Diplomatic Text
Edinburgh 26. January 1775
My Dear Madam,
I received your very
kind and affectionate Letter a few days ago, and
would have answered it immediatly If I had
not been prevented by particular busineʃs.
Our loʃs was certainly very great, tho' at the
same time our Greif was entirely selfish, as
there was not the smallest prospect of any
amendment in his health. The bursting of
a blood Veʃsel in his breast was the imme=
=diate cause of his Death. I was out of town
& you may may easily gueʃs what my feelings
were when my Sisters sent an expreʃs for
me to come home, but before I arrived it
was all over. But it is my duty to be resigned
and to submit to the will of God, he gave
Life & he has a right to take it away.
It is neceʃsary for me when I consider
that I have four Orphan Sisters to protect
and provide for, to exert myself as much as
is in my power to sooth their Greif and
alleviate their afflictions.
I will deliver your meʃsage
to Mainie when I write to her, she is at
present at Hopetoun House, but I dare
answer in her name as well as my own
that we have all the most firm intentions
to keep that friendship, which always sub=
=sisted between our families, inviolable.
I hope to hear by your next that
you are better. I beg my best Compts: to
Mrs. Hamilton and I am
Your Obedient Servant
Napier.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 26. January 1775
My Dear Madam,
I received your very
kind and affectionate Letter a few days ago, and
would have answered it immediately If I had
not been prevented by particular business.
Our loss was certainly very great, though at the
same time our Grief was entirely selfish, as
there was not the smallest prospect of any
amendment in his health. The bursting of
a blood Vessel in his breast was the immediate
cause of his Death. I was out of town
& you may may easily guess what my feelings
were when my Sisters sent an express for
me to come home, but before I arrived it
was all over. But it is my duty to be resigned
and to submit to the will of God, he gave
Life & he has a right to take it away.
It is necessary for me when I consider
that I have four Orphan Sisters to protect
and provide for, to exert myself as much as
is in my power to soothe their Grief and
alleviate their afflictions.
I will deliver your message
to Mainie when I write to her, she is at
present at Hopetoun House, but I dare
answer in her name as well as my own
that we have all the most firm intentions
to keep that friendship, which always subsisted
between our families, inviolable.
I hope to hear by your next that
you are better. I beg my best Compliments to
Mrs. Hamilton and I am
Your Obedient Servant
Napier.
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 Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/2
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 26 January 1775
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, concerning
the death of his father. His family's loss is great but their grief is
'entirely selfish' as there was no hope of his father's health improving.
The immediate cause of death was a burst blood-vessel in his chest. He was
out of town when he heard the news of his father's illness and was not able
to get home to see him before he died. He now has ‘four orphan sisters to
protect and provide for’ and he will do all he can to alleviate their
grief.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 254 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 September 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: 3 December 2021