Diplomatic Text
42d
Shaw Park[1] 28th of July 1774
T'is alas but too true, my Dear Miʃs
Hamilton, that we have lost one of the best & worthie[st]
of Parents -- an irreparable loʃs to us all, but more
particularly so to my two little Sisters, who, poor inno=
=cents, have lost a mother almost before they know what
a bleʃsing she was to them. --
Our distreʃs my dear Miʃs Hamilton, is the
greater as it was so unexpected a stroke, it being only
the tenth day of our dear mamma's illneʃs, we did not, ti[l]
that day, apprehend the smallest danger, but far, ve[ry]
far from our thoughts was her death removed; He tha[t]
givith affliction, is both able & willing to support them tha[t]
call on him & put their trust in him .... Papa's health
for some time has not been very good, but thank
God he is better then I expected tho' far from being
what I could wish. We are much obliged to Mrs.
Hamilton & you for your kind wishes, Ithow happy woul[d]
I have been if I could have contradicted the new paper
but God's will, be done. I hope you will forgive
my not proceeding with this malencholy subject as it
is too much for me to bear. & believe me to be my
Dear Miʃs Hamilton your affectionat[e]
Friend & Cousin
M-S Napier
P.S. Papa desired me to tell
you he has received your long
letter Adieu
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Shaw Park 28th of July 1774
'Tis alas but too true, my Dear Miss
Hamilton, that we have lost one of the best & worthiest
of Parents -- an irreparable loss to us all, but more
particularly to my two little Sisters, who, poor innocents
, have lost a mother almost before they know what
a blessing she was to them. --
Our distress my dear Miss Hamilton, is the
greater as it was so unexpected a stroke, it being only
the tenth day of our dear mamma's illness, we did not, til
that day, apprehend the smallest danger, but far, very
far from our thoughts was her death removed; He that
giveth affliction, is both able & willing to support them that
call on him & put their trust in him .... Papa's health
for some time has not been very good, but thank
God he is better then I expected though far from being
what I could wish. We are much obliged to Mrs.
Hamilton & you for your kind wishes, how happy would
I have been if I could have contradicted the news paper
but God's will, be done. I hope you will forgive
my not proceeding with this melancholy subject as it
is too much for me to bear. & believe me to be my
Dear Miss Hamilton your affectionate
Friend & Cousin
Mainie-Schaw Napier
P.S. Papa desired me to tell
you he has received your long
letter Adieu
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 Mainie-Schaw Napier to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/64
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mainie-Schaw Hunter (née Napier)
Place sent: Clackmannanshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 28 July 1774
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Miss M. S. Napier [Mainie-Schaw Napier (1756-1806)] to her
‘cousin’ Mary Hamilton, informing her of the sudden death of her mother,
Lady Mary Anne Napier. She writes that she has ‘lost one of the best &
worthiest of Parents’. Her death was unexpected: she had been ill for ten
days and her family did not believe that her life was in danger. She thanks
Hamilton and her mother for their good wishes and wishes that she could
‘contradict the new[s] paper but God’s will, be done’. Her father asks her
to say he has received her long letter.
Dated at Shaw Park.
Length: 1 sheet, 239 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 18 December 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