HAM/1/19/38
Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
19th- Deal Apr, 6th- 1773 19
Believe me My dearest Mary that nothing could
give me greater pleaʃure than yours of the 31st
of last month which I received only this
day by mistake of the postmaster of
Canterbury not forwarding my letters
to this place where I was obliged to go
on a little buʃineʃs & return to Canterbury
to morrow from whence I shall send
this short affair as I am reʃolved not
to make you think that I was not greatly
concerned for Mrs Hamilton health and
indeed was the only reaʃon I was ʃorry
to be obliged to leave canterbury at this
time however thank God My dearest Ward
that all danger is over & may she enjoy
the health I wish her continually. You
deʃire my intructions to calm your spirits
take it, & every advice that is in my
Power to give. Viz Remember always we
are poor worms that we dont know what
is best for us, that we are ʃure whatever
our almighty Creator orders must be for
our good, that every thing is so wisely ordered
that it is preʃumption in us to repine
at his just decrees & let us always be pre
pared to think, own, & acknowledge, that
whatever is, is right These thoughts
are in my opinion the best way to calm
the spirits & if you'll follow the above
you'll always find yourself prepared
for the best or worst that may happen
trust in God & he never will forsake them
that puts his trust in him Adieu My
Dearest Mary believe me yours most
Affctly- W.N --
Remember me to Mrs Hamilton & con-
gratulate her on her recovery but
tell Buxton is the place for her &
there to be well she must go
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Deal April 6th- 1773
Believe me My dearest Mary that nothing could
give me greater pleasure than yours of the 31st
of last month which I received only this
day by mistake of the postmaster of
Canterbury not forwarding my letters
to this place where I was obliged to go
on a little business & return to Canterbury
to morrow from whence I shall send
this short affair as I am resolved not
to make you think that I was not greatly
concerned for Mrs Hamilton health and
indeed was the only reason I was sorry
to be obliged to leave canterbury at this
time however thank God My dearest Ward
that all danger is over & may she enjoy
the health I wish her continually. You
desire my instructions to calm your spirits
take it, & every advice that is in my
Power to give. Viz Remember always we
are poor worms that we don't know what
is best for us, that we are sure whatever
our almighty Creator orders must be for
our good, that every thing is so wisely ordered
that it is presumption in us to repine
at his just decrees & let us always be prepared
to think, own, & acknowledge, that
whatever is, is right These thoughts
are in my opinion the best way to calm
the spirits & if you'll follow the above
you'll always find yourself prepared
for the best or worst that may happen
trust in God & he never will forsake them
that puts his trust in him Adieu My
Dearest Mary believe me yours most
Affectionately William Napier --
Remember me to Mrs Hamilton & congratulate
her on her recovery but
tell Buxton is the place for her &
there to be well she must go
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/19/38
Correspondence Details
Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 6 April 1773
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from William Napier [later 7th Lord Napier] to Mary Hamilton. He
writes of his pleasure that Hamilton's mother is out of danger and offers
the advice that Hamilton had requested, which will help her to 'calm her
spirits'.
Dated at Deal [Kent].
Length: 1 sheet, 296 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 21 August 2020)
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