HAM/1/20/184
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
38, St. James's Street
12th. April 1803.
My Dear Sister,
As soon as I received your
Letter today, I set out to endeavour
to learn what I could about Sir Willi=
am Hamilton &c. I first tried the Atholls,
but they were all out (by the bye, Lady
Charlotte Drummond produced a Son, the
day before yesterday, & is doing well).
Secondly, I went to the Cathcarts, & finding
my Lady at home, She told me that
Sir Wm. was buried early this Morning,
at the same place as his first Wife.
He gave directions himself that every=
thing, She had wished, should be at=
tended to. His welch Estate, he has left
to Charles Greville & his Heirs Male; then
to Robert Greville &c &c. &c. including
Lord Cathcart, & Archy Cathcart in
the Entail. The property has debt
on it, and is burdened with a Jointure
of £800 a Year to Lady Hamilton. I did
not hear of any Legacies. As to Lord
Nelson, Lady Cathcart said nothing, &
I did not think it delicate to ask.
The Newspapers, will probably very
soon tell you whether he remains
in the House with Lady Hamilton.
A change of Ministry is believed
to be fixed. Mr. Pitt to resume his old
situation; Ld. Melville to go to the Admi=
ralty; & Mr. Addington to succeed Lord
Hobart, as Secretary of State. How the
latter is to be disposed of I have not
heard. Adieu, My Dear Sister. Best
Love to You & Yours. Ever Your Affecte-
Brother
Napier
Mr. Douglas, who married
the Nail nibbling Miʃs
Sharpe, has left his
name at my door since
I went out.
London, Twelfth April 1803
Mrs- Dickenson[1]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.
[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
38, St. James's Street
12th. April 1803.
My Dear Sister,
As soon as I received your
Letter today, I set out to endeavour
to learn what I could about Sir William
Hamilton &c. I first tried the Atholls,
but they were all out (by the bye, Lady
Charlotte Drummond produced a Son, the
day before yesterday, & is doing well).
Secondly, I went to the Cathcarts, & finding
my Lady at home, She told me that
Sir William was buried early this Morning,
at the same place as his first Wife.
He gave directions himself that everything
, She had wished, should be attended
to. His welsh Estate, he has left
to Charles Greville & his Heirs Male; then
to Robert Greville &c &c. &c. including
Lord Cathcart, & Archy Cathcart in
the Entail. The property has debt
on it, and is burdened with a Jointure
of £800 a Year to Lady Hamilton. I did
not hear of any Legacies. As to Lord
Nelson, Lady Cathcart said nothing, &
I did not think it delicate to ask.
The Newspapers, will probably very
soon tell you whether he remains
in the House with Lady Hamilton.
A change of Ministry is believed
to be fixed. Mr. Pitt to resume his old
situation; Lord Melville to go to the Admiralty
; & Mr. Addington to succeed Lord
Hobart, as Secretary of State. How the
latter is to be disposed of I have not
heard. Adieu, My Dear Sister. Best
Love to You & Yours. Ever Your Affectionate
Brother
Napier
Mr. Douglas, who married
the Nail nibbling Miss
Sharpe, has left his
name at my door since
I went out.
London, Twelfth April 1803
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
Napier.
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/1/20/184
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 12 April 1803
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
Sir William Hamilton. The Cathcarts have informed Napier that Sir William
was buried that morning. He was buried next to the grave of his first wife,
Lady Catherine Hamilton. His Welsh estate was left to Charles Greville and
his male heirs. The property has debts and has a jointure of £800 a
year to Lady Hamilton. Napier has not heard of any legacies. He notes, ‘of
Lord Nelson, Lady Cathcart said nothing’ and he did not feel proper to ask.
The newspapers, however, will ‘probably soon tell you whether he remains in
the House with Lady Hamilton’.
Napier also notes that there is probably going to be a change in the
Ministry and lists the ministers and their likely positions.
Dated at St James's Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 286 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 28 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 March 2022