Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/19/17/1

Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
      1st-[2]
      Copied by
      EGA in manuscript
                             Willingham Augt 2d 1772

Immediately upon my getting to Town My
dearest Miʃs Hamilton I made enquiresy
about my Globes[3] but found the Man
dead ʃome Years ago, & they gone
however by the first or Second Waggon
You will recieve the World[4] which
I lay most ʃincerely at the feet of the
only Young Lady who in my opinion
deʃerves it, which may convince her,
was it in my power to lay more, it
would have been immediately done
      The 2 & 4 volumes of la vie des peintres[5]
could not be picked up the short time
I stayed in Town but have left a com̅ission
with a friend to try to get them for
you, & hope ʃoon to be able to ʃend
you Mrs- Carters little book of Poems


whither it will be in my power to get
those not printed from her for you
must depend on time, tho did she know
you as well as I do, I make no doubt
of her obliging her Sister Excellence
Please my best respects to Mrs- Hamilton
& tell her I have not forgiven her uʃuage
of mye at Newport Pagnell nor shall I
till we meet there again in my way
to Northampton My Compliments to
the Kitten[6] & pray pull off her Cap &c
the first time you ʃee her to oblige me
I go in a few days to Canterbury where
I shall expect a few lines from My
dearest Girl who I hope will always
look on me as her most ʃincere friend
& who may believe me when I aʃsure
her she has none more than her
                             most affct Couʃin
                                                         Wm Napier

The post is just going
otherwise this would
have been longer. pray write Soon[7]


To
Miʃs Hamilton at
The Honble- Mrs Hamilton's
 ------------------ 

[8] [9] [10]

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


Notes


 1. Originally catalogued as part of a single letter as HAM/1/19/17; the shelfmark and image therefore differ from the ELGAR catalogue and from the University of Manchester LUNA catalogue. Edited extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 16-17).
 2. The letters written by William Napier, but not those of his wife or daughter, are numbered by Hamilton from ‘1st’ to ‘43d’, with possibly accidental duplication of ‘2d’ and ‘42d’.
 3. Presumably spherical representations of the Earth and of the stars, terrestrial and celestial globes.
 4. John Rylands Research Institute and Library has acquired a map not of the world but ‘A map of England 1767 The Gift of ... Hon: the Lord Napier to Mary Hamilton July 29th. 1772’.
 5. Written by Jean-Baptiste Descamps and published in 1754 and 1764 respectively.
 6. There is strong circumstantial evidence that ‘the Kitten’ is Napier's nickname (and perhaps also one of Hamilton's) for Ann Litchfield, a close friend at Northampton who had met the Napiers in Buxton and wrote from there that ‘whenever I have spirits [I] flirt with [him]’ (HAM/1/19/31).
 7. The postscript appears to the left of the signature.
 8. Remains of two separate stamps, in black ink, the second of which appears to read ‘East Grinstead’. It is a mystery why the letter passed through that post office. It is dated at Willingham, north of Cambridge, and addressed to Hamilton ‘at The Honble- Mrs Hamilton's’, presumably in Northampton. Napier says that it was hastily committed to the post, several days before he was due to leave for Canterbury. Even if the letter was not actually posted until the regiment was on its way, East Grinstead lies well south of any obvious route to Canterbury from Willingham. If, however, Napier had been quartered at Willingdon, near Eastbourne, the stamp would be explicable – but that would require a surprising slip on his part.
 9. Pen flourishes, in black ink.
 10. Remains of a seal, in black wax.

Normalised Text


     
     
                             Willingham August 2d 1772

Immediately upon my getting to Town My
dearest Miss Hamilton I made enquiry
about my Globes but found the Man
dead some Years ago, & they gone
however by the first or Second Waggon
You will receive the World which
I lay most sincerely at the feet of the
only Young Lady who in my opinion
deserves it, which may convince her,
was it in my power to lay more, it
would have been immediately done
      The 2 & 4 volumes of la vie des peintres
could not be picked up the short time
I stayed in Town but have left a commission
with a friend to try to get them for
you, & hope soon to be able to send
you Mrs- Carters little book of Poems


whether it will be in my power to get
those not printed from her for you
must depend on time, though did she know
you as well as I do, I make no doubt
of her obliging her Sister Excellence
Please my best respects to Mrs- Hamilton
& tell her I have not forgiven her usage
of me at Newport Pagnell nor shall I
till we meet there again in my way
to Northampton My Compliments to
the Kitten & pray pull off her Cap &c
the first time you see her to oblige me
I go in a few days to Canterbury where
I shall expect a few lines from My
dearest Girl who I hope will always
look on me as her most sincere friend
& who may believe me when I assure
her she has none more than her
                             most affectionate Cousin
                                                         William Napier

The post is just going
otherwise this would
have been longer. pray write Soon


To
Miss Hamilton at
The Honourable Mrs Hamilton's
 ------------------ 

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Originally catalogued as part of a single letter as HAM/1/19/17; the shelfmark and image therefore differ from the ELGAR catalogue and from the University of Manchester LUNA catalogue. Edited extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 16-17).
 2. The letters written by William Napier, but not those of his wife or daughter, are numbered by Hamilton from ‘1st’ to ‘43d’, with possibly accidental duplication of ‘2d’ and ‘42d’.
 3. Presumably spherical representations of the Earth and of the stars, terrestrial and celestial globes.
 4. John Rylands Research Institute and Library has acquired a map not of the world but ‘A map of England 1767 The Gift of ... Hon: the Lord Napier to Mary Hamilton July 29th. 1772’.
 5. Written by Jean-Baptiste Descamps and published in 1754 and 1764 respectively.
 6. There is strong circumstantial evidence that ‘the Kitten’ is Napier's nickname (and perhaps also one of Hamilton's) for Ann Litchfield, a close friend at Northampton who had met the Napiers in Buxton and wrote from there that ‘whenever I have spirits [I] flirt with [him]’ (HAM/1/19/31).
 7. The postscript appears to the left of the signature.
 8. Remains of two separate stamps, in black ink, the second of which appears to read ‘East Grinstead’. It is a mystery why the letter passed through that post office. It is dated at Willingham, north of Cambridge, and addressed to Hamilton ‘at The Honble- Mrs Hamilton's’, presumably in Northampton. Napier says that it was hastily committed to the post, several days before he was due to leave for Canterbury. Even if the letter was not actually posted until the regiment was on its way, East Grinstead lies well south of any obvious route to Canterbury from Willingham. If, however, Napier had been quartered at Willingdon, near Eastbourne, the stamp would be explicable – but that would require a surprising slip on his part.
 9. Pen flourishes, in black ink.
 10. Remains of a 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 William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/17/1

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Willingham (certainty: medium)

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 2 August 1772

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier [later 7th Lord Napier] to Mary Hamilton. He has sent his ‘Globes’ to her by coach and she will soon receive the ‘World, which I lay at the feet of the only young Lady who in my opinion deserves it’. Napier continues that he was unable to pick up a copy of La Vie des Peintres in time for her but has asked a friend to get a copy for him. He also hopes soon to send her a copy of Mrs Carter's Poems. He is unsure whether he will be able to get copies of those that have not yet been printed, although he notes that if Mrs Carter knew Hamilton as well as he does ‘I make no doubt of obliging her sister Excellence’.
    Dated at Willingham.
    This item was originally catalogued together with HAM/1/19/17/2 as HAM/1/19/17.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 301 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 5 January 2021)

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: 2 November 2021

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