Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/20/145

Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         11, St. James's Street
                                                         ½ past Ten at Night
                                                               1st. April 1799:



My Dear Sister,
      I presume You
intended sending me on a Fool's
Errand, when you ordered your
Letter to be conveyed to Mrs- Carter,
No. 25 or 6 Clarges Street, for the
good Woman lives at No. 21. The
Letter I delivered to her Maid,
myself; but, contrary to your for=
=mer Commands, did not send
in my Name. I trust, the Abigail[1]
would tell the old Dame, that
a smart Valet had brought it.
I am glad you & yours are
to be here so soon. The third
Week, in this Month, I pro=
=pose going North.
      Our Illustrious Cousins,
Cathcarts, Mansfield Greville's, & Atholl's
are well, as far as I know, for
I have not entered any of their
Houses, Cathcarts excepted, since
I came to Town. The Cathcarts
twice asked me to dine. I was en=
                                                         =gaged,


and could not go, but have seen
them several times in a Morning.
The Mansfield Greville's I have called
on twice, but without getting ad=
=mittance. Greville met me in the
Street one day, asked me to Dinner,
but being disposed of elsewhere, the
invitation has not been repeated.
Twice have I left my Name at
the Atholl Door; the Dutcheʃs has
been pigging,[2] & the Litter I suppose
is not yet fit for roasting, not
having been bidden to the Feast.
I left my Name for the Mansfields
Portland Place, who have taken
no Notice whatever of Me. This
is the State of Affection We bear
to each other. As it is the fashion,
perhaps, when You come to
Town, I may not acknowledge
you. In the mean time, feel
grateful for my condescension
in writing to You. Good Night.
Love to Mr. Dickenson & your
Miʃs Brat, Countrywoman &c
                             Ever Your Affect. Brother
                                                         Napier


[3]

London, Second April 1799.

      Mrs- Dickenson[4]
          Leighton House
            Leighton Buzzard
                             Beds.
Napier.

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. ‘A lady's maid; a female servant or attendant’ (OED s.v. abigail n. Accessed 15-11-2021).
 2. ‘Of a sow: to give birth, to farrow. Also of a woman: to give birth (obsolete, chiefly derogatory)’ (OED s.v. pig v. sense 1.a. Accessed 15-11-2021).
 3. Seal, in red wax. The seal has been broken and is split between the top and the bottom of the page.
 4. Circular FREE frank mark in red ink, dated 2 April 1799.

Normalised Text


                                                         11, St. James's Street
                                                         ½ past Ten at Night
                                                               1st. April 1799:



My Dear Sister,
      I presume You
intended sending me on a Fool's
Errand, when you ordered your
Letter to be conveyed to Mrs- Carter,
No. 25 or 6 Clarges Street, for the
good Woman lives at No. 21. The
Letter I delivered to her Maid,
myself; but, contrary to your former
 Commands, did not send
in my Name. I trust, the Abigail
would tell the old Dame, that
a smart Valet had brought it.
I am glad you & yours are
to be here so soon. The third
Week, in this Month, I propose
 going North.
      Our Illustrious Cousins,
Cathcarts, Mansfield Greville's, & Atholl's
are well, as far as I know, for
I have not entered any of their
Houses, Cathcarts excepted, since
I came to Town. The Cathcarts
twice asked me to dine. I was engaged
,


and could not go, but have seen
them several times in a Morning.
The Mansfield Greville's I have called
on twice, but without getting admittance
. Greville met me in the
Street one day, asked me to Dinner,
but being disposed of elsewhere, the
invitation has not been repeated.
Twice have I left my Name at
the Atholl Door; the Duchess has
been pigging, & the Litter I suppose
is not yet fit for roasting, not
having been bidden to the Feast.
I left my Name for the Mansfields
Portland Place, who have taken
no Notice whatever of Me. This
is the State of Affection We bear
to each other. As it is the fashion,
perhaps, when You come to
Town, I may not acknowledge
you. In the mean time, feel
grateful for my condescension
in writing to You. Good Night.
Love to Mr. Dickenson & your
Miss Brat, Countrywoman &c
                             Ever Your Affectionate Brother
                                                         Napier




London, Second April 1799.

      Mrs- Dickenson
          Leighton House
            Leighton Buzzard
                             Bedfordshire
Napier.

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. ‘A lady's maid; a female servant or attendant’ (OED s.v. abigail n. Accessed 15-11-2021).
 2. ‘Of a sow: to give birth, to farrow. Also of a woman: to give birth (obsolete, chiefly derogatory)’ (OED s.v. pig v. sense 1.a. Accessed 15-11-2021).
 3. Seal, in red wax. The seal has been broken and is split between the top and the bottom of the page.
 4. Circular FREE frank mark in red ink, dated 2 April 1799.

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/1/20/145

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Leighton Buzzard

Date sent: 1 April 1799

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He discusses Hamilton's and his relations, the Cathcarts, Mansfields and the Grevilles, a number of whom have not acknowledged him. He writes that this may be a fashion and perhaps he will not acknowledge her when she visits London shortly.
    Dated at St James's Street [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 316 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 11 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: 4 March 2022

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