Single Letter

HAM/1/20/210

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

Diplomatic Text


                             71, Queen Street
                               17th- Octr- 1806




My Dear Sister,
      I have just received
your Letter of the 11th. Instant. Be=
fore
I take any notice of the contents
of it, I must inform You of a recent
melancholy Event, which is uppermost
in my Thoughts. It has pleased God
to deprive us of my Sister Hunter.
She died on the 9th- of this Month.
Her health, for many Years, was
much impaired, and during the whole
of this Summer she had suffered
---severely, at times, from violent pains
in her Stomach attended with reachings[1]
and vomitings. She returned from
the Doctors house in Dumfries Shire,
about 70 miles from hence on the third
Inst-, and did not feel so tired as she
expected to have been. Though looking
thinner than when I had seen her
last, yet she was cheerful; but, on
the Monday after her arrival, the pains
in her Stomach returned. Still no



danger was apprehended. On the
Wednesday evening, the Surgeon,
who has attended our family for
upwards of Thirty Years, was with
her at eight O'Clock, At that time
no change in her pulse indicated
an approaching diʃsolution, and he
left her with no apprehensions of any
immediate danger. During the Night
she was extremely unwell, and a visi=
ble
alteration in her countenance
alarmed her Maid, who called up
the Doctor of the family between five
& six on The Thursday Morning. The
Surgeon
was sent for; but, before
his arrival, my poor Sister had
breathed her last, in so gentle a
manner, that the precise moment
of her death was not known. Her
excellent Husband
was praying
by her Bed side, and was stopped
by perceiving her Eyes fixed & herself
motionleʃs. She did not say anything
from which we can collect whether
she was sensible of her approaching
end, except the day she returned to
Edinburgh, when, on the Doctor's
congratulating her, on having made



out her journey well, she replied, “In=
“deed
Doctor, I never expected to have
“been here again.” She has left two
Sons
, & two Daughters. The eldest daugh=
ter
, is twenty two, & the eldest Son just
come of Age. Dr. Hunter is a most sin=
cere
Christian. His pious and resigned
Conduct, on this occasion, has set an
excellent example to us all, and taught
us how we ought to receive the mourn=
ful
dispensations of Providence.
      At any other moment
      than this, I should have
      been apt to have expreʃsed
      myself rather sharply,
      on the subject of old Mr.
D.
s conduct relative to Mrs- Skinner.[2]
It was surely cruel to employ me
to make such enquiries as were likely
to raise the hopes of this unfortunate
Woman
, and then to take no notice
of her. It was using both her, & me
ill. I know of no situation in a public
Charity here, into which she can be ad=
mitted
. In the Poor House, where She is,
she receives such support, as may preserve
Life, but, certainly, without comforts or
conveniences. I shall make no observation
further on the subject, except to add, that
five Guineas annually, would be a
great aʃsistance to the Poor Woman.
      Our Cousins behave







very properly to us. He has shewn
much affection & feeling, at this time.
It is a pity that he cannot lay aside
being fine, which would make him
much more agreeable in general.[3]
Maria & my family are well. Adieu
My Dear Sister. With most sincere af=
fection
for Your & Yours, I ever
am,
      Your faithful Friend
                             & Brother
                                                         Napier[4]

Edinburgh, Seventeenth October 1806

      Mrs- Dickenson[5]
      Leighton House
          Leighton Buzzard
                             Beds
Napier.[6]

[7]

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


Notes


 1. A now largely dialectal verb reach has the intransitive sense ‘[t]o strain in an effort to vomit; to retch. Now Scottish and English regional’, though neither OED nor EDD records a noun ‘reaching’ derived from it (OED s.v. reach v.2 2; EDD s.v. reach v.2. Accessed 17-03-2022).
 2. See HAM/1/20/207 for details of Skinner's life and circumstances.
 3. This section (6 lines) appears at the bottom of the page, below the address, and is continued at the top.
 4. Moved section (6 lines) here from top of page.
 5. Large round postmark, probably a free frank, date indistinct. Smaller round postmark in red ink, dated 17 October 1806.
 6. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 7. Seal, in black wax.

Normalised Text


                             71, Queen Street
                               17th- October 1806




My Dear Sister,
      I have just received
your Letter of the 11th. Instant. Before
I take any notice of the contents
of it, I must inform You of a recent
melancholy Event, which is uppermost
in my Thoughts. It has pleased God
to deprive us of my Sister Hunter.
She died on the 9th- of this Month.
Her health, for many Years, was
much impaired, and during the whole
of this Summer she had suffered
severely, at times, from violent pains
in her Stomach attended with retchings
and vomitings. She returned from
the Doctors house in Dumfries Shire,
about 70 miles from hence on the third
Instant, and did not feel so tired as she
expected to have been. Though looking
thinner than when I had seen her
last, yet she was cheerful; but, on
the Monday after her arrival, the pains
in her Stomach returned. Still no



danger was apprehended. On the
Wednesday evening, the Surgeon,
who has attended our family for
upwards of Thirty Years, was with
her at eight O'Clock, At that time
no change in her pulse indicated
an approaching dissolution, and he
left her with no apprehensions of any
immediate danger. During the Night
she was extremely unwell, and a visible
alteration in her countenance
alarmed her Maid, who called up
the Doctor of the family between five
& six on The Thursday Morning. The
Surgeon was sent for; but, before
his arrival, my poor Sister had
breathed her last, in so gentle a
manner, that the precise moment
of her death was not known. Her
excellent Husband was praying
by her Bed side, and was stopped
by perceiving her Eyes fixed & herself
motionless. She did not say anything
from which we can collect whether
she was sensible of her approaching
end, except the day she returned to
Edinburgh, when, on the Doctor's
congratulating her, on having made



out her journey well, she replied, “Indeed
Doctor, I never expected to have
“been here again.” She has left two
Sons, & two Daughters. The eldest Daughter
, is twenty two, & the eldest Son just
come of Age. Dr. Hunter is a most sincere
Christian. His pious and resigned
Conduct, on this occasion, has set an
excellent example to us all, and taught
us how we ought to receive the mournful
dispensations of Providence.
      At any other moment
      than this, I should have
      been apt to have expressed
      myself rather sharply,
      on the subject of old Mr.
Dickensons conduct relative to Mrs- Skinner.
It was surely cruel to employ me
to make such enquiries as were likely
to raise the hopes of this unfortunate
Woman, and then to take no notice
of her. It was using both her, & me
ill. I know of no situation in a public
Charity here, into which she can be admitted
. In the Poor House, where She is,
she receives such support, as may preserve
Life, but, certainly, without comforts or
conveniences. I shall make no observation
further on the subject, except to add, that
five Guineas annually, would be a
great assistance to the Poor Woman.
      Our Cousins behave







very properly to us. He has shown
much affection & feeling, at this time.
It is a pity that he cannot lay aside
being fine, which would make him
much more agreeable in general.
Maria & my family are well. Adieu
My Dear Sister. With most sincere affection
for Your & Yours, I ever
am,
      Your faithful Friend
                             & Brother
                                                         Napier

Edinburgh, Seventeenth October 1806

      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 now largely dialectal verb reach has the intransitive sense ‘[t]o strain in an effort to vomit; to retch. Now Scottish and English regional’, though neither OED nor EDD records a noun ‘reaching’ derived from it (OED s.v. reach v.2 2; EDD s.v. reach v.2. Accessed 17-03-2022).
 2. See HAM/1/20/207 for details of Skinner's life and circumstances.
 3. This section (6 lines) appears at the bottom of the page, below the address, and is continued at the top.
 4. Moved section (6 lines) here from top of page.
 5. Large round postmark, probably a free frank, date indistinct. Smaller round postmark in red ink, dated 17 October 1806.
 6. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 7. Seal, in black wax.

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/1/20/210

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Leighton Buzzard

Date sent: 17 October 1806

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to the death of Napier's sister, Henrietta. Her health has always been precarious but she had been suffering the whole summer from stomach pains. She has left two sons and daughters.
    Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 599 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 10 February 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: 25 September 2022

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