HAM/1/20/127
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge
24th. Octr- 1794.
My Dear Sister,
Having escaped from
my Troops, I arrived here the 5th. Inst-
and as a reward for doing so, Maria
presented me with a Son, this morn=
=ing. She had a remarkable easy, and
expeditious labour, which has hitherto
been unusual with her.
At a venture, I direct this
to Birch Hall. Was there not a promise
given that I should hear from cer=
=tain Wanderers on their return there.
Had I written yesterday, I should have
scolded, but I feel so happy at Maria's
situation, that I am in good humour
in spite of myself.
Our Uncle Sir Thos. Claver=
=ing died last week. About six Years
ago, he executed a deed bequeathing to
Maria & I, £1500. This he gave me to read.
In July last, he made a new Will, and
to compleat the history of my Legacy's,
left us out in his remembrances. Pray,
if you have any affection for Me,
never think of putting down my
name in your Will. All my good for=
=tune came to Me in the shape of a
Wife, & so I have nothing further
to expect. Adieu. God bleʃs you. Give
my Love to Mr. Dickenson, as many
kiʃses as You please to my Pet Louisa,
and pray dont forget my civilities
to Miʃs Morrison. Ever My Dear Sister,
Your faithful friend and
Affect. Brother
Napier.
Lord Napier
24 Octber 1794
Birth of Charles[1]
Mrs= Dickenson[2]
BirchBenningbrough Hall
Manchesterxx xx xx
York
By
Carlisle
[3]
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge
24th. October 1794.
My Dear Sister,
Having escaped from
my Troops, I arrived here the 5th. Instant
and as a reward for doing so, Maria
presented me with a Son, this morning
. She had a remarkable easy, and
expeditious labour, which has hitherto
been unusual with her.
At a venture, I direct this
to Birch Hall. Was there not a promise
given that I should hear from certain
Wanderers on their return there.
Had I written yesterday, I should have
scolded, but I feel so happy at Maria's
situation, that I am in good humour
in spite of myself.
Our Uncle Sir Thomas Clavering
died last week. About six Years
ago, he executed a deed bequeathing to
Maria & I, £1500. This he gave me to read.
In July last, he made a new Will, and
to complete the history of my Legacy's,
left us out in his remembrances. Pray,
if you have any affection for Me,
never think of putting down my
name in your Will. All my good fortune
came to Me in the shape of a
Wife, & so I have nothing further
to expect. Adieu. God bless you. Give
my Love to Mr. Dickenson, as many
kisses as You please to my Pet Louisa,
and pray don't forget my civilities
to Miss Morrison. Ever My Dear Sister,
Your faithful friend and
Affection Brother
Napier.
Mrs= Dickenson
Hall
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/1/20/127
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: York
Date sent: 24 October 1794
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He has
escaped from his troops back to Wilton Lodge and his wife has rewarded him
with a new son [Charles Napier]. He notes that an uncle of his wife has
recently died and although six years previously he had bequeathed £1500
to Maria, he has since changed his will and has left her nothing. Napier
writes that he has his fortune in the shape of a wife and thus should have
no further expectations.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 233 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 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: 17 October 2022