HAM/1/20/130
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge 19th. Janry-
1795.
My Dear Sister,
As you did not chuse to
to answer my Queries about the Settlement
in any decent time, I took it for granted
that it was executed in a manner satis=
=factory to Yourself, & accordingly it was
with all due formality deposited in my
Charter Chest No. 2, where it now reposes
along with my Last Will & Testament,
& other Companions of the same sort.
When I executed my Marriage Settlement
in London the Trustees were made Sign
& Seal, as well as Maria & Myself, and
two Witneʃses were thought neceʃsary,
& that occasioned my puzzle.
Hitherto, we have had a
most delightful Winter, but it now
begins to threaten to shut up our Roads
and my Snow Boots are now airing at
the fire, my Snow Shoes having proved
ineffectual. My good Genius has, however,
proved leʃs asleep than usual, as I ar=
=rived at home from Northumberland,
acroʃs Carter Fell, the day before the
Snow made its appearance. It may
be proper to explain to You, (as though
You are of the Blue Stocking Society
Yet you may not be perfectly acquainted
with all the Geography of this Island)
that Carter Fell is one of the highest
of the Cheviot Mountains, which
have been celebrated in Song. As you
know, I do not particularly amuse
myself with running about visiting
as You do, your intellects may not
serve You to discover what could
have induced me to escape from home
leaving my Wife behind me. But, that
no bad consequence may arise from
your Curiosity not being gratified, I
will for once be Gracious, & inform You.
Last October my Son William was Eight
Years old, & having been, by his Mothers
indulgence, permitted to do as he plea=
=sed during my absence these two
last Summers, the Young Gentle=
=man was in some danger of relaps=
=ing into that Barbarity & ignorance,
from which, it had cost me much
pains & trouble originally to extract him.
Determined, if poʃsible, to prevent this
in future, I have placed him with
a Clergyman at Ovingham, on the Tyne,
who takes only ten Boys, and has the
Reputation of being an Excellent Master,
grounding his Scholars remarkably
well in the Latin Grammar, and
bringing them forward in such a
manner as to qualify them to enter
the higher forms in Great Schools, with
credit to all parties. His terms are
Thirty Pounds prAnn. for Bed, Board, Wash=
=ing & Instruction. They Boys are well fed,
& each has a separate Bed, with
white Dimmity Curtains & white Cotton
Coverlid.[1] I found every thing so perfectly
neat & clean, that I returned home sa=
=tisfied that William would be well
taken care of in every respect, and
more than half in Love with his
Master's Wife who is both handsome,
& rational, which, in these days, is not
very common. I remained
a week in the Neighbour=
hood of Ovingham to see
how the Gentleman took to his Master,
& when I paid my last Visit to him, found
him so contented & happy, that he refused
returning Home with Me.
My stay here, will be I hope
till the 6th- of March, when most un=
=willingly I must go back to my Troops
at Liverpool. They poʃseʃs much of
my good Will, but yet, there are
attractions here, which I cannot help
preferring to the Dignity of the Parade.
I shall be glad to see the Lancashire
Fencibles, who as the Descendants of
Witches, must be superior to anything
we have among Us, your Witches being
called Beauties, but I do not recollect that
▼
▼
▼
Macbeth's acquaintances were said to poʃseʃs
any personal Charms.
Pray say all that is kind
to Mr. Dickenson in my name, & if he is cha=
=ritably inclined, he will give me Credit for
much regard for him, though I do not make
strong profeʃsions. Return Louisa her Kiʃs[2]
with Interest, & when we meet, I will repay
you on Demand. My civilities to Miʃs Morrison.
Maria joins in wishing everything good, to You &
Yours, with your faithful friend & Affec
=tionate Brother
Napier.
My Brats are all well.[3]
Mrs= Dickenson[4]
Birch Hall
Manchester
By
Carlisle.[5]
[6]
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘A coverlet’ (OED s.v. coverlid n. Accessed 09-11-2021).
2. This section appears at the bottom of the page and is continued at the top.
3. Moved section and postscript here from top of page.
4. A large manuscript number ‘7’ is written above the address in black ink, denoting postage due.
5. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
6. Postmark ‘HAWICK’ in dark brown ink.
7. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge 19th. January
1795.
My Dear Sister,
As you did not choose to
answer my Queries about the Settlement
in any decent time, I took it for granted
that it was executed in a manner satisfactory
to Yourself, & accordingly it was
with all due formality deposited in my
Charter Chest No. 2, where it now reposes
along with my Last Will & Testament,
& other Companions of the same sort.
When I executed my Marriage Settlement
in London the Trustees were made Sign
& Seal, as well as Maria & Myself, and
two Witnesses were thought necessary,
& that occasioned my puzzle.
Hitherto, we have had a
most delightful Winter, but it now
begins to threaten to shut up our Roads
and my Snow Boots are now airing at
the fire, my Snow Shoes having proved
ineffectual. My good Genius has, however,
proved less asleep than usual, as I arrived
at home from Northumberland,
across Carter Fell, the day before the
Snow made its appearance. It may
be proper to explain to You, (as though
You are of the Blue Stocking Society
Yet you may not be perfectly acquainted
with all the Geography of this Island)
that Carter Fell is one of the highest
of the Cheviot Mountains, which
have been celebrated in Song. As you
know, I do not particularly amuse
myself with running about visiting
as You do, your intellects may not
serve You to discover what could
have induced me to escape from home
leaving my Wife behind me. But, that
no bad consequence may arise from
your Curiosity not being gratified, I
will for once be Gracious, & inform You.
Last October my Son William was Eight
Years old, & having been, by his Mothers
indulgence, permitted to do as he pleased
during my absence these two
last Summers, the Young Gentleman
was in some danger of relapsing
into that Barbarity & ignorance,
from which, it had cost me much
pains & trouble originally to extract him.
Determined, if possible, to prevent this
in future, I have placed him with
a Clergyman at Ovingham, on the Tyne,
who takes only ten Boys, and has the
Reputation of being an Excellent Master,
grounding his Scholars remarkably
well in the Latin Grammar, and
bringing them forward in such a
manner as to qualify them to enter
the higher forms in Great Schools, with
credit to all parties. His terms are
Thirty Pounds per Annum for Bed, Board, Washing
& Instruction. They Boys are well fed,
& each has a separate Bed, with
white Dimity Curtains & white Cotton
Coverlid. I found every thing so perfectly
neat & clean, that I returned home satisfied
that William would be well
taken care of in every respect, and
more than half in Love with his
Master's Wife who is both handsome,
& rational, which, in these days, is not
very common. I remained
a week in the Neighbourhood
of Ovingham to see
how the Gentleman took to his Master,
& when I paid my last Visit to him, found
him so contented & happy, that he refused
returning Home with Me.
My stay here, will be I hope
till the 6th- of March, when most unwillingly
I must go back to my Troops
at Liverpool. They possess much of
my good Will, but yet, there are
attractions here, which I cannot help
preferring to the Dignity of the Parade.
I shall be glad to see the Lancashire
Fencibles, who as the Descendants of
Witches, must be superior to anything
we have among Us, your Witches being
called Beauties, but I do not recollect that
▼
▼
▼
Macbeth's acquaintances were said to possess
any personal Charms.
Pray say all that is kind
to Mr. Dickenson in my name, & if he is charitably
inclined, he will give me Credit for
much regard for him, though I do not make
strong professions. Return Louisa her Kiss
with Interest, & when we meet, I will repay
you on Demand. My civilities to Miss Morrison.
Maria joins in wishing everything good, to You &
Yours, with your faithful friend & Affectionate
Brother
Napier.
My Brats are all well.
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/1/20/130
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Rusholme, near Manchester
Date sent: 19 January 1795
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. The letter
primarily relates to Napier's son William [later 9th Lord Napier] and the
school that he attends. Napier describes the school in detail. It is run by
a clergyman and only has ten pupils and is based in Ovington,
Northumberland. He notes that he crossed over Carter Fell [a mountain] on
his return home from taking his son to school and he teases Hamilton:
although she is a member of the 'Blue Stocking Society' he may still need to
explain further what a feat that was, as he cannot assume that she will know
all the geography of the land.
Napier is to return to his troops in Liverpool in March which he is not
enthusiastic about doing. He notes that his regiment has many attractions
but that his home has more which he prefers 'to the Dignity of the Parade'.
Somewhat strangely he refers to the Pendle Witches by writing that he looks
forward to seeing the Lancashire Fencibles [a volunteer militia] who 'as the
Descendants of Witches must be superior to anything we have among us, your
Witches being called Beauties, but I do not recollect that
Macbeth's
acquaintances were
said to possess any personal charms'.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 700 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 9 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 March 2022