HAM/1/20/129
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge
13th. Novr. 1794.
My Dear Sister,
Your Letter of the 2d-
Inst. has arrived safe. But, no Deeds or
Conveyances have yet made out their
journey hither. Pray pull the Lady's
Cap (her Ears if you please) who has, by
her unaccountable daudling, concealed
this Paper for so long a time.
I have nothing to say
to You, but, in obedience to your Com=
=mands, sit down to tell You so. Regular
& orderly in all our proceedings, one
day at Wilton Lodge so much resembles
another, that tho' all the occurrences
are wonderfully interesting to the
Inhabitants, yet a relation of them
would afford no entertainment to
others. AOne great event, however, has
this day happened, Maria having
again taken her Seat at the head
of the Dining Table. She had been
in the Drawing room since Monday,
and threatens taking a Walk out
of Doors tomorrow, or next day. Whether
she will execute her threats, I know
not, but as You Females are tolerably
inclined to have your own Will, per=
=haps she may. After all this, I need
hardly tell you that she is very
well. The little Boy sleeps & sucks
wonderfully, and never squalls but
when they torment him dreʃsing &
undreʃsing. Would I could say, all my
Brats were equally quiet. But, alas, in
spite of the terrificability of my Coun=
=tenance, they will indulge their
own little Paʃsions, & distreʃs my
Nerves, by irritating mine. As
I suppose Louisa never treated You
in this way, Mr. Dickenson & You
may scarcely imagine the thing
to be poʃsible. But, he only poʃseʃses
one part of the complaint in the
Song, a Scolding Jade.[1] The satisfaction
of Six Squalling Brats is now nearly
added to Me, five being quite perfect
in the Art, & the sixth will of course,
if he has any imitative powers,
soon learn to join their Chorus. And
now My Dear Sister, having inked so
much of my Paper, for which you
are to pay Sevenpence, I will endea=
=vour to add one solid declaration
to all the Nonsense I have written,
which you may believe to be sincere,
and that is, that my most affectionate
good wishes ever attend You, Mr. Dicken=
=son and Louisa. Maria desires to
join hers, & so pray take
them. Ever your faithful
& attached Brother
Napier.
P.S. Pray dont forget me to
Miʃs Morrison.
Wilton Lodge 14th- Novr- 1794.
This letter was sealed last
Night, & I have opened it again to tell You that
Your Settlement after Marriage came to Me by the
post this Morning. It should have been returned this
Evening had You condescended to give me any Instruc=
=tions on the subject, but you have not told Me whe=
=ther I am to sign seal deliver & return it to You,
or whether it is to remain for preservation in my
custody. If the latter, it should also be signed &c by
Lord Mansfield -- I observe, only one Witneʃs to
your Signatures. Inform me whether any more
▼
▼
is required when I sign. In this Country we never
use leʃs than two, and sometimes three. I likewise
apprehend, room out to be left above my Signing &c
for Lord Mansfield to do the same. Send me an
answer to all these queries, by return of Post.[2]
Mrs= Dickenson[3]
Birch Hall
Manchester
by Carlisle[4]
[5]
[6]
Ld. Napier[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This mischievous reference is in keeping with Napier's often-expressed sympathy for John Dickenson. The last lines of the catch are: ‘Pure are the bleſsings Love beſtowing, | Peace and Harmony ever flowing, | A ſmoaky houſe, a failing trade, | Six ſqualling brats, and a ſcolding jade.’ See Henry Harington, A Favorite Collection of Songs, Glees, Elegies & Canons,: For One, Two, Three, Four, and Five Voices (Longman and Broderip, 1780).
2. These lines appear at the bottom of the page, below the address.
3. A large manuscript figure '7' is written above the address, denoting postage due.
4. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
5. Faint postmark ‘HAWICK’ in black ink.
6. Seal, in black wax.
7. Moved annotation here from top of page.
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge
13th. November 1794.
My Dear Sister,
Your Letter of the 2d-
Instant has arrived safe. But, no Deeds or
Conveyances have yet made out their
journey hither. Pray pull the Lady's
Cap (her Ears if you please) who has, by
her unaccountable dawdling, concealed
this Paper for so long a time.
I have nothing to say
to You, but, in obedience to your Commands
, sit down to tell You so. Regular
& orderly in all our proceedings, one
day at Wilton Lodge so much resembles
another, that though all the occurrences
are wonderfully interesting to the
Inhabitants, yet a relation of them
would afford no entertainment to
others. One great event, however, has
this day happened, Maria having
again taken her Seat at the head
of the Dining Table. She had been
in the Drawing room since Monday,
and threatens taking a Walk out
of Doors tomorrow, or next day. Whether
she will execute her threats, I know
not, but as You Females are tolerably
inclined to have your own Will, perhaps
she may. After all this, I need
hardly tell you that she is very
well. The little Boy sleeps & sucks
wonderfully, and never squalls but
when they torment him dressing &
undressing. Would I could say, all my
Brats were equally quiet. But, alas, in
spite of the terrificability of my Countenance
, they will indulge their
own little Passions, & distress my
Nerves, by irritating mine. As
I suppose Louisa never treated You
in this way, Mr. Dickenson & You
may scarcely imagine the thing
to be possible. But, he only possesses
one part of the complaint in the
Song, a Scolding Jade. The satisfaction
of Six Squalling Brats is now nearly
added to Me, five being quite perfect
in the Art, & the sixth will of course,
if he has any imitative powers,
soon learn to join their Chorus. And
now My Dear Sister, having inked so
much of my Paper, for which you
are to pay Sevenpence, I will endeavour
to add one solid declaration
to all the Nonsense I have written,
which you may believe to be sincere,
and that is, that my most affectionate
good wishes ever attend You, Mr. Dickenson
and Louisa. Maria desires to
join hers, & so pray take
them. Ever your faithful
& attached Brother
Napier.
P.S. Pray don't forget me to
Miss Morrison.
Wilton Lodge 14th- November 1794.
This letter was sealed last
Night, & I have opened it again to tell You that
Your Settlement after Marriage came to Me by the
post this Morning. It should have been returned this
Evening had You condescended to give me any Instructions
on the subject, but you have not told Me whether
I am to sign seal deliver & return it to You,
or whether it is to remain for preservation in my
custody. If the latter, it should also be signed &c by
Lord Mansfield -- I observe, only one Witness to
your Signatures. Inform me whether any more
▼
▼
is required when I sign. In this Country we never
use less than two, and sometimes three. I likewise
apprehend, room ought to be left above my Signing &c
for Lord Mansfield to do the same. Send me an
answer to all these queries, by return of Post.
Mrs= Dickenson
Birch Hall
Manchester
by Carlisle
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/1/20/129
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Rusholme, near Manchester
Date sent: 14 November 1794
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. The letter is
concerned with Hamilton's marriage settlement, the papers concerning which
have been sent to Napier to sign. Napier also writes of his family and of
the health of his wife after the birth of her son.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 557 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