HAM/1/20/239
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
32
71, Queen Street
27th- Octr- 1809
▼
My Dear Sister,
I am glad to find
that You have got your London
Plan arranged, and shall be most
happy to --- pay my civilities to You in
Welbeck Street. I am rather surprised
that You should have agreed to
that Situation, as the attractive Charms
of Lady Cecilia Johnston, in Wimpole
Street, will certainly carry off Your
Husband from You.
I returned Yesterday
from celebrating the Jubilee, on the 25th.
Instant at Selkirk.[1] The day was made
doubly interesting to me, from my Son
Lieutenant Napier contriving to meet
me there from London. He has just
got his promotion from the Admiralty,
and I have added to his Dignities by
making him one of my Deputy Lieute=
nants, and swearing him in as a Justice
of the Peace. He is a great whacking
fellow, and in the Case of Riots, appears
well calculated to thrash the Mob.
I had not the least Idea of meeting
him at Selkirk, but as he knew I
was to be there on the 25th., he croʃsed
over from Newcastle, to meet and
afforded me an Opportunity of intro=
ducing him to the Gentlemen of the
County. He was 23, the 13th. of this Month.
After remaining here a few Weeks, he
will again get afloat. His Mother
&c had not seen him for five
Years; They still stare at his size. As
He is just going with me to see my
Sister, & many others, I have neither
time, nor composure enough to
write more. Best love to Mr.
Dickenson, Louisa &c Ever My Dear
Sister, Your faithful Friend
and affectionate Brother
Napier
Mrs- Waddington is
come to live here. She
is one of your old Blue
Stocking Ladies. My Aunt
Ly. Sarah, wished Ly. N. to
call on her, but, I said
No; not till I am satisfied that her Husband
is not the Notorious Waddington of
Hop Celebrity.[2] Perhaps, You can tell me?
Edinburgh, Twenty Seventh
October 1809
Mrs- Dickenson[3]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The 50th anniversary of George III's accession to the throne was widely celebrated.
2. The quite different Samuel Ferrand Waddington had been found guilty in 1801 ‘of the common-law offence of having engrossed hops and artificially raised the market price in Worcestershire and Kent’ (Hay, Douglas. 1999. The state and the market in 1800: Lord Kenyon and Mr Waddington. Past & Present 162, 101-162, p.101).
3. Postmark in red ink, dated 27 October 1809. FREE frank in brown ink, date illegible.
4. Seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
71, Queen Street
27th- Octr- 1809
▼
My Dear Sister,
I am glad to find
that You have got your London
Plan arranged, and shall be most
happy to pay my civilities to You in
Welbeck Street. I am rather surprised
that You should have agreed to
that Situation, as the attractive Charms
of Lady Cecilia Johnston, in Wimpole
Street, will certainly carry off Your
Husband from You.
I returned Yesterday
from celebrating the Jubilee, on the 25th.
Instant at Selkirk. The day was made
doubly interesting to me, from my Son
Lieutenant Napier contriving to meet
me there from London. He has just
got his promotion from the Admiralty,
and I have added to his Dignities by
making him one of my Deputy Lieutenants
, and swearing him in as a Justice
of the Peace. He is a great whacking
fellow, and in the Case of Riots, appears
well calculated to thrash the Mob.
I had not the least Idea of meeting
him at Selkirk, but as he knew I
was to be there on the 25th., he crossed
over from Newcastle, and
afforded me an Opportunity of introducing
him to the Gentlemen of the
County. He was 23, the 13th. of this Month.
After remaining here a few Weeks, he
will again get afloat. His Mother
&c had not seen him for five
Years; They still stare at his size. As
He is just going with me to see my
Sister, & many others, I have neither
time, nor composure enough to
write more. Best love to Mr.
Dickenson, Louisa &c Ever My Dear
Sister, Your faithful Friend
and affectionate Brother
Napier
Mrs- Waddington is
come to live here. She
is one of your old Blue
Stocking Ladies. My Aunt
Lady Sarah, wished Lady Napier to
call on her, but, I said
No; not till I am satisfied that her Husband
is not the Notorious Waddington of
Hop Celebrity. Perhaps, You can tell me?
Edinburgh, Twenty Seventh
October 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/1/20/239
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 27 October 1809
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, providing
news of his family and of friends. He is glad to hear that Hamilton's
‘London Plan’ has come into effect and that he will visit her at Welbeck
Street. Napier teases Hamilton saying that he is surprised that she has
‘agreed to that situation as the attractive charms of Lady Cecilia Johnston
in Wimpole Street will certainly carry off your husband from you’.
Napier had celebrated the Jubilee at Selkirk the previous day with his son,
Lieutenant William Napier who has just been promoted by the admiralty and
Napier himself has added to his sons’ dignity by making him a Justice of the
Peace. His son is a large ‘fellow and in case of Riots appears well
calculated to thrash the mobs’. William Napier is now 23 years old and
Napier notes that his mother has not seen him for five years.
Napier ends his letter by noting that Mrs Waddington, whom he describes as
one of Hamilton's ‘blue stocking Ladies’, had come to live in the area.
Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
Length: 1 sheet, 337 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 6 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: 18 March 2022