HAM/1/20/213
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
My Dear Sister,
Your Letter of the
12th- Instant has remained unanswer=
ed, because it was not in my power
to say anything about my Appoint=
ment, as His Majesty's High Commiʃsi
oner, till this morning, when I received
Lord Hawkesbury Letter announ=
cing its having taken place. So, now
I must hunt about for my Purse
Bearer, my Aʃsisting Minister, my two
Pages, my four Ushers, my Eight
Footmen, my Two Chairmen, Macers,[1]
Confectioner, &c, &c, &c. I desire You may
feel the full force of the Obligation
You are under to me, for sparing
this precious moment, which ought
to be employed in making my
Arrangements, such as Contracts with
Tavern Keepers, & Wine Merchants.
I am just going to order Wines of all sorts,
and also Gin, Rum, & Brandy, the Reverend
Divines not being much accustomed
to drink Claret, on other occasions,
feel it neceʃsary to qualify that
Liquo - r by fortifying their Stomachs
with a Dram. We shall have some
squabbling on the first day of the
aʃsembly, as there is a Clerkship Vacant,
which, though not worth above £80, or
£90 prAnn. has been considered so con=
sequential, that the late Ministry have
left no stone unturned, to procure
Members to be sent up, who are in=
clined to support their favourite
Candidate. The friends of the present
Ministry have been equally active,
and, I believe, have secured the point,
but, as I take no part in the busineʃs, I
do not venture to ask much about it.
The appointment of Procurator was Vacant
last Year, and the Election was carried
against the Candidate of the late Mi=
nisters, by three to one. From this, You
will understand that “All the Talents”[2]
had not won the affections of the
Scottish Clergy.
When I first went to
Parliament, Lord Grenville appeared
to me so sensible, so much in earnest,
and so honest, that I would readily
have pinned all my political faith
on his Opinion. His conduct, when
last out of Office, and when last in
Office, almost gives me a disgust
at Politics altogether, as Sincerity
does not appear to be a neceʃsary
Virtue, in that Science. His worthy
Nephews are chuckle heads.[3] Your young
Chief, the Marquis of Douglas deserves
the Grand Knout[4] & a Trip to Siberia, for
his folly, (I had almost written wicked=
neʃs) for exposing the confidential
communication of the English Merchants,
to the Ruʃsian Government.
Adieu, My Dear Sister,
My Purse Bearer is just
announced, & I must
conclude, wishing You
and Yours every poʃsible benefit
from your Jaunt to Cheltenham
With best Love to You all, I ever
am,
Your faithful Friend,
and Affecte Brother
Napier
[5]
Mrs- Dickenson[6]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘A mace-bearer; (spec. in Scotland) an official charged with various ceremonial and administrative duties in a court of law’ (OED s.v. macer n.1. Accessed 09-01-2023).
2. William Grenville's ‘Ministry of all the Talents’, a national unity government 1806-1807.
3. ‘A blockhead, numbskull, dolt; a stupid lout’ (OED s.v. chuckle-head. Accessed 21-02-2022).
4. ‘A kind of whip or scourge, very severe and often fatal in its effects, formerly used in Russia as an instrument of punishment’ (OED s.v. knout n. Accessed 21-02-2022).
5. Remains of a seal in black wax, split by opening the letter. Round postmark in red ink, dated 29 April 1807.
6. Round postmark in red ink, dated 25 April 1807. Large, illegible manuscript figures in brown ink crossing the address, denoting postage due.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh, 25th.
April 1807
My Dear Sister,
Your Letter of the
12th- Instant has remained unanswered
, because it was not in my power
to say anything about my Appointment
, as His Majesty's High Commissioner
, till this morning, when I received
Lord Hawkesbury Letter Announcing
its having taken place. So, now
I must hunt about for my Purse
Bearer, my Assisting Minister, my two
Pages, my four Ushers, my Eight
Footmen, my Two Chairmen, Macers,
Confectioner, &c, &c, &c. I desire You may
feel the full force of the Obligation
You are under to me, for sparing
this precious moment, which ought
to be employed in making my
Arrangements, such as Contracts with
Tavern Keepers, & Wine Merchants.
I am just going to order Wines of all sorts,
and also Gin, Rum, & Brandy, the Reverend
Divines not being much accustomed
to drink Claret, on other occasions,
feel it necessary to qualify that
Liquor by fortifying their Stomachs
with a Dram. We shall have some
squabbling on the first day of the
assembly, as there is a Clerkship Vacant,
which, though not worth above £80, or
£90 per Annum has been considered so consequential
, that the late Ministry have
left no stone unturned, to procure
Members to be sent up, who are inclined
to support their favourite
Candidate. The friends of the present
Ministry have been equally active,
and, I believe, have secured the point,
but, as I take no part in the business, I
do not venture to ask much about it.
The appointment of Procurator was Vacant
last Year, and the Election was carried
against the Candidate of the late Ministers
, by three to one. From this, You
will understand that “All the Talents”
had not won the affections of the
Scottish Clergy.
When I first went to
Parliament, Lord Grenville appeared
to me so sensible, so much in earnest,
and so honest, that I would readily
have pinned all my political faith
on his Opinion. His conduct, when
last out of Office, and when last in
Office, almost gives me a disgust
at Politics altogether, as Sincerity
does not appear to be a necessary
Virtue, in that Science. His worthy
Nephews are chuckle heads. Your young
Chief, the Marquis of Douglas deserves
the Grand Knout & a Trip to Siberia, for
his folly, (I had almost written wickedness
) for exposing the confidential
communication of the English Merchants,
to the Russian Government.
Adieu, My Dear Sister,
My Purse Bearer is just
announced, & I must
conclude, wishing You
and Yours every possible benefit
from your Jaunt to Cheltenham
With best Love to You all, I ever
am,
Your faithful Friend,
and Affectionate Brother
Napier
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
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/1/20/213
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 25 April 1807
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
the confirmation that he is to remain in his position as High
Commissioner.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 452 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 21 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: 18 March 2022