Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/20/163

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

Diplomatic Text


                             Wilton Lodge
                             12th. Febry. 1802.


My Dear Sister,
      Your Letter of the
7th. Inst- has given me the utmost
uneasineʃs, both on the Dear Louisa's
account, and that of Yourself and
Mr. Dickenson. I have been too
long a Father not to know, and
feel, what the anxieties of Parents
are, and how very impoʃsible it is
to write comfort. That can only be
derived from trust, and confidence
in the goodneʃs and mercy of Al-
mighty God. That it may be afford-
ed to You, whatever may be the
event of the Dear Louisa's illneʃs,
will be my sincere Prayer. But,
however alarming the Symptoms
may be, I would not have You
despair of the iʃsue being fortu-
nate; for I can from experience
say, that the recovery of Children,
from the most dangerous and


alarming complaints, is truly won-
derful. I have more than once
seen it, in my own Nursery, and
sincerely hope You will have
the same satisfaction. Most anxious
shall I be, to hear again from
You. When you write, direct
to me, Stapleford Hall, Nottingham,
as I propose leaving this for
the South, on Tuesday, or Wednesday
next, and expect to reach Stapleford
Hall, on Saturday, the 20th. But my
motions must depend on the
Weather, as my eldest Daughter
accompanies me. I shall leave
her, with her Aunt Lady Warren,
and will call on You at North
Hampton. After a very severe
Winter, and a short respite from
frost, the Snow has returned
again. If the weather continues
as it is now, or if it should thaw,
I shall be able to fulfil my in-
tentions of leaving home, but,
should there be another fall
of Snow, my journey may be
delayed. In that case, I will write


to You again from hence.
      Maria desires me to aʃsure
You, that She enters into all your
fears. Be aʃsured, that none can
be more attached than We both
are to You, and Yours, and I
well know, it is unneceʃsary
to say so. Give our Love to Mr.
Dickenson, and the sweet Girl.
God bleʃs, and relieve You all
from your distreʃs. Ever, with
sincere regard and affection
My Dear Sister,
                             Your much attached
                             Friend & Brother
                                                         Napier


Hawick, Twelfth Febry- 1802

[1]
      Mrs. Dickenson
         Post Office
                             Northampton
Napier.

[2]

Lord Napiers
Letters[3]

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


Notes


 1. Postmark ‘HAWICK’ in brown ink.
 2. Remains of seal, in red wax.
 3. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.

Normalised Text


                             Wilton Lodge
                             12th. February 1802.


My Dear Sister,
      Your Letter of the
7th. Instant has given me the utmost
uneasiness, both on the Dear Louisa's
account, and that of Yourself and
Mr. Dickenson. I have been too
long a Father not to know, and
feel, what the anxieties of Parents
are, and how very impossible it is
to write comfort. That can only be
derived from trust, and confidence
in the goodness and mercy of Almighty
 God. That it may be afforded
 to You, whatever may be the
event of the Dear Louisa's illness,
will be my sincere Prayer. But,
however alarming the Symptoms
may be, I would not have You
despair of the issue being fortunate
; for I can from experience
say, that the recovery of Children,
from the most dangerous and


alarming complaints, is truly wonderful
. I have more than once
seen it, in my own Nursery, and
sincerely hope You will have
the same satisfaction. Most anxious
shall I be, to hear again from
You. When you write, direct
to me, Stapleford Hall, Nottingham,
as I propose leaving this for
the South, on Tuesday, or Wednesday
next, and expect to reach Stapleford
Hall, on Saturday, the 20th. But my
motions must depend on the
Weather, as my eldest Daughter
accompanies me. I shall leave
her, with her Aunt Lady Warren,
and will call on You at Northampton
. After a very severe
Winter, and a short respite from
frost, the Snow has returned
again. If the weather continues
as it is now, or if it should thaw,
I shall be able to fulfil my intentions
 of leaving home, but,
should there be another fall
of Snow, my journey may be
delayed. In that case, I will write


to You again from hence.
      Maria desires me to assure
You, that She enters into all your
fears. Be assured, that none can
be more attached than We both
are to You, and Yours, and I
well know, it is unnecessary
to say so. Give our Love to Mr.
Dickenson, and the sweet Girl.
God bless, and relieve You all
from your distress. Ever, with
sincere regard and affection
My Dear Sister,
                             Your much attached
                             Friend & Brother
                                                         Napier


Hawick, Twelfth February 1802


      Mrs. Dickenson
         Post Office
                             Northampton
Napier.



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



 1. Postmark ‘HAWICK’ in brown ink.
 2. Remains of seal, in red wax.
 3. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.

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/1/20/163

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Roxburghshire

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton

Date sent: 12 February 1802

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, concerning the poor health of Louisa Dickenson, Hamilton's daughter.
    Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 378 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 26 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: 16 March 2022

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