon as I
received your Letter, I wrote to Mrs- Hunter.
I fear she may not have been able to show
that attention to Mr. William Dickenson that I am
confident she would have wished to do. She
has unfortunately inherited the Gout from
my Father, & has lately had a violent attack
of it in her Stomach. This is the second time
of its visiting her. At any time of Life that
disorder must be alarming & in her situation
her family have every thing to fear. My
Letter absolutely puts me in mind of the Bills
of Mortality. I could burn it, only that I write
to You just as I feel --
The newspaper accounts
were not perfectly exact, relative to
The Duchess of Rutland & Maria. It is
true that She went out an airing
& dined with her Grace in private
two or three times, but she had not sufficiently
recovered the birth of her Daughter to
be able to exhibit herself in public. The
Duchess had no companion with her, consequently
was reduced to the necessity of
feeling herself obliged to Maria for being
with her at all. She is a silly Woman,
not comfortable in her matrimonial connection
▼
▼
and of course more an object of Pity, than Envy. I believe
her to be naturally good humoured, but fond of
universal Admiration. The Duke attached to his
Bottle makes her Grace a secondary object of his
esteem. Such a System will not do. Maria
unites with me in every kind and affectionate
wish to Yourself and Mr. Dickenson, & we hope
some time or other to assure you personally
that we esteem you both. The lives of Soldiers are
uncertain. We (like true philosophers) make the
best of whatever situation my Duty throws Us
into. I remain ever, My Dear Sister, Your faithful
friend & affectionate Brother, Napier.
Mrs. Dickenson
Courteen Hall
Northampton
by 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/1/20/95
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Cork
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 8 January 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, containing
news of family and friends including the Duchess of Rutland. Now that
Hamilton has married, Napier writes to her not as a ‘Miss about St James's’
but as the ‘far more respectable’ country housewife. Napier writes that he
had not heard of Mr Glover's death until Hamilton's letter and notes that
‘whatever airs I may have given myself relative to his writings, be assured
I respected him from knowing his disinterested attachment to you’. Napier
writes of illnesses in his own family. His daughter Mary has smallpox and
whilst he was in Ireland on business relating to his ‘vexatious legacy’ he
received a letter from his wife informing him that she had scarlet fever. He
returned home immediately and found her out of danger from the fever but
dangerously ill from a bowel complaint.
He writes of an inaccurate newspaper account concerning his wife and the
Duchess of Rutland. It is true that Maria dined with the Duchess privately
on a number of occasions but she had not sufficiently recovered from the
birth of her daughter to ‘be able to exhibit herself in public. The Duchess
had no companion with her, consequently was reduced to the necessity of
feeling herself obliged to Maria for being with her at all’. He describes
the Duchess as a ‘silly woman, not comfortable in her matrimonial connection
and of course more an object of pity, than Envy’.
Dated at Cork [Ireland].
Length: 1 sheet, 682 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 30 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