HAM/1/20/101
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
No. 61 Prince's Street Edinr.
5th. June 1787
Ld Napier
My Dear Sister,
Tho' I have not the
pleasure of knowing old Mr. D, yet I
cannot help feeling for the accident he
has met with, as I can easily gueʃs the
distreʃs & anxiety it must have occasioned
you to experience. I trust, however, that
the effect of the fall, will not be so bad,
as you seemed at first to fear.
The date of my Letter
may surprise You; the more so, when I
tell you that Edinburgh has been our
place of residence since last March.
Your letter from Buxton of course went
to Ireland & did not find Me out 'till
very lately. My only motive for leaving
Ireland in March, was to endeavour to be
of effectual Use to Cathcart, at the Peers
Election. From some of my Correspondents
amongst the Peers, I very plainly saw, the
Contest would run hard against him, but
I still had hopes of his being succeʃsfull.
The event disappointed Me, & I had the
mortification of seeing One of the most
disliked Men in the Peerage sent to
Parliament. It may poʃsibly be of some
use to Cathcart, as a Check to that absurd
Manner, he has within these few Years
thought becoming. The consequential
indifference with which he has treated
some of his Brethren, lost him Votes.
Two particular friends of mine aʃsured
Me, that had Cathcart behaved in general
to them with decency, they would have
preferred him to any of the Candidates; but
as his Attention & Civility was only visible
when he was canvaʃsing, they never would
support him --
I am glad your little Louisa
agrees with Spoon meat & I shall be allmost
inclined to follow the same plan, should
Providence please to add to my family.
My poor Mary suffered violently from
the effects of the Itch which her Nurse
gave her & which the Child had for
three Months before it was suspected.
The Nurse was at the same time with
Child, which She carefully concealed,
'till her increase of size caught my
attention. Had not Mary naturally
poʃseʃsed a good constitution, the bad
Milk joined to the Itch would have
been sufficient to have destroyed her.
We have likewise been obliged to wean
my Boy before he was Seven Months old.
People who have no Children are constantly
wishing for them, & those who are bleʃsed
with the little things, are kept for many
years in a continued state of anxiety.
We have bought a House here
& consequently propose making this our
Head Quarters in future. My Regt- is gone
to Halifax & Newfoundland, where I hope
I shall not visit them for at least
a couple of Years. I bought the house
at the expreʃs desire of Maria; You
may beleive her wish was not disagreable
to Me. T[he] House which is an excellent o[ne]
with C[oac]h House, Stables for
four [Hor]ses, Laundry & Wash
House, [c]osts Us £1100. We have
been very busy furnishing it &c which being
now accomplished, on friday we set out
for Sir T. Claverings where we mean
to remain for two or three Months. This
is a little in the Visitation style, but
as he seems to wish it & I think Country
Air will be good for my family, I shall
e'en make a convenience of his invitation.
My sister Harriet now forms part of
my Establishment & is to accompany Us
to Axwell. She makes a pleasant Addition
to out family, & I flatter myself her
▼
▼
▼
▼
situation in it will be full as agreable as
where she has been for some time past. On
my arrival, I enquired for your Cousin Mr.
Dickenson, who I found was obliged to leave
Town the day after we came here, on account
of the illneʃs of his father. He has not yet
returned.
Maria begs her wishes for the
health & happyneʃs of You & Yours
may be added to those of my Dear Sister's
Affect. Friend & Brother
Napier[1]
P.S. I hope Mr D.
is convinced of his
Jerryism[2]
Direct to me, Axwell Park, Gateshead.[3]
[4]
Mrs. Dickenson[5]
Taxall
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire[6]
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved section (3 lines) here from the top of the page.
2. This postscript appears to the left of the closing salutation.
3. Moved two postscripts here from the top of the page.
4. Bishop mark in red ink, split by unfolding, dated 5 June.
5. A large manuscript figure 7 is written across the address in brown ink, denoting postage due.
6. Moved address here from the middle of the page, written vertically.
7. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
No. 61 Prince's Street Edinburgh
5th. June 1787
My Dear Sister,
Though I have not the
pleasure of knowing old Mr. Dickenson, yet I
cannot help feeling for the accident he
has met with, as I can easily guess the
distress & anxiety it must have occasioned
you to experience. I trust, however, that
the effect of the fall, will not be so bad,
as you seemed at first to fear.
The date of my Letter
may surprise You; the more so, when I
tell you that Edinburgh has been our
place of residence since last March.
Your letter from Buxton of course went
to Ireland & did not find Me out 'till
very lately. My only motive for leaving
Ireland in March, was to endeavour to be
of effectual Use to Cathcart, at the Peers
Election. From some of my Correspondents
amongst the Peers, I very plainly saw, the
Contest would run hard against him, but
I still had hopes of his being successful.
The event disappointed Me, & I had the
mortification of seeing One of the most
disliked Men in the Peerage sent to
Parliament. It may possibly be of some
use to Cathcart, as a Check to that absurd
Manner, he has within these few Years
thought becoming. The consequential
indifference with which he has treated
some of his Brethren, lost him Votes.
Two particular friends of mine assured
Me, that had Cathcart behaved in general
to them with decency, they would have
preferred him to any of the Candidates; but
as his Attention & Civility was only visible
when he was canvassing, they never would
support him --
I am glad your little Louisa
agrees with Spoon meat & I shall be almost
inclined to follow the same plan, should
Providence please to add to my family.
My poor Mary suffered violently from
the effects of the Itch which her Nurse
gave her & which the Child had for
three Months before it was suspected.
The Nurse was at the same time with
Child, which She carefully concealed,
'till her increase of size caught my
attention. Had not Mary naturally
possessed a good constitution, the bad
Milk joined to the Itch would have
been sufficient to have destroyed her.
We have likewise been obliged to wean
my Boy before he was Seven Months old.
People who have no Children are constantly
wishing for them, & those who are blessed
with the little things, are kept for many
years in a continued state of anxiety.
We have bought a House here
& consequently propose making this our
Head Quarters in future. My Regiment is gone
to Halifax & Newfoundland, where I hope
I shall not visit them for at least
a couple of Years. I bought the house
at the express desire of Maria; You
may believe her wish was not disagreeable
to Me. The House which is an excellent one
with Coach House, Stables for
four Horses, Laundry & Wash
House, costs Us £1100. We have
been very busy furnishing it &c which being
now accomplished, on friday we set out
for Sir Thomas Claverings where we mean
to remain for two or three Months. This
is a little in the Visitation style, but
as he seems to wish it & I think Country
Air will be good for my family, I shall
even make a convenience of his invitation.
My sister Harriet now forms part of
my Establishment & is to accompany Us
to Axwell. She makes a pleasant Addition
to out family, & I flatter myself her
▼
▼
▼
▼
situation in it will be full as agreeable as
where she has been for some time past. On
my arrival, I enquired for your Cousin Mr.
Dickenson, who I found was obliged to leave
Town the day after we came here, on account
of the illness of his father. He has not yet
returned.
Maria begs her wishes for the
health & happiness of You & Yours
may be added to those of my Dear Sister's
Affectionate Friend & Brother
Napier
P.S. I hope Mr Dickenson
is convinced of his
Jerryism
Direct to me, Axwell Park, Gateshead.
Mrs. Dickenson
Taxall
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire
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/1/20/101
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 5 June 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. The letter is
concerned with the Scottish Peerage election and with family news. Napier
writes on John Dickenson Senior's accident [he suffered a fall] and hopes
the effect of it will not be as bad as it seems. Napier informs Hamilton
that he has now moved to Edinburgh from Ireland. He returned to aid Lord
Cathcart at the election of Peers [representatives from Scotland]. He had
heard from some of his correspondents amongst the Peers that it would be a
difficult contest for Cathcart but he still had hopes for his success.
Instead Napier notes that he had the 'mortification of seeing one of the
most distinguished men in the Peerage sent to Parliament'. Napier suggests
that Cathcart lost some votes over the way he has treated people recently.
Two friends of Napier's assured him 'that had Cathcart behaved in general to
them with decency, they would have preferred him to any of the candidates;
but as his attention & civility was only visible when he was canvassing,
they never would support him'.
The letter also continues with news on both Hamilton's and Napier's
families. Napier's daughter, Mary has been suffering the 'effects of the
Itch which her nurse gave her' and which Mary had for a full three months
before it was discovered. At the same time the nurse was concealing her
pregnancy until her increased size caught Napier's attention. He believes
that if Mary had not such a strong constitution then the bad milk along with
the itch would have killed her.
Napier's regiment has gone to Halifax and Newfound land and he hopes not to
join them there for at least two years. He reports that he has bought a
house in Edinburgh at a cost of £1100 which he is just finishing
furnishing and his sister Harriet now resides with his family.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 697 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 14 January 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: 27 February 2022