HAM/1/20/230
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
27, St. James's Street
26th. Janry- 1809
My Dear Sister,
I was very unexpected=
ly hurried away from Home to attend
Parliament, much against my Will.
Fortunately, the Frost continued during
the whole of my Journey. The Wea=
ther since my arrival has been most
execrable, and, as it is now raining
& thawing, my patience is almost
exhausted, for I have been chiefly
confined to my Lodgings, & to the House
of Lords since I came to Town. So that
except two of my Aunts, & Lady Claver=
ing, I have met with none of my Cronies.
What have You done with
the Genealogical Paper, I sent You?
I fear, You are lazy. I can give You
little information about Mr. Hamilton,
further than that he is of a very good
Gentleman's family; by profeʃsion, a
Writer of the Signet, that is an Attorney
of the first Claʃs; & goes by the Name of Apollo,
why, or wherefore, I cannot tell You.
It is impoʃsible that he could have made
£12,000, in six Years by his busineʃs. He
may, however, have made it, by spe=
culating in buying & selling Land. It
was formerly reported, that the cause
of Miʃs Wynne leaving Edinburgh so
precipitately some time ago, was to avoid
the importunity of this Mr. Hamilton.[1]
I can give You no News,
because, I have none. I had four
first Cousins of the name of Napier
in the Battle of Corunna. Three of them
were Sons of my Uncle George & Lady
Sarah Napier. The eldest of these was
killed.[2] The rest escaped unhurt. She, poor
Woman, is quite blind. Her feelings are
warm, and acute; but, although the
blow has indeed been severe, She shews
much resignation, and submiʃsion to
the Will if the Almighty, and appears
most thankful that the Lives of her
two other Sons have been preserved.
I am just going to call for her, if the
weather will permit me to walk as
far as Cadogan Place, for, in this great
Town, as well as in smaller ones, no
Hackney Coach can be got, when it rains.
I left all my Garrison
well in Edinburgh. From my Eldest
Son, I have heard nothing for
Months past. My second Boy, is just
come into Plymouth, to repair some
damages the Resistance met with
lately, in a violent Gale of Wind. I
propose returning to Scotland about
Easter, & if You are at home, shall
beat up your Quarters. Adieu, my
Dear Sister. With best Love to Mr-
Dickenson & Louisa, I ever am, Your
Affectionate Friend
and Brother
Napier
[3]
London, Twenty Sixth January 1809
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House [4]
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Mary Hamilton's enquiry seems to have been prompted by her receipt of HAM/1/4/7/8 from Harriet Hamilton (née Wynne), noting that since her marriage she has become a (distant) relative of the Dickensons.
2. Charles James Napier was badly wounded and left for dead on the battlefield. His family did not learn of his survival until March 1809 (see also HAM/1/20/242 pp.2-3).
3. The bottom of the sheet has been torn away.
4. FREE frank in red ink, dated 26 January 1809.
5. Seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
27, St. James's Street
26th. January 1809
My Dear Sister,
I was very unexpectedly
hurried away from Home to attend
Parliament, much against my Will.
Fortunately, the Frost continued during
the whole of my Journey. The Weather
since my arrival has been most
execrable, and, as it is now raining
& thawing, my patience is almost
exhausted, for I have been chiefly
confined to my Lodgings, & to the House
of Lords since I came to Town. So that
except two of my Aunts, & Lady Clavering
, I have met with none of my Cronies.
What have You done with
the Genealogical Paper, I sent You?
I fear, You are lazy. I can give You
little information about Mr. Hamilton,
further than that he is of a very good
Gentleman's family; by profession, a
Writer of the Signet, that is an Attorney
of the first Class; & goes by the Name of Apollo,
why, or wherefore, I cannot tell You.
It is impossible that he could have made
£12,000, in six Years by his business. He
may, however, have made it, by speculating
in buying & selling Land. It
was formerly reported, that the cause
of Miss Wynne leaving Edinburgh so
precipitately some time ago, was to avoid
the importunity of this Mr. Hamilton.
I can give You no News,
because, I have none. I had four
first Cousins of the name of Napier
in the Battle of Corunna. Three of them
were Sons of my Uncle George & Lady
Sarah Napier. The eldest of these was
killed. The rest escaped unhurt. She, poor
Woman, is quite blind. Her feelings are
warm, and acute; but, although the
blow has indeed been severe, She shows
much resignation, and submission to
the Will if the Almighty, and appears
most thankful that the Lives of her
two other Sons have been preserved.
I am just going to call for her, if the
weather will permit me to walk as
far as Cadogan Place, for, in this great
Town, as well as in smaller ones, no
Hackney Coach can be got, when it rains.
I left all my Garrison
well in Edinburgh. From my Eldest
Son, I have heard nothing for
Months past. My second Boy, is just
come into Plymouth, to repair some
damages the Resistance met with
lately, in a violent Gale of Wind. I
propose returning to Scotland about
Easter, & if You are at home, shall
beat up your Quarters. Adieu, my
Dear Sister. With best Love to Mr-
Dickenson & Louisa, I ever am, Your
Affectionate Friend
and Brother
Napier
London, Twenty Sixth January 1809
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/1/20/230
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 26 January 1809
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, explaining
that he has been unexpectedly had to attend Parliament.
Length: 1 sheet, 444 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 24 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