Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge June 27th- 1793.
My Dear Madam,
I had flattered myself before
I opened your Letter of a few Posts ago, that I was to be
made happy within a short time by the pleasure
of a Visit from yourself and those you love best, for,
you must know my Dear Madam that I have been
anxiously looking out for your arrival ever since
the Month of May began; I say I, because I have been
spending a widowed Life from the 24th- of April,
when my Lord left me to take the command of the
South Fencible Regt-, & tho' I regretted his absence
on my own account I did so likewise I sincerely
aʃsure you upon the risk he was running of miʃsing
a sight of you who, I know he both loves & respects:
as far as I am concerned my Dear Madam as one
of the causes of your not coming to us just now, if
you knew me as well as I hope you may do perso=
=nally some Day or other, you would observe that
I am unlike most Women in my present situation,
for I move about, & use the same freedoms with
myself I do when free of my present incumbrance,
but after the accident you have met with, I believe
it is more prudent for once to take care of yourself,
as a repetition of these disasters frequently brings
on delicate Health. I feel most grateful to Providence
for the extreme share of good Spirits & Health I
now enjoy which enable me to amuse myself in
the way I like best, by being out early & late in
the Day at which times the Country appears in
it's highest beauties: in the course of the next Month
I suppose I shall be confined, & before that event
happens, I trust my Lord will be at home to attend
me on that trying occasion, as he has always done.
If it pleases God that I should recover from
my lying in, I shall live in hopes my Dear Madam
to see you & yours at our Farm, for I long to see
your Daughter, & I shall at the same time be
much pleased to introduce my Children to your
acquaintance. I beg to offer my best Compts-
to [Mr-] Dickenson, with every good wishe[s]
a[nd] to yourself, and believe me my De[ar]
Madam, with much truth,
Yr Affecte- Friend
& Obedt- Servt-
M: Napier.[1]
[2]
Mrs- Dickenson[3]
Birch Hall
near
Manchester.
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge June 27th- 1793.
My Dear Madam,
I had flattered myself before
I opened your Letter of a few Posts ago, that I was to be
made happy within a short time by the pleasure
of a Visit from yourself and those you love best, for,
you must know my Dear Madam that I have been
anxiously looking out for your arrival ever since
the Month of May began; I say I, because I have been
spending a widowed Life from the 24th- of April,
when my Lord left me to take the command of the
South Fencible Regiment, & though I regretted his absence
on my own account I did so likewise I sincerely
assure you upon the risk he was running of missing
a sight of you who, I know he both loves & respects:
as far as I am concerned my Dear Madam as one
of the causes of your not coming to us just now, if
you knew me as well as I hope you may do personally
some Day or other, you would observe that
I am unlike most Women in my present situation,
for I move about, & use the same freedoms with
myself I do when free of my present encumbrance,
but after the accident you have met with, I believe
it is more prudent for once to take care of yourself,
as a repetition of these disasters frequently brings
on delicate Health. I feel most grateful to Providence
for the extreme share of good Spirits & Health I
now enjoy which enable me to amuse myself in
the way I like best, by being out early & late in
the Day at which times the Country appears in
it's highest beauties: in the course of the next Month
I suppose I shall be confined, & before that event
happens, I trust my Lord will be at home to attend
me on that trying occasion, as he has always done.
If it pleases God that I should recover from
my lying in, I shall live in hopes my Dear Madam
to see you & yours at our Farm, for I long to see
your Daughter, & I shall at the same time be
much pleased to introduce my Children to your
acquaintance. I beg to offer my best Compliments
to Mr- Dickenson, with every good wishes
and to yourself, and believe me my Dear
Madam, with much truth,
Your Affectionate Friend
& Obedient Servant
Maria Napier.
Mrs- Dickenson
Birch Hall
near
Manchester.
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 Maria Napier to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/121
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Maria Margaret Napier (née Clavering)
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Rusholme, near Manchester
Date sent: 27 June 1793
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Maria Napier, Lady Napier, to Mary Hamilton. She had hoped that
Hamilton and her family would have visited her as since the end of April she
has been living the life of a 'widowed' woman as her 'Lord' had left her to
take command of the South Fencible Regiment. Napier writes that she is
pregnant and that unlike 'most women in my present situation' she is more
active than she should be and since Hamilton's 'accident' she will be more
prudent. [Napier does not detail whether or not she is referring to a
miscarriage Hamilton may have suffered.]
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 420 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 5 November 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